How to Light Wedding Candles

It's the little things about a wedding ceremony that make it special and personal. Every moment of a beautiful ceremony needs to be properly choreographed to give it a clean, polished look. The lighting of the wedding candles begins the ceremony and draws people in. Planning the lighting in a precise way will help make your special day all it should be.

Step1

Choose the number and arrangement of your wedding candles carefully. Plan at least one large candelabra in the center behind the minister and a unity candle in front or just off to the side.

Step2

Select enough ushers to light the candles in a timely fashion. Two should be enough for most weddings, but if you have a lot of candles, you'll need four. Always choose an even number.

Step3

Pick music for the candle lighting part of the ceremony. This is a nice time for a solo, or music that the guests will recognize.

Step4

Direct the ushers to walk up the aisle two by two with their candle lighters. Be sure they have pole lighters to match the candelabras. Never use cigarette lighters.

Step5

Carry pole lights with the outside hand when walking down the aisle.

Step6

Take positions at the outside of each candelabra and light from the outside in, lighting each candle simultaneously. The ushers should look like mirror images of each other. In the event that a candle won't light ushers should not move to the next candle until the others are ready.

Step7

Walk back to the middle aisle and out, two by two, the way the ushers came in.