Bright Ideas For Using Colorful Taper Candles From Real BB Wedding Receptions

If you want your wedding reception to have an air of enchanted romance, decorate the tables with lush floral arrangements under candlelight. If you want the room to be an extraordinary scene to remember, make sure the light is coming from colorful tapered candles. Ask anyone in the midst of planning for their big day and they’ll say it didn’t take long to come across a vibrant, flickering display in a wedding editorial or on Instagram and Pinterest. While beautiful, often these ultra-saturated tablescapes are designed on a set for a magazine or to catch your attention while scrolling, leaving the question, “Would that actually work for my wedding?”

Great news, using colorful tapered candles in a way that reads as authentic and natural rather than contrived and trendy is achievable. It’s all a matter of styling and presentation. Further, the long, narrowing shape of these slender beauties makes them ideal to venture beyond traditional white and ivory without overpowering other design elements. Illuminating table decor featured in our recent Real BB Weddings is evidence – we worked with couples to add a pop of color that accentuated rather than distracted from their overall theme. Read on to see bright ideas for using colorful tapered candles in your wedding reception.

A Gilded + Glowing Tablescape
Setting the gold medal standard for romance, this setting unfolds in a luminous display of gardensque white blooms and textured greenery. Dramatic and lyrical, the gilded theme expressed with candles, votives, and chargers and cutlery works to create a sense of balance and cohesion in the design.

Something Blue Wedding Candles
Not just a bridal wedding tradition, blue is now recognized by florists and planners alike as a classic accent color fit for wedding invitations, flowers, linens, and candles of course, which are available in a spectrum of shades such as navy, periwinkle, ocean, sky, pastel, and midnight. Featuring pale blue, the following Real BB Weddings show how distinctive styling produces a uniquely desired aesthetic. Taking place in late winter at the Liberty Warehouse, the first reception featured loose, texture-rich centerpieces illuminated by a trio of unclosed candles atop brass holders to create a warm, inviting atmosphere. For the second celebration at the New York Botanical Garden, the same moody blue candles give way to spring delight when placed in glass hurricanes and set around a graceful, petal-soft arrangement.

The Versatility of Black Taper Candles
As part of a palette, black adds drama, working as an accent color that offers contrast while creating unity throughout a decorative theme. The following Real BB Weddings show the stylistic versatility of black taper candles starting with a January reception at Bryant Park Grill. Tables were trimmed with lush arrangements of white and deep purple blooms illuminated by glowing candlelight to create an intimate and alluring atmosphere. Inspired by the beauty that comes as summer turns over to autumn, the second reception at 74 Wythe introduces a modern twist with a black-on-black motif that pairs taper candles and linens alongside a flourishing garland of lush greenery trimmed with blush, ruby, and white blooms.

A Berries & Cream Palette 
Clients who want to use a pink theme often ask how to approach the feminine color so that it reads as sophisticated rather than ‘Barbie’ – which is completely fine, but not for everyone!  We suggest incorporating a spectrum of pinks ranging from pale lavender and mauve to beige and blush (amnesia and quicksand roses are excellent choices), which creates a neutral impression that pleases the eye. Illustrating the idea perfectly, this reception at Soundview shows a centerpiece of berries & cream hued blossoms illuminated by pale pink taper candles.

Garden Whimsy By Candlelight
To capture her wedding vision of a whimsical garden accentuating the Stone Mill’s charmed beauty, BB Featured Bride Alexandra chose decor that mixed classic blooms with flowering plants. Tables were decorated with low centerpieces featuring roses, ranunculuses, dahlias, lisianthus, oncidium orchids, pieris, and abelia in shades of golden yellow, orange, peach, blush, white, and cream complemented by Italian ruscus and silver dollar eucalyptus. “The light pink taper candles added soft elegance, while illuminating the flowers’ texture and dimension. We also trimmed the main ceiling beam with trailing ivy,” Alexandra notes.

White + Green + Taupe
At the center of a recent wedding reception at Maritime Park was a stunning tablscape that reimagined white flowers and greenery in a dynamic display of organic blooms arranged at different heights and angles. Underscoring the modern sentiment were glowing taupe taper candles set in brass holders and hurricanes that undulated across the scene while adding a gentle nuance of color.

While a row of ombre yellow to orange to pink candles stretched across a table looks amazing on your Instagram feed, it may not translate well to your actual wedding reception. You want to be able to look back years from now and still love your decor and feel that it reflects you, not some fleeting social media wedding trend. We hope these tried-and-trued ideas from our Real BB Weddings inspire you to use colorful taper to light up your special day.