HELP...married ladies who used votive placecards

How did you girls pull this off?

I figured they would be on a table outside the reception room and 5 minutes before the guests are invited from coctail hour into reception they would be lit.

The planning guy at my hall seems to think this will create a delay of the start of the reception. That asking 250 people to go to the table at once to get their candle will take forever.

But I feel like people don't all leave the coctail hour at the same exact time.

He thinks they should pick up the candle before going into the coctail.

I am not thrilled with that idea. The whole beauty of the votive placecards is when they are all lit on the table together and then brought into the reception room to create a glow in there. (by the way, they don't have candles for the tables and didn't get any because I figured the VP would light up the whole room)

Please HELP......tell me how you girls set this up. Where and when did they light them? when did your guests pick them up? Did things go off without a hitch????

TIA

Re: HELP...married ladies who used votive placecards

It's the same thing if the guests are picking up placecards made of paper - I don't know what the "guy in charge" is talking about.

Yes, light them up during the Cocktail Hour (20 mins before reception) otherwise you won't have enough time and they'll get hot. If you use tea lights (with the metal bottom on the candle) they also won't get as hot as regular votive candles.

Re: HELP...married ladies who used votive placecards

Ours were lit at the beginning of the CH and guests picked them up anytime during the CH. No one said they were to hot to handle and they blew them out when they got them anyway. When the guests walked into the CH they saw the table with all the votives and even though some began to disappear early into it everyone was taken back by the appearance of the table and the soft glow. No one had seen that before. I really would not worry to much about them picking the votives up during the CH, JMO.

Re: HELP...married ladies who used votive placecards

ours were on a table right when you walked into the reception room. I think they lite them about 10-20 minutes before the cocktail hour ended. Guests came in, grabbed their votive and found their table. It went very smoothly.

Re: HELP...married ladies who used votive placecards

We did the same as melissaandsean. I didnt watch my own coctail hour/reception transition so I cant speak so much about that...but Ive been to a bunch of weddings since my own that had the same thing and there were no problems at all.

Re: HELP...married ladies who used votive placecards

Thanks ladies. He made me feel like this was going to be impossible and that you all must have done it another way. Now i know I need to put my foot down with this guy. Thanks again. Debbie