The great candle adventure...

i'll admit it, we're sort of candle junkies. and if i'm being honest... the man, more so than me. we have container candles and votives and are never without a package of 100 ct. tealights from Ikea. so when it came down to wedding planning time, it wasn't hard to figure out that we wanted candles. originally, it was floating candles in a shallow "bowl" that was about a foot in diameter. but with our dinner being served "family style" (YAY!) we're limited in space on the table. so... i put my thinking cap on and came up with having pillar candles instead.
i started scouring the internet looking for lovely purple unscented pillar candles. during my search, i realized something. candles are NOT cheap. well, if you're just buying a few, they're relatively inexpensive... when you're buying 75... not so much.  i turn on my creative juices and wonder, exactly how hard is it to make your own candles??? i did a little digging and found this site that sales wholesale supplies to make candles and even offers a "candle making university". SCORE! after a bit more research and running the idea by the man, i ordered a batch of supplies with which to practice to see if i could actually do this. somewhere between coming up with the idea and ordering the supplies i got really excited. i imagined all the lovely smelly candles i could make for us. i began thinking about how much of a personal touch this would put on the tables at our wedding. somewhere it went from a money saving strategy to an exciting project! i even politely declined the offer from the man's mom when she, thinking i was a bit crazy for taking on a huge project, offered to buy all the candles i wanted so i didn't have to make them.
last weekend i had my first candle making session. i used my awesome blossom square candle mold (way cooler than rounded candles) and made my first candle. with my first candle i've discovered that candles are temperamental. apparently, too much dye (read: 13 drops when the max color potential is reached in 7- what?!?! i was going for that "so purple it's almost black" look) makes the wick burn at the speed of light. basically i ended up with a block of wax that can now be cut up and used for dye. oh well.
test 2 goes much better. however, i didn't have the proper means to clean the mold, so there was some sticking issues, and i didn't plug the wick hole that well, so it leaked... a LOT. despite those issues, i did a test burn and it burned well for over 4 hours! 
somewhere in the process i started doing math (which i HATE) and figured out that my original idea of 3 pillar candles (2-9 inch candles and 1-4.5 inch candle) on each table would require an amount of wax weighing more than my 7 year old niece. while it wouldn't actually be THAT expensive, that is a LOT of wax to carry up to our 3rd floor apartment. i hit the drawing board again and came up with an idea that i like even better! additional supplies have been ordered and delivered and armed with a bridesmaid, a bottle of wine and hopefully some yummy cheese, testing will commence tomorrow night!