Inspiration Board

Our Ceremony Site!

I was so EXCITED to stumble across actual photos of our wedding site on another photographer's blog. We're going for a neo gothic/roman catholic style sanctuary & feel in love with this place as soon as we saw it! Since it's not our home church (which is too small) we're not very familiar with the layout yet. I forgot to take any photos during our first tour, but the secretary gladly invited us back to take photos for planning & decorating purposes.

On to the inspiration - I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way this bride lined the aisle with candles. I'm just not into the flowers/organza pew decorations so I've been searching for alternative ways to decorate the pews. I'm envisioning larger pillar candles and LOTS of rose petals. I'd actually like to spread them out earlier in the day so they would be nice and thick.

Here's my dilema - I'm a bit nervous about having so many open flames on the ground. I can just see someone (or worse, my dress) knocking on over. I thought about using the LED flameless pillars, but haven't taken any action since they are so pricey & I would need several.

Has anyone ever seen this done before? If I go with the real flames, shouldn't they be lit before any of the guests arrive? I know that users sometimes light the candles, but I think it would look ridiculous for them to bend down at every single candle.