Scenting your Wedding

Scenting your Wedding

Scent & Memories

Smell is the most powerful and effective sense in recalling memories. Do you know that feeling when you smell something and you're transported back in time? This is all thanks to our olfactory nerve which is incredibly effective at processing scents and sending them to the brain. 

A person remembers 35% of what they smell and comparatively only 5% of what they see, 2% of what they hear. With knowing that, why don’t we intentionally scent meaningful moments in our life? On your wedding day, you try to capture memories through many other senses (first dance song for hearing, wedding photos for sight) but the sense of smell hasn't been totally tapped into when it comes to weddings.

Scenting your wedding is a unique way to add personalization for your guests and you. When you create a fragrance for your wedding, it's a subtle detail that can be woven into multiple guest experiences throughout your wedding, such as scented stationery, scented lighting (pillar and votive candles), and scented candle favors. Let's dive into how to achieve a scented wedding through these three outlets.

Scented Stationery

Our eau de cologne for scenting invites adds a personal, old-fashioned touch to your invitations, save-the-dates, and thank you notes. Scenting letters is a nostalgic nod to love letters and romance when young lovers would write letters back and forth and spray their perfume/cologne on the letter to leave a lasting impression. Some historians trace scented letters back to the Victorian era when Victorians would add fragrance to their envelopes, letters, ink and even sealing waxes (2). Your wedding stationery is likely one of the most personal, important pieces of mail you'll send to loved ones and your guests' first impression of your wedding. Why not add your personal touch - a fragrance designed by you? A subtle touch that will surprise and delight your guests.

 

How to Scent your Stationery?

Hold the bottle at least 6-12 inches away from the paper to prevent wet patches. We recommend starting with 1 spray per piece of stationery and letting it fully dry before applying a second spray. Typically, 1 spray will do it and not be too overwhelming for guests. If your stationery vendor is sending out the invites, we recommend sending the eau de cologne to them.

Scented Lighting (Pillars & Votives)

Candlelight at weddings is one of the rare trends that hasn't went out of style over the decades. In the 1950's, taper candles and candelabras were typically seen at the cake cutting table. Fast forward to today and lighting is a design category of it's own for weddings, similar to florals. The reason is really simple, candlelight is one the best ways to achieve a romantic ambiance.

 

We offer scented lighting in the form of pillar candles and votive candles. The beauty of our pillar and votive candles is that they are neutral and can accommodate any wedding aesthetic or venue while conspicuously scenting the space. You don't need to buy traditional candles in a jar with a product label and light it at your wedding venue to achieve a scented wedding. Our pillars and votives serve a triple purpose: lighting, décor, a vehicle for scenting your venue. We recommend using pillar and votive candles in high traffic guest areas, this includes ceremony aisle, bars, escort card table, guest book area, gift table, cake table, near the entrance to the reception room. We recommend limiting the number of scented pillars on the dinner tables to 3 pillars per 10 guests at a table, as we don't want the fragrance to compete with the dinner aromas. We've included some inspiration photos below of how to achieve different looks for each guest area.

Ceremony Aisle:

 

Bar:

 

Escort Card Table:

 

Guest Book/Gift Table:

 

Cake Table:

 

Reception Entrance:

 

Reception Tables:

 

 

How many candles do I need?

There are a couple factors that impact how many pillars you may need. We've included how many we recommend per guest area below. You certainly do not need to scent all of these guest areas, these are just options, so you can choose which area is most important to you to scent. Pillar candles do work best indoors, if you'd like to scent an outdoor area with pillar candles, it may be harder to achieve and require 2-3x the amount of candles listed below.
  • Ceremony Aisle: Set of 3 pillar candles per ~5 feet of ceremony aisle. These go well on the edge of the aisle or at the aisle entrance.
  • Bar: 1-2 sets of 3 pillar candles per bar.
  • Escort Card Table: 1-2 sets of 3 pillar candles at escort card table.
  • Guest Book: 1-2 sets of 3 pillar candles near the guest book.
  • Gift Table: 1-2 sets of 3 pillar candles near the gift table.
  • Reception Entrance: 3-4 sets of 3 pillar candles near the reception entrance, these can be in hurricanes on the floor so long as they're not too close to where people will be walking.
  • Dinner Tables: 1 set per table max. We don't recommend over scenting the dinner table as to not compete with dinner aromas. However, if there are other areas in your venue where dinner is held, such as window ledges or a band stage, those are great places to add scented pillar candles to scent the room but not compete up close with dinner aromas.
 
If you'd like to only do candles on your reception tables, that is totally fine and actually what our founder did for her wedding, we just recommend using unscented candles in combination with our scented candles to not overpower the dinner table. Our general recommendation is 3 scented pillar candles per 10 people at a table.
 

Do I need to burn pillar candles in a glass hurricane?

Yes, we recommend using glass hurricanes to burn pillar candles. Most venues require all candles to be in glass, but it also helps keep wind from blowing out the flame and adds a decorative element to the candlelight.
 

Who sets up the pillar and votive candles?

Our pillar candles are meant to accentuate your other wedding decor while adding the scented element to your wedding. We recommend checking with your wedding planner/coordinator, florist, venue coordinator, or family/friends to see if they can setup the pillar candles and hurricanes along with the other decor in those areas (e.g., guest book, escort cards, bar signage, etc).
 

What hurricanes do you recommend?

Our pillar candles are 3" in diameter and 4", 6", 8" tall. Any glass hurricane that can accommodate those sizes works. We recommend a few options on Amazon here.
 

Candle Favors

Our candle favors are the final element to tie your scented wedding together. We know the details matter. When you create a fragrance for your wedding, it's a subtle detail that can be woven into multiple guest experiences throughout your wedding. Guests will first notice the fragrance on your scented save the dates and invites. Your guests may sign the guest book and be reminded of your fragrance in one of the pillar candles burning nearby and wonder where they've smelled it before. Finally, your guests will get to experience the fragrance one last time when they get to take home a candle favor and enjoy it at home.

It's often recommended to do favors that can be consumed (e.g., a small food item like a bottle of olive oil, custom match book, or candle) as it's something guests can use and as a result are more likely to take. Our candle favors are the quintessential personalized favor with your custom fragrance and label designed by you. We recommend setting up the candle favors on a table near the entrance/exit of your venue to ensure guests see them before they leave. Depending on the table size, the candles can all be setup on the table (similar to photo 3 below) or if you are limited on space, risers can help save space (photo 1 below). We do offer a fragrance note write up sign (photo 2 below) that can be displayed with your candle favors, if you're interested. This is included in our 3 wedding packages. We'll work with you to design it per your wedding aesthetic. 

In Summary

Scenting a wedding is a unique way to add personalization to your wedding. Most importantly, your fragrance is not only a detail for your guests, but a rare wedding detail that you can physically hold onto forever. Once you create a fragrance with us, it's yours forever. You can reorder it at any time and be transported back to your wedding day.

Back to blog