Vellum Candles

How to Make Highball Hurricane Candles and Vellum Wedding Candles

Use straight-sided highball glasses or tumblers as simple, versatile hurricanes for pillar candles.

First check out your local kitchen stores or food supply stores for straight sided highball glasses. If you buy them in bulk, you will usually pay much less than you would in a department store. Look for glasses with straight sides with little or no taper.

Now you can get creative! Cover the glasses with white vellum for a soft glow, or glue reed placemats around them for a beachy theme. You can change the covers whenever you like, and in a pinch you can use them as extra drinking glasses!

You can drop in a small votive candle, or fill the glass with a couple of inches of sand/pebbles to keep small tapers in place. Or check out my tutorial for filling the glass itself with wax!

This is a great way to make a big impact at a wedding or any other large group event. With minimal effort you can add substantial ambient lighting to any table setting!

This is a very simple example (I’m working on being able to take a better picture of these) of what you can do with vellum and a straight-sided highball glass. This particular example is from IKEA, but you can find them anywhere. When the candle inside is lit, you see the pattern printed on the vellum illuminated from behind.

You could also print images or words on plain vellum and attach them to glasses this way. Personalize candles at weddings or holiday parties, or even put favorite quotes.