Votive, pillar and tealight candles get lumped together as “event candles,” but they solve different problems. Tealights are the cheapest, smallest and shortest-burning — built for scattering in quantity. Votives burn longer in a taller, freestanding format that still needs a holder. Pillars stand on their own, burn the longest, and work as a single statement piece rather than something you cluster by the dozen. Buying the wrong one in bulk means either overspending on format you didn’t need or running out mid-event because you underestimated burn time.
Votive vs. Pillar vs. Tealight: Choosing the Right Format
| Tealight | Votive | Pillar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical size | Smallest, sits in its own cup | 1.5–2 in., freestanding | Largest, freestanding |
| Needs a holder? | Comes with its own cup | Yes — a votive holder to catch wax | No, but often used with one for décor |
| Burn time | Shortest | Longer than tealight | Longest — hours per candle |
| Best for | Scattering in numbers, table sprinkling | Clustered centerpieces, consistent uniform light | Single statement piece, mantels, entryways |
The practical rule of thumb: if you’re covering a lot of surface area with a warm scattered glow, you want tealights. If you want a cluster of matching, slightly taller flames, votives. If you want one piece that reads as décor on its own, pillar. Hospitality buyers sourcing for lobbies and event spaces specifically should also see our hotel and hospitality buying guide for where these formats fit into a property’s overall candle program.
How Many Do You Actually Need?
For tealights specifically, event planners commonly work from a range of about 7–12 per 5–6 ft. round table for a full, warmly lit look, with some going up to 20 per table for a dramatic effect in a dimly lit room, and as few as 4–6 when candles are supplementing florals rather than carrying the table’s lighting alone. One real example that comes up often in wedding planning circles: roughly 144 tealights ordered for an event working out to about 14 per table — a useful sanity check if you’re trying to size a bulk order against a guest count and table plan.
Votives and pillars don’t scale the same way — because they burn longer and read as fewer, more deliberate points of light, a table might use 3–5 votives clustered together rather than the 10+ you’d use in tealights, or a single pillar as the centerpiece.
Buying for Resale vs. Buying for a Single Event
If you’re a retailer stocking these formats for resale, the buying calculus is different from an event planner sourcing for one date. You’re thinking about color assortment breadth (customers expect options, not one shade), packaging that survives shelf handling and looks right in a retail setting, and seasonal demand — wedding season and the holiday season both spike well above baseline, and under-ordering ahead of either is a lost-sales problem, not just an inconvenience.
If you’re an event planner or florist buying for one date, you’re optimizing differently: color-matching to one event’s palette, ordering close enough to the date that you’re not storing inventory for months, and prioritizing consistency across the batch over breadth of options — a mismatched shade of ivory across 200 tealights is a visible problem at a wedding in a way it isn’t on a retail shelf.
What to Check Before You Order in Bulk
A few things worth confirming before you commit to a large order, regardless of which format:
- Color consistency across the batch. Ask whether color is controlled to a standard or whether some shade variation is normal for the wax type — better to know before 300 units arrive than after. Wax type also affects burn consistency — see our soy vs paraffin vs beeswax comparison if you’re deciding between options.
- Scented or unscented. Most event and centerpiece use defaults to unscented, since a table full of scented tealights competing with each other (and with the food) is rarely the goal. If you want scented, say so explicitly — don’t assume it’s the default.
- Holder compatibility, if you’re buying votives separately from holders. Votive diameter varies slightly by manufacturer; if you already have holders from a previous order, confirm fit before ordering a new batch from a different source.
- Burn time consistency, especially for pillars. Since a pillar is often a single visible piece rather than one of a cluster, an inconsistent burn (tunneling, uneven wax pool) is more noticeable than it would be in a tealight.
What This Means for Your AsterCandle Order
We supply all three formats — votive & tealight and pillar candles — as wholesale stock or with light label customization, and we can talk through format and quantity planning against your table count or retail assortment before you commit to an order size.
Request a quote with your format, rough quantity and whether it’s a one-time event order or an ongoing retail restock — that distinction changes what we’d recommend.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many tealight candles do I need for a wedding?
A common planning range is 7–12 tealights per 5–6 ft. round table for a full look, scaling down to 4–6 if candles are supplementing other centerpiece elements, or up toward 20 for a dramatic, dimly-lit effect. Multiply by your table count and add a buffer for breakage and setup error.
Do votive candles need a special holder?
Yes — votives are designed to be burned inside a holder that catches the melted wax as the candle burns down, unlike tealights (which come in their own metal or plastic cup) or pillars (which are typically self-supporting).
Should I buy scented or unscented candles for events?
Unscented is the default for most centerpiece and table use, since multiple scented candles on one table can compete with each other and with food. Reserve scented candles for standalone use — entryways, restrooms, gift favors — rather than clustered table centerpieces.