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Another great resource for candles, holders, and other party decorations is Jamali Garden supply (www.jamaligarden.com, or in Manhattan on 28th St in the flower district.) They have an impressive selection and good prices, esp. when you buy in bulk. I particularly like their various metal lanterns and their tall tea lights, which burn 2x longer than the standard ones.

When looking for great candle holders, keep an eye out for random "old fashioned" and juice glasses when on sale (especially price-slashed when there aren't enough left to make a full useable set)... they make GREAT homes for tealights, or votives steadied in a bit of kosher or rock salt.

and remember, trim those wicks back before the first lighting! (even on tealights, but especially on tapers)

Tealights are cool, but burn time is relatively short. how do you keep them going without disrupting the "flow" of the event?

Trimming the wicks down to about an eighth of an inch and keeping them out of air-flow/breezes will extend the burn time. As will refrigerating them before burning.

Maybe also stagger the lighting of them, so not all of them go out at once? Or maybe that is a good thing! :)

Re: tealight time -- use the larger, 10-hour votive candles. The burn time is usually marked on the packaging. Tealights will go about 5 hours, tops.
On ebay the seller "cudgefabrics" (www.cudge.net) sells glass votive candleholders and candles in bulk. Cudge is located in NYC and will let you pick up during business hours, so you don't have to pay for shipping.

If you're going to use votives, just be careful where you put them and what you put near them - I took my brand new wedding gift of a hand-made $1,000 salad bowl carved out of big-leaf maple to a friend's house for a potluck (I know, bad idea) and someone accidentally set it next to a votive - now I have a lovely dark reminder of the party on the side of the bowl.

Instead of using candles I have some silver tin buckets which I poked lots of small holes in and put a pack of clear Christmas lights in each one. I line these up along the wall and it creates a great lighting effect.

As I've become a martha-head since she has THE BEST ideas, she had some great lighting ideas:

On her morning show she put white pillar candles in tall glass vases and filled the remaining spaces with all kinds of nuts (chestnuts, etc.).

In one of her recent magazines (November or December) she also filled vases with strings of christmas lights, to make a starry, glittering vase that really looked cool.

Does anyone know a place to buy inexpensive hurricane candle holders (i need ones with a silver rim) or a good resource for outdoor lanterns, ideally chrome and inexpensive?

Thank you, thank you, thank you Naomi!!!!!!!!! What a lifesaver you are posting that link (www.jamaligarden.com). JUST what I'm looking for at incredible prices. Amanda, check it out - they have the lanterns there and very inexpensive too! -Jude

jamaligarden is great! they also have a store on 7th street (and B? 2nd ave?)...the guys at 7th street said that location was more 'hardware-store' like, whereas their location in the 20s was geared more to 'garden-store'.

Another idea: stringing solar path lights within trees or from a post with a hook. You want to leave the lights in a sunny place to "energize" first during the day.