Just some further details....this project only needs the candles to light once, and I'd like the igniters to be as inexpensive as possible, so i can do this on a large scale. This is for a marriage proposal....so...let me know if you can help!
Well - you're going to need a source of electrically controlled heat, and that's going to take some current - so plan on a large power supply, for one thing.
You're going to need to do some experimentation; I would try a couple of things (both will need to be switched by a large transistor or mosfet - look in the tutorials for an example; you'll basically need to do the same thing as switching on a relay or solenoid - but you won't need the flyback diode, as you'll be switching a resistive load, not an inductive one):
1. Use a piece of nichrome wire from a toaster; form small coils that can be slipped over the candle wicks, switch them to heat them up.
or
2. Carefully break open some regular light bulbs, and extract the filament; these will be very, very fragile - you'll basically want to fix them against the wick, then wire them up to switch on (use 12 volt bulbs if switching with a transistor - for household mains-current bulb filaments you'll want to use an SSR or something like that).
Another option (though it may produce sparks and smoke) might be to try to use rocket motor igniters.
For all of these, you might want to try "attaching" the igniter (whether nichrome wire, bulb filament, or rocket igniter) to the wick with some dribbled wax. Another option would be to attach a small piece (< 1 cm) of fuse with wax to the wick, then ignite that (again, sparks and smoke might be an issue).
