our home

Aunt Sadie’s is located in the scenic Northeast Kingdom region of Vermont in a small town called Lunenburg.

Amidst rolling hills, cradled by majestic mountains, our candle making company sits on the grounds of a former horse farm. Every one of our premium scented candles is hand poured in the original 1865 barn by our staff of candle artisans.

our beginning

In the spring of 1997, Brian Schnetzer decided he wanted to hand-dip taper candles as holiday gifts, at the time he was working as a Creative Director. He spent months researching and endless weekends standing over a hot stovetop in his tiny Boston kitchen experimenting with different waxes until he felt he had created gift worthy candles.

When Gary Briggs saw the small stockpile of tapers he offered to put 50 pairs into his popular neighborhood antique shop during the holidays. The candles sold out immediately, customers came back to the shop saying, “These are the best candles I’ve ever burned!” and two chandlers were born. The wax blend and laborious production process eventually made hand-dipping and packaging tapers cost prohibitive and in 2001 Aunt Sadie’s introduced “candle in a can” which was trailblazing at the time and has become our signature candle (with the clear lid).

Aunt Sadie

You bet she was real. Sadie Denton was a mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. And yes, an aunt. She was an avid baker and used only the finest ingredients to create her legendary desserts. She also had the most generous heart and kindest soul, an abundant laugh and she was the best grandma a little boy could hope for (she was co-founder Brian’s paternal grandmother).

Aunt Sadie’s was founded to honor her life and we’ve applied her high standards to every step of our candle-making process. For an unassuming old fashioned woman who shied away from recognition, these candles bearing her namesake and image have circled the globe. She’d surely have been mortified by the attention. We never imagined when we sold our very first candle in 1997 that Aunt Sadie’s would become such a beloved and trusted brand.

our candles

We begin every single Aunt Sadie’s Candle by hand pouring a blend of premium wax and authentic scent containing essential oils (and it’s the same at the
top of the candle as the bottom), Aunt Sadie never skimped on anything and neither do we. Then we add American-made wick, wrap one of our fancy-schmancy labels around the finished candle, top it with a lid and smile. We know when you light these candles you’ll smile too, especially because every candle-in-a-can™ burns for about 65 hours. Here at Aunt Sadie’s, we like to think that her spirit lives on in every candle that we make.

We never imagined when making our first candle in 1997 that Aunt Sadie might someday have fans and followers. For an unassuming old-fashioned woman who shied away from recognition, these candles bearing her name-sake and image have circled the globe. She’d surely have been mortified by the attention. She was a gentle, funny, generous, kind soul and the best grandma a child could ever hope for (she was Brian’s grandmother). Picture lazy afternoons a

half-century ago, snuggled on her aproned lap with one of her just-baked cookies, feeling that life couldn’t ever get any better than that.

Thanks for letting us share some of our history with you.