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Custom Lighting Options At My Wedding

Custom Lighting At My Wedding

Custom Lighting Options At My Wedding: When it comes to custom lighting options at your wedding, there is much more to consider besides string lighting in your wedding tent or crystal chandelier rentals.  Whether you are having your wedding reception in a hotel ballroom, country club, barn or tent – wedding lighting can transform any wedding venue.

LED Architectural Up-Lighting

What to add color? LED up-lighting – architectural lighting placed on the ground pointing upward to accent your rooms architectural features such as columns, beams or between windows can be a perfect choice for you. With Wireless controlled LED uplighting, your wedding lighting designer can use a single color or duo-tone complementary colors to accentuate your wedding color scheme.

Not all up-lighting is created equal. Be sure to ask if your lighting expert uses simple RGB (Red-Green-Blue) color mixing or if their fixtures use the newer RGBAW+UV (Red-Green-Blue-Amber-White-Ultra Violet) color mixing for more color choices at your wedding. The brightness of LED fixtures also needs to be considered. Older, less powerful fixtures will not give you a consistent coverage of color while the sun is shining in through the windows of your wedding venue. They also may not be able to get color from floor to ceiling and fade out only a few feet up the wall. LED fixtures are rated by their LUX output. Fixtures with less than 5,000 LUX @ 1m just won’t do the job. Outside, or in venues with lots of windows, you’ll be better looking for a lighting expert with fixtures in the 15,000 or greater output range.

Tent And Barn String Lighting

Tent and Barn Weddings often rely on string lighting as your light option. Pinterest has highlighted the option of twinkle lights (similar to small Christmas lights) but beware of using twinkle lights in a wedding environment. They are not dimmable. We can’t emphasize enough the need for any wedding lighting to be dimmable. No one likes dancing when the room is too bright. Unless your reception is going to be entirely during the daylight hours (You can check when the sun sets on your wedding day by going to www.sunrisesunset.com) it is imperative for lights to be able to be dimmed to help foster a dance environment at your wedding.

Bistro lights (2″ diameter round bulbs) can be dimmed if you limit the light run length to match your dimmer value. Edison bulb light strands will limit dimmable lengths even further (higher wattage bulbs compared to bistro lights).

With the advent of LED string light, you can obtain much longer runs without sacrificing the beautiful yellowish candlelight of traditional string light bulbs. The cost of LED string lights are significantly higher, so don’t be surprised if they cost more to rent for your wedding. The great thing about LED string lights is they take about 1/4 of the power compared to their traditional bulb counterparts.

Using LED string lights might be the difference between needing to rent a stand-alone generator ($750-$1000) for your barn or backyard tent wedding and not needing it. A typical bistro string installation might require 3-4 15 amp circuits (Edison Bulbs might be 5-8 15 amp circuits) where the LED string lights (still dimmable) might only need 1-15 amp circuit.

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Check to see if Rob Alberti’s Wedding DJ / Event Lighting are open for your Wedding Lighting Needs –
fill in the contact form below or CLICK HERE to learn more

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More Custom Lighting Options At My Wedding

Crystal Chandelier Rentals

You can dress that tent or barn wedding with hanging lights such as crystal chandeliers or an Edison bulb installation as a focal point. Again, be sure everything is on dimmers! Whether you are spacing chandeliers in a more traditional array around your venue or clustering them close together for a more visual impact, every wedding deserves a little bling!

Depending on local laws – many areas require a licensed electrician and town electrical permit to be pulled for installation of lighting and generators. Be sure to ask your venue and local electrical inspector if you are thinking of doing a DIY lighting project at your wedding. No one wants lights at their wedding falling in the middle of your first dance, causing tripped electrical circuits, power outages or a FIRE.

Accent Lighting

Accent and task lighting are often forgotten when designing your wedding lighting concept. Maybe the bar needs to be washed with lights so workers can see what they are doing. Imagine your wedding cake and how it will look when it is pin-spotted. Your head table or floral centerpieces will look that much more amazing with the addition of individual spotlights.

Accent lighting such as fairy lights (copper wire with small LEDs mounted directly on it) are normally not enough for lighting a tent or barn but can make great accent lighting around trees and beam or on a head table backdrop. Fairy lights can be battery powered so it allows for unique placement without worrying about cables and electrical outlets.

Dance floors can look so much better with a pattern light or simple color wash. You could have your name in lights projected on the floor or wall. A texture pattern can help break up large surfaces such as arched ceilings and tents.

Don’t forget the outside of your venue. Lighting the outside of a mansion, the barn can make for priceless photos on your wedding day.  The below design was created using three different style lighting – light blue high powered LED up-lighting on the columns, dark blue LED wash on the rest of the building and two texture pattern lights.

Photos Of Custom Lighting Options At My Wedding

The right lighting makes everyone look great in wedding photos. It adds depth and interest in all your wedding images. Ask your wedding photographer whether they recommend custom lighting at your wedding and have them show examples of what lighting does for their photos.

One of the best things you can do is to visit your venue at night. See if any installed lights are on dimmers (or if you can’t even turn off emergency lights or outdoor floor lights) that might ruin your wedding lighting ideas. Take photos and note dark areas of concern. Walk the path where guests will have to walk to their car or bathrooms and make sure you add in any necessary path lighting for the safety of your guests. No one wants grandma tripping on the way to her car!

Color Temperature

Another area of concern is mixing and matching light styles and color temperatures. If you have traditional candelabra bulbs in your rented crystal chandelier, hang some fairy lights near them and then run a few strands of twinkle lights, you now have three different shades of white and it just doesn’t look right. We’ve seen this with installed string lighting in venues who mixed traditional bulb and LED bulb strands or when two lighting vendors were used for the same wedding. One brought LED uplights in AMBER and the other brought LED bulb crystal chandeliers and mixed them with hundreds of feet of twinkle lights. It was just plain ugly.

Want to add energy to your dance floor? Don’t forget to ask your entertainment or lighting designer about dance club lighting. There is nothing like moving lights that change to the music to add some excitement.

Lighting done well can make your wedding come alive with light and color. It will make your wedding photos more interesting. Great lighting will also help keep your guests longer at your reception. What will professional lighting cost? Depending on the design complexity and whether you need lights installed the day prior or removed the day after – simple lighting can start around $1,000 and go upwards of $10,000. Most clients should expect to spend around $1,500 – $3,000 for quality lighting.

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Check to see if Rob Alberti’s Wedding DJ / Event Lighting are open for your Wedding Lighting Needs –
fill in the contact form below or CLICK HERE to learn more

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About The Author:

Rob Alberti is the owner of Rob Alberti’s Event Services, specializing in custom wedding lighting designs in the New England area. He has been creating amazing weddings for more than 25 years.

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