Lighting Ideas For Outdoor Wedding
Lighting Ideas For Outdoor Wedding
Having a backyard tented wedding? Did you forget about lighting?
Lighting Ideas For Outdoor Wedding: If you have opted for an outdoor wedding reception, don’t forget about lighting. Most couples think that the provided tent lighting from your rental company will be adequate for your wedding needs. If you are looking for some wedding lighting ideas for your outdoor reception, then you should find a wedding lighting specialist near you.
Lighting at your wedding should not be thought of in a utilitarian way. Lighting for your wedding is more about your decor and to make your wedding photos absolutely amazing. Lighting can be considered the backdrop to your entire wedding day. That goes for even when it is still light out.
Are you having your ceremony under a tree? Imagine what it would look like if you had drapery and a couple small crystal chandeliers hanging from it? These are the details that turn an ordinary photo into a picture-perfect moment for both you and your wedding photographer. These are what your friends and family will remember.
Chandelier Rental For Your Wedding
Backyard Wedding Ceremony
Closeup Of Wedding Tree
Description
If your reception is either ina barn, under a pavilion or tented, there are many styles of lighting to consider for your wedding lighting needs. Of course, keep in mind when sunset is going to occur on your wedding day. The safety of your guests (including your 80 year old grandmother) will require lighting areas where guests are gathering after dark as well as the path back to their car when they leave. We always suggest doing a site visit at dusk to really see the problem areas in your yard.
When it comes to string lighting at your wedding, there are a few styles to consider. There are bistro bulb string lights (sometimes called Market Lights, are 2″ diameter bulbs spaced about 16″ apart) and there are twinkle lights (smaller Xmas tree style light bulbs set about 4″ apart). Bistro bulbs draw a large amount of electricity and you will probably need to dedicate 2-20 amp circuits just for tent lighting. Most backyard tented weddings will require you to rent an industrial trailer style generator. Between your caterer, bathroom trailer, lighting and entertainment – your typical home electrical panel just can’t handle the additional load.
Twinkle lights don’t draw as much power (or produce as much light), but most twinkle light tent designs tend to be a more dense pattern with upwards of 3x more linear footage string lighting installation. They can look amazing, but can quickly surpass the power needs of standard bistro bulbs in a tent. Your lighting designer should be able to calculate for you the estimated power consumption for any lighting installation.
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“We worked with Rob to do lighting for our wedding reception. The venue was a huge camp dining hall with florescent lights and we wanted to use lighting to make it more elegant. Rob helped us to choose the right lighting, keeping it simple, and it made such a difference. He was super flexible and easy to work with in terms of set up and break down. We highly recommend working with him! Thank you, Rob!”
Sarah Frank – Summer Camp Wedding in The Berkshires
Bistro Bulbs v. Twinkle Lights v. Edison Bulbs
Bistro Bulbs
Wedding Lighting
Twinkle Lights
Tent String Lighting
Edison Bulbs
Decorative Wedding Lighting
There are also decorative-style Edison bulbs for highlighting things like your bar, head table or dance floor. Due to the size and power draw of these Edison bulbs, you really can’t have them in string format across your entire tent. There are some bulb-shaped Edison strings available, but they don’t have the glowing filament feel of the original Edison bulbs that most couples want.
For most wedding purposes, we always suggest that you do not use LED string lights as they just are not as pretty as the standard incandescent bulbs. The color temperature of the bulb tends to be a bit too blue v. what wedding couples want more in the candlelight color temperature range.
Lighting Ideas For Outdoor Wedding
Color Temperature Chart
String Lighting Color Temperature
LED v. Incandescent Bulbs
Color Temperature
You can use chandeliers of all styles to complement the feel and decor at your wedding. There are many styles of crystal chandeliers, reclaimed wood chandelier or wrought iron/metal chandeliers available for your wedding rental needs. We even offer custom-built chandelier options for over your head table, dance floor or bar. Custom pieces are always more expensive than standard rental items, but might just give your wedding a unique look that won’t easily be duplicated at anyone else’s wedding.
Wedding Chandelier Rental Options
Crystal Chandeliers
Chandelier Rentals
Wood Chandeliers
Custom Wood Chandeliers
Edison Bulbs
Highlight Special Areas
“We hired Rob to do the lighting for our outdoor tented wedding in upstate New York. This included hanging lights in the tent itself, as well as uplighting some trees and lighting other areas of the property to create safe (and attractive!) walkways for guests as night fell.
I can’t recommend Rob and his services highly enough. Not only did he take the time to visit the site and consult with us several times leading up to the event — he also advised us on lighting for other areas of the property that we made into our photo booth and late-night hangout area. Rob also provided a day-of, on-site point person from his company for our wedding day, who handled all day-of lighting and made sure there were no issues with lighting throughout the evening.
Rob is an extremely kind, good-natured, and lighthearted person, which is so helpful in the wedding planning process. He also really knows his stuff — guests kept complimenting the lighting and look of our wedding throughout the evening.”
Jonathan – Backyard Wedding Hudson Valley NY
Tent weddings do not have to be colorless. One of our couples opted to do a duo-tone LED color wash on their tent and then have us project a full moon on it. We can also project textures and patterns on your tent surface for a truly unique look to your wedding. One of our couples was a huge Wizard of Oz fan and we lit their tent in Emerald Green. What color would you use at your outdoor tented wedding?
Tent Lighting With Color and Texture Patterns
Chesterwood
Galaxy Themed
Hancock Shaker Village
Blue Sky
Newport Wedding
Tree Foliage Pattern
You may also want to hang string lights from trees, fence lines or over an open area on your lawn. All these wedding lighting options are available for your outdoor wedding. Inside a wedding ballroom, we might use LED uplights to highlight columns or architectural features of the room. We can use similar lighting fixtures to light up that huge oak tree in your yard or the face of a barn or around the outside of your family home. There are even waterproof lighting options that we use for many outdoor lighting installations. The great thing about LED fixtures is that you can dial in just the right color from white to red to UV if you desire.
For your path lighting needs, you can use tall shepherd hooks with lanterns, candles, fairy lights, or string lighting to help lead your guests to the bathroom trailer, from ceremony to reception site or to their cars as the last song fades out. LED flicker candles or twinkle lights in lanterns can also be placed on the ground to delineate paths for your guests. Path lighting takes the ordinary and turns it into something magical.
Path Lighting For Your Wedding
Magical Wood Path
Bohemian Style
Free-Standing Light Poles
Weighted Base and Pole
LIghted Building
Add Some Color
As you plan your outdoor wedding – don’t forget to think and budget for your wedding lighting needs. You can think of lighting as a safety measure or an amazing dimension to your wedding decor. Lighting can be one of the most cost-effective ways to take your wedding from ordinary to “extraordinary” and wedding blog worthy.
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