The importance of lighting

3rd April, 2012 - Posted by Natasha - 1 Comment

The one thing a lot of people tend to not pay  attention to in the planning of their wedding is the lighting. Lighting is one very important aspect that sets the tone and mood for your venue, if it is done right, it can make your $30,000 wedding look like it is $100,000. Here are some tips on planning your lighting.

Contact a professional:  You want to make sure that you contact the right person for this job, ask other brides what company they used, or ask your venue on what vendors they can recommend. You want to ask to see pictures of previous events that they have done to see the lighting arrangements they can create.  Do your research! You want to make sure that this person knows exactly what they are doing, as lighting is a very important aspect.

After you find your professional you must…

Assess the Venue: As most receptions are held during the evening, paying visits to the venue in the evening will help you get a feel of what tone and mood you would like to have made with the lighting. Take a walk around the room; bring a friend or a family member that has a keen eye for detail as well as your professional of course, as you want to look for the spots that need to be focused on the most. Ask your coordinator at the reception if any service doors will be kept open, or if the pot lights will be dimmed, or if there is any florescent lighting as this could take away your lighting and ruin your effect.  Remember: too little, will make the room seem dark and your guests will have a hard time seeing, and too much can flood the space and look less appealing.  You also want to make sure you are not drawing attention away from the centre of the room, where your head table will be, you want to make sure everyone can notice the tables, the dance floor, each other, and of course your head table.

Use Colour: Think outside the box, sometimes people are not as brave when it comes to adding colour into their lighting, but this is a must and there are plenty of advantages in doing so.  Different colours set different tones and moods, so you want to make sure you pick the right one for the mood you are trying to create. You also want to make sure you have different lighting for different parts of the night, during dinner soft lighting is suitable, as it portrays the atmosphere of candlelight, after dinner for the duration of the night that is where you start to get bold and daring, you can even be very dramatic with your lighting as well. When transitioning between different colours make sure you are doing ones that won’t hurt the eye, a tip is to find colours that go together, take a look on a colour wheel. You want to make sure that the transition between the colours flow.

Outdoor Venues:  Lighting for an outdoor wedding is an ultimate must, as it serves a lot of purposes. If your site has a walkway or stairs, you will need to enhance these features with lighting to ensure nobody trips and gets hurt. Outdoor weddings can be a lot of fun when you are incorporating light, as you don’t need to use the typical equipment you would use in an indoor wedding; you can use more dramatic pieces that can also serve as wonderful decorative items as well.

Spending time working with your lighting designer is a very crucial part to your wedding, and it also will be one that is worth-while, although, lighting can be costly, it can also eliminate other expenses in the decoration and floral budget as lighting can create more benefits to the room then most decorative and floral pieces can.

Until Next time!

X-O-X-O

Natasha