Creative Lighting To Enhance Your Wedding Reception

If you want to create a truly stunning wedding reception then you’ll need to pay close attention to how you light the space. If you can get this element of your wedding reception design right, you’re practically guaranteed to wow your guests as soon as they enter the room.

Typical in-house lighting at most wedding venues is basic to say the least, however you can create a beautfiul ‘mood’ and atmosphere by employing some of the following cool tricks of the trade.

First, Do A Site Recce

Before you do anything, you’ll need to conduct a thorough site visit at your wedding venue. Ideally, it’s best to view the space when it’s dark oustide as this will give you a good idea of how the existing lighting impacts on the room.

You want to pay close attention to where the fixed lighting is focussed. You might find that it illuminates the walls and ceilings. This is not good from a design point of view as you want to be able to focus the light on the beautiful table displays that you’ll be creating.  Another thing to play close attention to is the overhead lighting. You want to be able to dim this so it doesn’t interfere with any additional lighting you’ll be employing. Ask your venue co-ordinator if this is possible.

Next, you’ll need to find out about the power supply. Your lighting company will be able to tell you how much additional power will be required. If your wedding is taking place in a marquee then there’s a high probability that you’ll need to bring in a generator, especially if the marquee is in the grounds of your own home.

Wedding Reception Lighting Tips Of  The Trade

There’s lots of cool lighting techniques you can employ to illuminate your wedidng reception. Here’s some of the most popular:

Pin Spotting

A pin spot is a focussed beam of light used to highlight a particular feature. Pin spotting is most commonly used to shine  a light on tables, especially centrepieces and other prominent features such as a wedding cake or a performer on stage.

Gobos

Gobos are projections of different shapes and colours that project a certain design, logo or pattern. They are made by creating a stencil which is then put over light to project the pattern. The costs for this can vary depending on how complex the design is.

LED Uplighters

LED lights have become increasingly popular at weddings over the last few years. They use less electricity than the more tradtional par cans of old. They don’t get as hot beacuse they don’t use a normal incandescent light bulb. They are a very cost-effective way of employing some nice, atmospheric lighting without breaking the bank.

Incorporating Lighting Into Your Reception Design

In terms of colour you want to think outside the box a bit. Use contrasting and accenting colours as opposed to the same colours in your wedding palette as this could just overwhelm the space. For instance, if you’ve incorporated lots of hot pink into your design, it may be best to steer clear of the same colour for your lighting. Unless, of course you want a sea of hot pink all over the room, in which case we would say go for it! Just remember that this will look far from subtle.

The whole point of good lighting is to accentuate your design, not overwhelm it. The type of lighting you use should also differ depending on which stage of the wedding you’re at. For example, soft coloured lighting may be the the order of the day during the meal then morphing into more adventurous colours for the dancing.

Warning! Don’t Try To Arrange This On Your Own!

Successfully lighting a wedding reception is a job best left to the experts. Unless you’re a qualified lighting specialist you should get in touch with a professional lighting company directly. If you’re using a wedding planner then they too can organise this for you and most will have 2 or 3 trusted suppliers they can rely on.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this article on wedding reception lighting and it has given you some useful ideas on how you can create a visually stunning wedding reception.

If you’d like to find out how 88 Events can help you design and plan your dream wedding, including creating a stunning light show at your reception, sign-up for your complimentary Dream Wedding Info Kit which explains how we go about creating your dream wedding just as you always imagined.

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