Creative Lighting Ideas
By: Kelly Oshiro
Hello Para ti Novia readers! My name is Kelly Oshiro {www.kellyoshiroevents.com} and I am an event design and wedding planner based in Santa Barbara. Today I’d like to share some common lighting terms and techniques.
Lighting is such a crucial and often overlooked portion of the event design at a wedding. It can make the flowers pop, set the perfect romantic mood, and make for great photos.
Here are some tips for working with lighting:
1. Areas like the bar, dance floor will need a soft wash of lighting. Generally amber/pink tones work best for this kind of general lighting. Stay away from blues andgreen, it will make your guests look old (and highlight every gray hair).
2. Uplight architectural details or trees. This in itself can add instant drama and is not very expensive. Here you can get creative with color, I like to do dashes of blue/green/red on trees.
3. Gobos, or a pattern that sits on top of a light source, projects any kind of pattern you want (paisley, palm trees whatever), custom monograms of the couples names, whatever you want. These work well to create texture on a blank wall or to add some dimension to the dance floor lighting. Gobos can get pricey though, especially when you have custom gobos made for your wedding.
4. I love using large bulb string lights. They create an instant homey-vibe (think Italian restaurant) and in an outdoor space they can create a ceiling on the party—which makes the reception instantly feel more intimate.
5. Chinese Lanterns are great because they come in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. I like to hang them in clusters over the dance floor in order to make a 3D floating sculpture. And please put real light bulbs in them, LEDs just don’t give off enough light.
6. Pin spotting is where a very small spotlight is focused on the floral centerpiece. This causes the flowers to pop and really shows off all the colors and textures in your centerpiece. For a low centerpiece, one pin spot should suffice, for a tall centerpiece you’ll need 2 or 3 pin spots to light each side of the centerpiece. And don’t forget to pin spot both sides of your cake as well.
7. And of course always light the way to and from the bathrooms, parking etc.
