Planning your wedding includes booking several different vendors, considering a handful of DIY details and communicating with everyone including both sides of the family all while living your usual day to day life. All this said, its no wonder so many couples check-off the big boxes so they have more time for the fun stuff. Book the venue, choose the caterer, schedule the DJ, and make sure someone will be there to capture the moments. That’s the big stuff, right? Great! Let’s go taste some food, try on a dress, design an invitation, and hit those pre-wedding parties. Little did you realize you just planned to host a party under your venue’s recessed lighting and all those photos will be taken in that everyday white and bright. While it might not be the first thing you consider when planning your wedding, completely ignoring your lighting scheme will have you feeling there is something missing.
Lighting is so much more than just a stylistic element of your wedding. Just as music controls the mood and energy of a dancing crowd, lighting governs the aura and ambiance of the entire event. The mere presence or absence of the correct type, color, or pattern of light can completely change the look and feel of everything you have planned. Illumination compliments and highlights décor. This is true regardless of your color palette whether bold and vivacious or soft and subtle. Lighting is essential to setting the tone while simultaneously bringing décor and floral arrangements to life and creating the overall aesthetic of the environment.
Light focuses your guests’ eye toward what is most important at the right moment. Your ceremony should be romantic and precise, emphasizing the aisle and the ceremonial space. An outdoor wedding may consider candles lining the aisle or twinkling lights dangling from an altar arch, drawing everyone’s attention toward you. Your cocktail hour and dinner should feel celebratory and tailored, showcasing the signature style you have feverishly created through décor and floral arrangements. When it’s time for your first dance, bouquet toss, and other events shouldn’t there be a spotlight on you? It will make for better photos and video if you are well lit during these moments. As the evening evolves into festivities and dancing your lighting shifts to fun and sensory, creating the perfect climate for letting loose and enjoying the party you have so thoughtfully put together.
Never be afraid to have fun with light. Patterned projections can bathe fabric, walls, and floors creating varied and captivating settings to reflect the transitioning mood of your big day. Small, subtle spotlights offer a highlighting effect to your cake, head table, or centerpieces. Lighting is best considered early, in the initial stages of your planning process as there are endless possibilities to transform any venue with lighting.
Lighting is both a technical element and design element. A professional lighting designer with an aesthetic eye can help you assess your venue’s space, explore placement options, and coordinate your illumination so that it achieves the full potential of its effect. This will ensure that any comments about the luminosity of your event only pertain to how magnificent it is.
A beautifully lit room reinvents that space, making it uniquely yours and yours alone for the time that you are in it. So, as you carefully devote your attention to every aspect of your wedding, be sure not to neglect the luminescent characteristic. As you and your guests awe in the bask of each perfectly ambient moment, you will be so glad you did!
Bring Your Vison to Light... with lighting!