Wedding Blog
We’re having a tent wedding, so to spice up the blank white canvas above our heads, we’re going to string up some individually lit white paper lanterns. I turned to the internet for some inspiration, and here’s what came up:
ourweddingplus.com
ourweddingplus.com
brides.com
culturalintrigue.com
YUM! Pengy rikes.To recreate my own sky of lights, I ordered 48 white irregular ribbed paper lanterns in 3 different sizes: 12″, 16″ and 20″ from The Paper Lantern Store, all for around $170.
paperlanternstore.com
Rather than space them out throughout the tent, I’m considering clustering them lengthwise through the middle of the tent (creating three tight long “strips” of lit lanterns). 50 lanterns spaced out might look a little “sparse” so adding drama through the middle of the tent might be a more economical way to go. I love this look:
tentwares.com
I’ll light each lantern with individual LED battery powered lights, similar to these below, in white. The advantage of an LED light over a standard bulb is that the lit time is around 12 hours, whereas the lit time for a standard individual bulb is around 5-6 hours:
sivallighting.com
How are you “sprucing up” your blank canvas?
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Beautiful! I like the idea of concentrating them through the middle.
We’re getting married outside and there are huge trees all OVER the yard, so we’re stringing ribbons and paper lanterns from them. We’re just renting them from InfuseCreativity.com, though, rather than buying them.
Those are some beautiful photos! The second one reminds me of champagne bubbles.
Can I ask where you bought your LED lights from? I was planning on leaving my lanterns unlit, but now I want to light them!
Be Careful with your venue, make sure they allow for lanterns to be hung as is. It is a state law here in my state that all lanterns need to be fire retardant, which costs ALOT of $. Some rental providers have them already fire x’d so you don’t need to do it yourself. Just make sure its cool with your venue and there aren’t any weird laws like there are here about them.
We’re having a tent wedding and hanging a huge chandelier from my grandfather’s antique collection in the center of the tent. One big element like that can really spruce up the blank space.
Also, spreading out food “stations” around a tent can create visual interest and get people to mingle around a large space.
Thanks for the inspiration photos–they’re great!
I tried floralytes in my lanters and it didn’t seem bright enough. Are you using more than one light per lantern? Maybe I was trying to light up too big of a lantern. I bought similar ones as Pengy at http://www.flowersandsupplies.com $1.75 w/o on off switch - $2.10 w/ on off switch
@Rhonda: Hi Rhonda! You do beautiful work!
@bethgraced: Havent bought any yet, although Miss Rojo Oso below says floralytes arent bright enough, so I might go another route…
@MissRojoOso: Thanks so much for your input! I didnt buy any yet…whew! I might go the traditional light route if this is the case with floralytes. 
@cinderella: Were tying fishing wire from opposite ends of the tent, so that the lanterns will appear to “float” in space!
We LOVED the look the lanterns added to our wedding–
We added them to the ceremony, the cocktail area, the outdoor reception, and the indoor dance room…the best way to add color!
check it out:
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e366/ehuefner/EKceremony.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e366/ehuefner/EKaisle.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e366/ehuefner/722190884505_0_ALB.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e366/ehuefner/439591884505_0_ALB.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e366/ehuefner/678841274505_0_ALB.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e366/ehuefner/633191884505_0_ALB.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e366/ehuefner/475770884505_0_ALB.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e366/ehuefner/359804153505_0_ALB.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e366/ehuefner/313191884505_0_ALB.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e366/ehuefner/875860274505_0_ALB.jpg
http://www.lunabazaar.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=705
Those have 3 LED lights and illuminate up to a 24 inch lantern, but theyre darn expensive (4.25 each!)
I was going to use those battery powered tea lights and place one in the bottom of each lantern- until I realized the lanterns have holes on the bottom 
So now I have to figure out some way to suspend the lights- but the tealights are fairly cheap and bright, and when I tested one it burned 8+ hours on one battery.
@catieb: why not tie a little fishing wire around the bulb and suspend the tealight from the top of the lantern?
We are making led throwies to hang by fishing line within our lanterns to light them up. They’ll come out to about $0.25 a throwie, and we’ll need about three to light up one lantern (under a dollar, yea!) Here are the instructions if you want to give it a shot:
http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Throwies/
Keep in mind that you won’t need the magnet, but it would probably be beneficial to add the on/off switch, instructions are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/everythingdigital/sets/72057594069888500/
ambinsb - Awesome… I’m going to radio shack after work to try it out.
@ambinsb: whoa! if those throwie things work, they could save us a ton of money! way to go ambinsb. have you tried it yet? keep us updated!
[...] in one of my posts about paper lanterns from several months ago and posted about it, check out Paper Lantern Inspiration over at Weddingbee.3. Melissa, you made it again. I’m also biased here because Melissa [...]
@Miss Tiramisu: I haven’t tried it yet, but plan to this weekend. I’ll let you know how it goes!
@Elisa: Elisa- on a side note, what kind of veil did you wear? it’s very pretty!
thanks!
hmmm….Michelle Miller Couture I think?
Thanks! I was hesitant at first about wearing one all together…but I LOVED it and kept it on all night 
ps- we had to use TWO led lights in the large lanterns to get the lighting effect we wanted- suspended them by fishing wire and they worked GREAT!
I tried it out…check it http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/lighting-paper-lanterns-with-throwies
Thanks ambinsb
@ambinsb: THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I’m gonna try it FOR SURE!
[...] Se flere billeder og læs Miss Penguins blog på Weddingbee. [...]
[...] Miss Penguin, I knew I wanted lots of paper lanterns to spice up the blank ceiling of our tent. Mr. Tiramisu and [...]
@Miss Penguin: Hi, just found this board which is helping to answer EXACTLY the questions I have been having about how to light the hanging lanterns I bought for my reception! The throwies sound like a great economical way to light them, but I’m concerned about the quality of the light. I actually bought one of the premade hanging LED lights (like this one: http://www.lunabazaar.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=941 )to test it out, and it emits a horrible blue-ish “white” light- not the soft yellow glow like in the pictures here (though I do see they make it in a yelllow bulb: http://paperlanternstore.com/siledhabatef1.html )maybe that would be better? Can you tell me what the quality of the light of the Throwies is, or if anyone has found any premade LED light that has a *warm* white light? (Or did you use a yellow or amber color which worked well?) Or maybe if the LED light is inside a big lantern it will get diffused and the color tone will soften? Help
Okay, so I tried making a throwie last week and using it to light a lantern. I was SUPER excited because the LED lights at LunaBazaar are so expensive — didn’t want to have to pay $4.95 per lantern.
I went to Radio Shack and got the supplies to make my throwie. Be WARNED - there were probably 40 or 50 DIFFERENT types of LED lights to pick from — and I probably picked the wrong ones! I ended up getting 5 mm Red LED lights — with a “Luminous intensity” of 120mcd. I think that the “Luminous intensity” number is probably the most important thing to look for when buying these. The higher the number, the brighter the light will be, assuming you have enough battery power to support the light.
I used two 5 mm LED throwies in an 18″ fuchsia lanten, and it did nothing!! When the throwies were inside the lantern, and the room dark, the lantern wasn’t illuminated at all.
I also tried flickering battery operated tea lights from Bed Bath and Beyond. Even with 3 lights inside the lantern, I got very little glow. I was trying figure out if they rated the tea lights’ “luminous intensity” in any way — but haven’t found that.
If any one has the specific specs on LEDs they had success with, let me know!
@LibraryGirl: Hi! We had success with the 10mm DIFFUSE white LEDs. Three lit up a 14″ white lantern with a nice glow. Two would have probably been enough, but I like the look of 3 better. Make sure it’s the diffuse light and not the “bright” light… we tried the bright and it didn’t light up the lantern very well at all. There’s some more info on my post on this- you could check that out too Good luck!
i am wanting to hang the paper lanterns from the top of the tent I am using. The tent is a pole tent so there are no cables suspended in the top of it. Any ideas as to how to hang these from the top of the tent? I love these but just dont know how to use them. Thanks!!!
Just want to say that Luna Bazaar has a nice photo gallery of weddings and events decorated with paper lanterns here: http://www.lunabazaar.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=427.
i found them on http://www.asianideas.com for $1.40 each (for a 12″ lantern) versus paperlanternstore.com’s price of $2.15 each…
Anyone have any idea how many lanterns is reasonable for a 40×60′ tent?
Thanks!
If you take a look at some of my recap posts you can see how 130 lanterns looked in a 40×120 tent…
If you take a look at some of my recap posts you can see how 130 lanterns looked in a 40×120 tent…
What a cool idea! This looks so good. We recently photographed a wedding in Fort Myers and they had a tent. It looked good, but these add such a nice feel to the typical tent atmosphere.
I will be using paper lanterns to decorate for an outside reception. I found really cheap lanterns in bulk e.g. 24 pk of 12′ for $30 and 6 pk of 16 in for $14. A lot cheaper than paper lantern store and luna bazar. The only hitch is they sell only white and red lanterns.
http://www.japanesegifts.com/search.php?runsearch=true&catid=32
I also found 9 LED flashlights to light them at
they were on sale for 79cents! I bout 36 to light up all my lanterns and it was only $28. They run off 3 AAA bateries but go for over 12 hours. the light is also very bright. http://cheaptotes.com/led_flashlight.html
hi there
YOU ARE THE BEST…you made my wedding organization soooooooooo much easier. and i can also save lots of money..
looove your ideaaaaaaa…..
KIZ
I found my paper lanterns in our local China Town fo VERY cheap. I got 16 inch lanterns for $2.50 and 12 inch for 1.50. The best part is I did not have to pay shipping and if you pay with cash they are likely to give you more of a discount. They also had tons of colors and prints. We were in the area, but for us, it was worth the 45 minute drive.
Thanks for the website for the 9 LED flashlights. I was wondering how you were going to attach them to your lanterns?@Guest:
I am also using paper lanterns and love the LED flashlight idea but my mom is wanting to do plug in cords that makes all the lanterns attached, which I do not want to do. She is concerned with how we will turn all the battery powered lanterns on with them hanging. I assume we would just need to go around with a ladder and turn them all on but I wasn’t sure if thats how everyone else was doing it. I know this sounds like a dumb question but I just really want to convince my mom to use the battery powered LED ones. Thanks!
@Whitney: Hi! We turned our LED lights on the Friday morning before our Saturday evening wedding reception and they had not dimmed at all by then. There are links to my posts about experimenting with the LEDs- those might help you- they are here under the Tent Wedding section: http://wiki.weddingbee.com/Tiramisu
I’m writing a final post on our tent lighting that should go up sometime this week or next. I hope that helps!
I have one more question….how many lanerns do you think I should use for a 40×80 tent?
Hey just to give you ladies a heads up oriental trading company has star laterns you can paint for yourself. You can get 12 for $10 if anyone is interest. I am doing little mason jars with lights having from the rafters and thinking og doing paper stars in blue which I will paint myself and put in random places throughout the area.
I just bought my paper laterns (15-8inch, 14-10″, and 14-14″ laterns) and am trying to figure out the dredful “lighting” of them. I went to radio shack with some helpful blog information, but am trying to figure out which ones to get. Radioshack didn’t have much of a selection on “diffused” 10mm Led’s in white.
I want to stay away from the “BLUE” look when lit. I want that yellow/white glow. An employee was nice enough to let me try a few out in the store and the yellow ones look Orange and the white have a blue tint.
Could anyone help with this??
@Cravinwaves: You might want to check out my page at http://sites.google.com/site/2dbride/decor/lighting for exactly which LEDs you want, and where to get them. I’ve got a picture of an amber one I did. If the amber is too dark for you, you might consider mixing amber ones with white ones in the same lantern. As you will see, I used that technique with red and white ones to produce a pink light.
Thank you for the post!
So pretty! =) We’ll definitely need some lighting ideas like this — our ceremony is planned to end around sunset, and we’re having an outdoor wedding, so I’ve been caught up with trying to find ways to brighten up the venue a bit.
I am using paper lanterns, but I am mounting them on stands to line my aisle and as centerpieces. How are the LED lights suspended within the lantern? Do you have to rig something or are the lanterns made to hold them?
@shalolady: The lanterns have a sort of a C of wire mounted to the top wire. You use the top half of the wire to hold the lantern up. The bottom half of the C is used to hold the lighting.
I’m using the individual LED lights. I stick the battery between the wires of the light, then wrap the whole thing with strapping tape. I can use a piece of fishing line taped to the bundle of lights to hang the lights from the bottom of the C wire.
I have a dumb question…we’re hanging about 50 lanterns with LED ligths from the ceiling of our tent. After hanging them on Friday, do we really need to climb up on ladders on Saturday and turn each one on individually? They have an on off switch but am guessing the batteries won’t last 24 hours. Am I missing something???
@petuniasandmore: Our batteries lasted 3+ days full strength, and believe it or not, at a faint glow for MONTHS! Do a trial if you’re worried about it, but you should be able to turn them all on Friday (we did). Good luck!
@Mrs. Tiramisu: Thanks!! Do you rememeber which batteries you got that lasted that long? Lithium 2025 or maybe 2032? I would love to get ones that last that long, I wonder if some of them last longer than others.
We used the 2032… you can see the exact type in this post here: http://www.weddingbee.com/2008/06/17/lighting-lanterns-with-led-throwies/
@Mrs. Tiramisu: Oh that’s GREAT news. Although we have the 3 light LED that takes 2 batteries, so probably won’t quite go 3 days. I’m going to do a trial run to see … thanks so much for the info! Did you find that fishing line was the best way to hang them?
@petuniasandmore: Yes, we ended up using heavy duty fishing line. Details here: http://www.weddingbee.com/2009/03/16/tents-and-lanterns-and-layouts-oh-my/
I’ve been reading almost all the stuff posted about paper lanterns and how to illuminate them. . .
In a photojojo blog about How to Light With LEDs,
http://www.diyphotography.net/studio-at-home-introduction-to-led-lighting
they mentioned LED keychains and gave a this link where you can get them by 2, 10 or 50 pack.
The 22000mcd (Ref. SKU 1100) is as low as $0.447,
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1253
and something they call Ultra-Value Bright (Ref. SKU 20241) is as low as $0.398,
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20243
but a customer says the SKU 1100 is brighter than the SKU 20241.
I love the idea of the keychains, because it will save me the hassle of making a ton of throwies. . .but has anyone tried this before? and if you did. . .can you share your experience?
thanks so much!
I would also be interested in hearing how bright the keychains are.
Another alternative I’ve found since I first posted is stick-up light bulbs from Westinghouse. An Amazon seller is currently selling them for $2.99 each, plus one $2.99 shipping charge for however many you order. See:
You wouldn’t want to use these in small paper lanterns, because the bulb might not fit through the opening in the paper lantern. However, for our 18″ diameter lanterns, these gave a much brighter and less blue light than I was able to achieve with LEDs. You can see a picture comparing the effect of LED lights to the effect of a stick-up bulb at:
http://sites.google.com/site/2dbride/decor/lighting
One disadvantage of the stick-up bulbs is that they require four AA batteries each. However, I was able to find 100 batteries for $32, including shipping, on eBay. Someone else says that Dollar Tree always has packs of four batteries for $1, which would be even cheaper.
I’ve thought of this idea as well, but you need to get the “diffused” lighting and the keychains are not. The keychains will give a “spotted” look and not the OVERALL glow you want.
Putting together throwies are pretty easy and is what I’m doing for my paper laterns. Cost effective as well.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for following up, Cravinwaves! I will say that the stick-up bulbs definitely produce a diffused light.
Thanks for replying. . .
I’ll have to talk to the groom and find out how crafty we will get. . .
BTW I saw some other stuff you might be interested:
1. here is an image of how the SKU 1100 looks on http://www.dealextreme.com/photogallery.dx/sku.1100~seQ.1, and one of the
SKU 20241 http://www.dealextreme.com/photogallery.dx/sku.20241~seQ.3. Seems to me the later one is more diffused. . .Dunno!
2. here are instructions on how to diffuse a led http://www.instructables.com/id/how-to-defuse-an-LED/, i think the same can be applied to the keychains, although i cannot tell if it will work, or if it is actually less work than making the throwies.
If I ever do I trial with those keychains I’ll let you know
has anyone ordered batteries from cheapbatteries.com and recieved batteries from them successfully?
I did and I think it may have been a naiive mistake. I havent recieved an email of confirmation from them.
!! I need my mind to be put at ease before I decide to cancel my credit card. :-/
@soontobeadube: I did. My recollection is that I did not receive any confirmation, but that the batteries came quickly anyway. Do you have a number to call them?
For anyone else, I now have a picture of how my lanterns looked at my wedding, at:
http://sites.google.com/site/2dbride/decor/lighting
Mine included small battery-operated white lanterns, 10″ white lanterns lit with throwies to make them pink or amber, and 18″ natural lanterns lit with Westinghouse Stick-Up Bulbs.
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Mrs. Penguin, Northern California
Age and Occupation: 27, Weddingbee Editor in Chief
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Doctor of Physical Therapy
Engagement Date: January 29, 2007
Wedding Date: June 7, 2008
Blogging Since: September 14, 2007
Venue: Winery in the Gold Country
About Me: I love the Spice Girls, dogs with underbites, bean burritos, making messes, high fives, avoiding showers, crossword puzzles, blogs, weddings, and blogs about weddings!
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