Wedding Blog
*Warning: this post might be a little boring if you’re not doing your own lighting. I really wish this info was out there when I went looking for it though, so I’m going ahead with it. Feel free to skip 
In the past few months I think I’ve earned myself quite a few credits in the subject of lighting, with this weekend’s research being about equivalent to a thesis paper. Here’s just another example of something totally unexpected that I’ve had to learn about. Granted, I could have just ponied up the bucks for my rental company to light our tent, but no that would be too easy for the totally cheap frugal Miss Tiramisu. Read on, and take advantage of my research so you don’t have to waste hours of your life on this craziness like I did!
Like Miss Penguin, I knew I wanted lots of paper lanterns to spice up the blank ceiling of our tent. Mr. Tiramisu and I looked over some inspiration pictures and decided that for the look we were going for, we’d need around 150 lanterns for our 120×40 foot tent. Our rental company said they’d gladly rent us the lanterns and light strands, and even string them up for us, for the low low price of $35…. PER LANTERN. Don’t reach for your calculator. I’ll do it for you if you brace yourself for the total: $5250. Let’s all have a little laugh. Well actually I cried (real tears falling from my face- ask Mr. Tiramisu!).
Come on now. We’ve all been to weddings with paper lanterns (or at least seen about a million pictures of them), and I’m pretty sure that no one I know was shelling out that kind of cash. I’ve since figured out that my rental company (who will remain nameless so that I don’t end up tentless) is less than stellar, so I’m sure there are cheaper rental costs out there. The cheapest of all though, is DIY. A few google searches later and I was the proud owner of 100 white 14″ paper lanterns bought for $1.35 each. This was the best pricing that I could find, and the folks over at the Paper Lantern Store were even nice enough to give me free shipping after emailing them to ask (coupon code fship for non-oversize item orders over $100). My day-of coordinator (aka best wedding decision ever made) is providing us with another 49 lanterns in various sizes- gratis. (I promise a post soon on how amazing this woman is!)
Now onto the dilemma of actually lighting the darn things. I’m not going to take a single ounce of credit for the following brilliant solution. That would all belong to weddingbee reader ambinsb. Here is her post:
“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/7205759″
Let me tell you the reasons why this is the bestideaever:
1. LED lights = no cords to string up, no extension cords or electricity issues to deal with
2. LEDs instead of battery powered lights = 1-2 week lasting power vs a few hours
3. hello bargain (LEDs designed for lantern lighting run around $5 each)
I put Mr. Tiramisu on this project right away. An experiment by us (and another by reader MissRojoOso) helped us to figure out that 3 LEDs per 14″ lantern was optimal. We are now going strong on day 3 of our how-long-will-it-last experiment. We’re planning on putting these up on Friday morning for our Saturday evening wedding, so this is great news!
We found the best pricing for LEDs (13.3 cents) and batteries (17 cents) on ebay, from sellers led-hk and cwithk respectively.
Just look at this stuff. Let me tell you, when Mr. Tiramisu popped this ring on my finger, I most certainly did not have visions of 10mm LED fittings and CR 2032 3v batteries dancing in my head. How far we have come.
Next up in my lighting education curriculum was tent perimeter lighting. This is going to be the more functional lighting for us, as the paper lanterns probably aren’t going to be enough once the sun goes down. My rental company wanted to charge $520 for twinkle lights strung around the perimeter of the tent. You all know me well enough by now to know I wasn’t going to jump at that opportunity. We’ll string these up ourselves on Friday:
These are C7 5 watt globe lights, and the best price I could find for the 320 feet that we need was at Hometown Evolution Inc, for around $200.
Hmmm, let me whip out the calculator again… I think I’ve saved myself enough to do a little shoe shopping now (Thanks again to all of you who helped me out with blue shoe suggestions!) What completely ridiculous and unexpected things did you find yourself jumping into in the name of wedding planning and saving a few dollars?
photo sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6-8
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Thanks for all the info! I am doing the same thing with lanterns for lighting in our tent. One problem we are having is how to actually hang the lanterns from the tent ceiling. Do you have an idea how your are going about that?
Hmmm, ridiculous things to save money… I distinctly remember talking via cell phone to the MOTHER of the manager of the Kinko’s I frequented for work, because she did gold leaf printing at a really cheap price, and I was considering getting it for my invitations. She sent me samples and everything.
Miiiind readerrrrr!
I’m going the LED throwie route. Just picked up some supplies at Radio Shack last week but too lazy to execute and experiment
THANKS for doing the research and finding the cheapest LED sellers!! Yay!! Another thing I dont have to do…
Woop!
how are the leds being attached to the lanterns? also what are you using to hang the lanterns up? this is definitely a good post and depending on the answers to the questions, i may just do that as well..
What size LED are you using? There seem to be 10mm, 20mm, and 3 mm available? If they are 3mm maybe a 10 mm or 20 mm could do the work of 3 3mm. I’ve been thinking about doing the same thing so I’m really curious.
ditto on the question about how you are attaching the LED to the lantern!
My DJ is offering us lighting too…the colored kind though….he charges $35 a LED light! He said, that he recommend 16 for our venue….of course he does! Coming to an extra $560! Eeshh! So frustrating!
Thanks for the post!!!
This is so great. I love the picture. You got me all excited about wedding planning again. It’s great that I had to reschedule now I can be inspired by all of these wonderful ideas. I love the Weddingbee.
Haha my tent company tried to charge us FORTY-five per lantern, so you’d actually be getting a bargain!! But the LED lights sound like a great idea! We did cords with lots of sockets and I have tons o’ pictures from the day before the wedding of us all up on ladders attaching everything.
i also plan to put up lanterns to decorate the venue (which is a large room and deck area)…the quote from my venue to hang 40 lanterns (and also provide a petal aisle for the ceremony) was about $575…so I guess that’s not that bad…but I think I can DIY for less (and to have more lanterns). I’m going the LED throwie route too…THANKS FOR THE DETAILED POST!!!
I’m so glad this is helpful to you all!
The LEDs are the 10mm size. We’re going to attach them with fishing line to the inside metal part of the lantern (I used random string for the trial- it’s easy enough to just tie it to the frame.)
Not sure what type of line/rope we will use to hang them from the tent, and I am hoping my DOC has some ideas!
Another tidbit: try emailing the ebay sellers if you will be ordering in bulk like we did- they may offer free shipping or discounted prices 
Thanks so much for this post. Our date isn’t until ‘09, so I’m trying to squirrel away all these helpful tips. I hope I don’t forget where to find them. eep.
Anyone have any tips on how to use lighting to create a design on a wall? My venue has long dark hallways and I’d like to jazz it up by putting up a design of branches (or something).
Also, any advice on how to do your own uplighting for columns throughout the room would be VERY much appreciated.
Thanks!!!
this was much appreciated miss tiramisu! thanks. as far as trying to save money, i’m trying to do as much of it myself. we’ll see what ends up happening.
@tess: Found it! Miss Licorice wrote a post just perfect for you
http://www.weddingbee.com/2007/08/06/let-there-be-light/
I could hug you for this post! We’re right in the midst of this now, and our rental company was going to charge $15 for the actual lantern and $35 to hang each of them. I still don’t understand why they think people will pay $15 to rent one when you can buy them for a fraction of the price! Madness. The LED lights are a great idea, good work
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this post!!! I can’t think of anything else I can add other then….thank you!!! = )
Great post! Thank you SO much for the ideas! Hope you can keep us posted on this project!
I love you…..I really really do. Thank you so much!!!!
This is a great post! I was thinking of doing the same thing and didn’t know where to start. I am also doing candles on half the tables, do you think it would be to much to have the lanters on the ceiling and candles on the tables?
Thank you so much for this post!
Wow, WELL DONE! The lanterns are cheap on the Internet (can’t believe what they were trying to charge for rentals), but the actual lighting is definitely the pricey part of the process. I’m sure a lot of readers will find this info very useful. (Wish I’d known it before our wedding!)
When I saw the first picture, I thought you were using LED Floaties. One trick with the LED Floaties is putting just enough helium and weight so that they don’t float all the way to the ceiling. They might be more fun for the dancing area as a balloon isn’t quite as nice looking as the paper lanterns.
Here’s a link to the LED Floaties
http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Floaties/
Very nice post, you should create an Instructable for it.
best,
cloude
SWEEEEEEEET!!!
I was also sweating how I would have to buy those $5 lights, and if you have 100 lanterns, that sure gets pricey.
Can you upload photos of how your finished constructed lanterns look with the fishing wire?
I am super-impressed with your craftiness!
THANK YOU!!!!!
All the information is PERFECT for me!
Hi all,
Before you all go out and buy lanterns and waste money, I thought I might warn you about the Fire Marshals. They will write you a ticket as well as make you cut down any lanterns you hung unless they are treated with a flame retardant coating. You have a certificate proving this. This is part of the reason professional companies charge what they charge. The other reason is the cost of labor to install and remove the lanterns.
How are you going to hang theM? Can anyone clue us in…. I want to do this so bad… but I’m worried about hanging them.
Has anyone found how to make a throwie that emits a warm, golden light that will make a white lantern appear to be a warm, glowing orb? The white LEDs I’ve seen have a cool blue cast, and that’s not what I’m looking for.
@kikramer: UPDATE: I think it’s important to get the “diffuse white” LEDs- not the “bright white”. The look is totally different, with the bright giving the more blue cast and the diffuse giving more of warm glow that lights up the whole lantern.
This was such great information as I have been debating on using electrical cords. I am now searching ebay for the leds and batteries for the lanterns. I think I’m going to use fishing line to string them up with but I’ll have to do a test run. I do believe that the fising line will definitely be strong enough to hold the lanterns. Thank you so much!!!
I just found a store on eBay that sells leds for about .29 a piece. It’s called Wellton World-Electronics World. I’m going to order the 10mm diffused in orange, white and red to test how they look with the lanterns. Now I’m off to look for the batteries…woohoo!!
[...] cheap budget-conscious Miss Tiramisu here, back with some hard-earned research for you all! I posted a while back on the possibility of lighting our paper lanterns with homemade LED throwies. Well [...]
I see images that I’d love my tent to look like but thinking it would cost too much - you’ve really caused me to be less anxious about everything - THANK YOU FOR THE BEST PRICES/INFO! I don’t feel as lost as I did when I first began my tent lighting and decor search…. same question as missopie…how to hang them - fishline/clips etc? Also any ideas on fabric hanging from ceiling?
Wow. That is a lot of effort. But if your determined to do it yourself and have the time I guess it’s worth it. I am interested in seeing pictures of the final project. Wondering if the quality was there. Hope it worked out!
[...] category came the hanging of the infamous paper lanterns. I have to admit, even after all of my research and test runs of the LED throwie-lit paper lanterns, I was a little worried about the execution. We [...]
Can I buy your string lights and lanterns from you? If so, email me at cds182@yahoo.com. Thanks
Thanks so much for the info!
We’re doing our own perimeter lighting too.
I needed 300 feet of C7 string lights and 300 5watt bulbs…. got them at this website for $135 including shipping (after Christmas light sale)….. in case anyone is still looking.
do you need 1 battery for 3 LED lights or does each LED light need its own battery? thanks so much for this money-saving DIY tip!
@sarah: Each LED will need its own battery in order for them to be as bright as possible. Good luck!
[...] Re: Chinese Paper Lantern Questions?? Here is a whole post on how to make LED "throwie" lights to light up the lanterns. It saves some money on the cords and tea lights and you don’t have to worry about electricity or fire. I’m going to make some of these so I will keep you posted. If Only I Had Majored In Event Lighting Instead of Biology Weddingbee The Wedding Blog [...]
[...] back when I have finished the project. Here is two links that explain everything: LED Throwies If Only I Had Majored In Event Lighting Instead of Biology Weddingbee The Wedding Blog A few hints I’ve found on the web: –10 mm diffused LED lights are supposed to make a warmer [...]
[...] Q: How and When did you turn all the LED lights on? A: We added an on/off switch (just a tiny piece of cardstock) to our throwies when we assembled them (details here). You just pull the piece of cardstock off in order to let the battery touch the LED and turn it on. We turned them all on on Friday morning, and they were still going strong when we took them down on Sunday morning. If you want to read about our decision to use LED throwies to light the lanterns, that post is here. [...]
Thank you so much for all the information. I’ve been looking for months for solutions to hanging my lanterns at different lengths with a light. I’m super excited to try and make these LEDs this weekend. Question for you … when you hung the 3 LED together did you keep them bundled together or space them out in the lantern? Thank you again for all the information.
Thank you SO much for putting up this info. We are definitely going to do this for our backyard wedding in July! I was wondering which LEDs you ordered (model number)? I have heard that some of the LEDs have a bluish light and want to make sure I get the right ones (white light). Thank you so much!!
I’m considering this route, but the amount of labor sounds truly daunting. If any of you manages this successfully, would you please post again and let us know how long it took you?
@tasterspoon: Well we did it! I just asked Mr. Tiramisu and he is estimating 15 hours. (Gross! But saved us SO much money!) You can purchase LEDs assembled for maybe $3-5 instead?
[...] used to figure it out: DIY LED lights for Paper Lanterns throwies, led, weddingbee - Google Search If Only I Had Majored In Event Lighting Instead of Biology Weddingbee The Wedding Blog We ordered the diffuse LEDs and batteries from ebay, and got the binder clips to hold them together [...]
FOR SALE:
We used paper lanterns for our wedding, (BEAUTIFUL, we got so many compliments, although it is a lot of work) bought them online…. we have 200 for sale, 10 inch, 12 inch and 14 inch… all ivory/off-white, uneven ribbing. Will sell them for 1/2 of what we paid. If interested, email me at cds182@yahoo.com, can send pictures.
Sooo I had this brilliant idea of making my own throwies for my paper lanterns for my wedding as well. So I started reading, and putting everything together trying to figure out what I exactly needed to make these throwies. This post helped me out so much! Thanks
I was looking around and found a few more helpful hints that helped me out alot. A youtube video made it really simple for me. Copy and paste the following links to watch these helpful videos!! ( I got all my supplies on ebay, just search around for the best deal!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjTP_T-wR9w&feature=related ( this one is really simple with easy to follow instructions!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu_15xIc07g ( this one shows a on/off switch)
Also for all those brides who do not want to waste their time making a a ton of throwies, check out this website (etsy.com). This web site offers a million great ideas (most hand made) for a really reasonable prices! This link is for a lady that sells pre-made throwies for only 1.50 each with a on off switch. Its a pretty reasonable price so those not so crafty brides!! (its ok if your not crafty!!)
etsy.com (type in, ‘LED throwies’)
I hope this helped out some of you that are somewhat lost in making these throwies!!
Good luck with all your weddng plans!!
How do you hang these Japanese lanterns from the top of a wedding tent? I cant figure out what or how you attach them. Any ideas would be really helpful! Thanks!
@Kasandra: Check out this follow-up post for details on hanging the lanterns: http://www.weddingbee.com/2009/03/16/tents-and-lanterns-and-layouts-oh-my/
Can I just say that you are awesome, Mrs. T! I bet when you originally posted this you never thought you would still be answering questions 16 months later!
Your dedication to weddinbee is outstanding! Thank you from the bottom of my heart…. and my pocket. (Written as I spend my Saturday night making throwies)
I tried to go to the flicker link to see instructions for the on/off switch for the LED lights but it would not allow me to see the page for some reason. Could someone post the directions?
[...] can be inserted in the paper spheres, as shown by several online tutorials. I love how the lanterns below surround the dance floor. I could see this in our ballroom, even [...]
Wanted to mention that our paper lanterns for sale are all gone (excited that the lanterns will “fly” again at some Weddingbee’s weddings). Forgot to mention that I have 300 feet of perimeter tent lighting for sale as well. Will sell half price. email me at cds182@yahoo.com if interested, can send pictures
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!
[...] can be inserted in the paper spheres, as shown by several online tutorials. I love how that the lanterns below are in our colors! I could see this in our ballroom, even [...]
[...] can be inserted in the paper spheres, as shown by several online tutorials. I love how the lanterns below are in our colors! I could see this in our ballroom, even though [...]
My sis is getting married in january and i’m her maid of honor. I tend to be better with technical issues like this than she does. This is a fantastic post. a real life saver. If anyone is looking to get rid of lanterns I’m probably interested. Particularly if they are irregularly ribbed, white green, or plum colored. Also… are the LEDs reusable with a new battery? and if i put three on one battery would it work? I realize they wouldnt be as bright, and wouldnt last as long, but those issues arent a huge concern for me. If you have lanterns email jewels817@live.com THANKS!!!!
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Mrs. Tiramisu, Annapolis, MD/Maine
Age and Occupation: 26, Eye Doctor
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Project Manager/Real Estate Management grad student
Engagement Date: May 15, 2007
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: March 4, 2008
Venue: Oceanfront lawn and tent
About Me: I was born and raised in Maine, now living in Annapolis, Maryland and planning a hometown wedding from afar. I’m nothing short of obsessed with wedding planning, and am loving the do-it-yourself madness that has now taken over my life! As for me, I’m a craft-loving, martini-drinking, girly-girl who loves traveling, photography, my schnauzer, and above all, spending time with Mr. Tiramisu.
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