Crazy 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 we’ve finally gotten around to putting these suckers together. As I said in my last post, I ordered the supplies on ebay. My first mistake was not paying attention to the difference between “diffuse” and “bright” LED lights.
Here are the trial pictures so that you can see for yourself:
Mr. Tiramisu modeling our lovely 14″ white lantern lit with 3 diffuse white LEDs, all attached to their own battery.
Again, with our not-so lovely lantern lit with 3 bright white LEDs.
Are you feeling the polka-dot lantern look? I wasn’t. If you’re going for the warm glow seen in the first photo, you will definitely need the diffuse white LEDs. The bright LEDs, while they may throw more light, will give you that spotted look you see in the second photo.
Another word of caution: these are white lanterns. WHITE WHITE WHITE. With WHITE LEDs. Although the pictures make them seem a little more blue than they are in real life, they do in fact appear blue when lit. I have no idea if there is any way to avoid this. I will say that we ordered a few LEDs from another website before we found them at a lower price on ebay, and those cast a slightly less blue glow than the ebay ones. If you’re set on the white look, it may be worth it to experiment with different types of white LEDs. There are other colors available though- I found red, green, blue, and yellow easily. Our wedding colors are light blue, dark blue, and any blue in between, so we’re going to pretend like we wanted blue lanterns as well 
On to the assembly… we used the instructions from this website, adding the on/off switch as shown (but you don’t need the magnet). This way, we’re able to make up the throwies ahead of time, attach them to the wire frames of our lanterns, and only have to pull the switch to turn them on the day before our wedding.
Supplies: cardstock (for the on/off switch), LEDs, batteries, strapping tape, and fishing line.
Here is the on/off switch in action.
Are these totally tedious to make? Do I have to remind myself often of how much money we’re saving while making them? (it’s a LOT.) Does Mr. Tiramisu sort of want to kill me for going through with this crazy idea? Yes, yes, and yes.
But am I totally excited about seeing 150 of these in action on our wedding day and knowing that I didn’t pay a 4-figure pricetag for it? That’s a – heck yes.We’re hoping that with these and the perimeter lighting that we have planned, there will be enough light in the tent after sundown.
Does anyone have any suggestions about tent lighting? Ever been to a wedding where the tent being too dark was an issue? Help me put my nightmares about a pitch-black wedding reception to an end!
150?? 150!!?? Wow, ambitious! But I’m sure it will look awesome!!
Has anyone tested the white diffused LED throwies with cream or light yellow lanterns? Would they give a more golden glow then or would it just turn green? Just curious, because we’re planning on going this path, too and are about to buy our lanterns. and blue isn’t in our color scheme:)
Thanks for the info. I’ll be putting up some lanterns in three colors as a touch of fun at the reception. This is very helpful to know for the LEDs!
After reading your initial post a few months back, we also began to explore using LEDs to light our lanterns. It required MULTIPLE trips to Radio Shack and lots of online ordering (the cheapest LEDs I found actually came from Japan). It took us a really long time to figure out exactly what specs we were looking for. A few hints:
When ordering, you want the highest mcd number you can find COMBINED with the greatest degree viewing angle.
The mcd value measures the brightness of the LED light, while the angle measures how diffuse it is.
I found it really difficult to compare different LED specs, but just found this niffty little calculator (second on the right):
http://www.gizmology.net/LEDs.htm
Punch in the mcd value and the angle and it will perform some magic calculations to give you a third value, called lumens (1700 lumens is the amount of light put out by an average 100 watt bulb). You can use the lumens value to directly compare LEDs with different mcd and angle specs.
Wow, way too much physics. Anyway, from our trials, you want as high a lumen value as possible, or you’ll get the spotlight effect . . .
Just a note to any bees trying this out in the future: you should expect that all white LEDs will have at least a slight blue tint. The “white” LEDs are made by putting a yellow chip in a blue LED to cancel out the blue color.
I never thought my knowledge of solid-state chemistry would be helpful in wedding planning! 
Where did you buy the diffuse LEDs? We are going to do this project as well, and your suggestions have been really helpful!
We wanted white lanterns for my daughter’s evening outdoor wedding in August and have found battery operated ones at the Dollar Tree stores for $1 each. They run on two aaa batteries.
I tried the “natural” lanterns and they looked very orange. So back to white it is. I found that some of the lights flickered with the on/off switch, so I used a binder clip to keep the throwie tight.
http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/throwie-tips
I purchased my LEDs from Robert at http://www.buy-leds-online.com . They were only a few cents more but they are based in the US. I just picked up the phone and told him what I was trying to do and he was very helpful. I also had my lights in two days.
I just had a wedding this weekend where we had some lanterns and you know…the lighting wasn’t even necessary. The tent was outside on the lawn and the cake and DJ was on the inside of the building, so basically after dinner, everyone just went into the building. Well since the sun sets around 9:00pm, the 4:00 pm wedding didn’t even really need them lit. The lanterns looked great though.
@Lindentree: wow! thanks for the info!
@Kristi: ebay seller led-hk had the best prices we could find
@MissRojoOso: I can’t believe it- we did the same EXACT thing! The binder clips are the easiest solution to the flicker problem- we only had to use them on some of the leds, not all. We also found that putting the switch on the short (-) side worked better than the (+) side, but we have no idea why 
you can buy ‘warm white’ led’s which have the more traditional yellowish lamplight glow. They recently switched the christmas lights in my city (Calgary Alberta Canada) to warm white LEDs, and it’s nice that we no longer have blue christmases
If you don’t need a lot of them and you’re lazy like me, you can buy wireless led lights here for a little over $2 each.
@Kristi: For cheap and reliable, and not mention bright, LEDs you should check out these people http://evilmadscience.com they’re based in the US, but will ship anywhere. Scroll to the bottom of this page for all the LED options http://evilmadscience.com/tinykitlist/35-tinykitcat/75-peggy2
There are a few ways they produce ‘White’ LEDs
a) As Miss Grad said, they take a blue LED and put another color phosphor to mask some of the blueishness.
b) RGB LED – there are actually 3 separate semiconductors of each primary color and the light is blended to produce white (this can also be used to produce nearly any color LED one could want)
c) A Ultraviolet LED is coated in 3 phosphors to produce red/green/blue light that is blended to white. These operate similarly to a fluorescent bulb, but the UV is from a semiconductor not an excited gas.
The second will produce the “truest” white, but they are also the most expensive.
Ooh, good timing.
I rigged up a similar throwie nearly a fortnight ago and it lasted at full brightness for a full week, and it’s still glowing (albeit faintly) today. No heat is produced at all.
I’m looking at diy tealights because my reception venue is heritage and therefore permits no open flames (and I can’t justify the cost of bought electric tealights).
Big tip: Applying hot glue from a glue gun to your led ‘bulb’ can A) make the led look a more like a real flame if it’s exposed and B) turn a non-diffuse led into a diffuse led.
Another comparably cheap but less time-intensive option is to *rent* battery operated LEDs. I was considering going the throwie route until I found out that http://www.infusecreativity.com rents 3-bulb white LEDs for $0.91 apiece (they also rent lanterns at a very reasonable price)! Then you don’t have to throw away your throwies! The lights are supposed to light up to a 16in lantern.
@shellstarr: Wow that is a great website! I had never heard of that company- and I wish I had found them sooner! DIY will be just a tiny bit cheaper, but I think I would have rented had I known about that option! What are the shipping costs like?
Is there a reason you use 3 throwies per lantern? Would 1 absolutely just be not enough light?
Mrs. Tiramisu, Annapolis, MD/Maine Age and Occupation: 26, Healthcare 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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