Wedding Blog

Mr. L and I headed home to SA once again this past weekend. The mission for this trip: to finalize lighting decisions. Surprisingly, Mr. L has been very involved in the design and decision making for our event lighting.

We arrived at Oak Hills around 1PM to meet with the onsite coordinator. It was so bizarre walking through the stately doors into the (usually conservatively decorated) lobby. It was mass pandemonium everywhere as dozens of workers were setting up various pieces of décor for a Mardi Gras themed event to be held that evening. There were beads and feathers EVERYWHERE and the place was covered in purple, green, and gold fabric, heavy on the lame’. Wow. I only wish I had thought to take pictures for y’all – it was so incredibly over the top!

Anyhow, we moved into the ballroom with the events coordinator and immediately got to work discussing ceiling tiles, extension cords, and inconspicuous plugs – snooze. I found this portion of the day incredibly boring, but Mr. L seemed to be loving all the handyman talk as he diligently took notes to report back to our lighting company. I attempted to envision our setup since we don’t make tons of trips to the Club. Unforch, with the festive and bright décor I was having a really hard time picturing our understated ivory and gold touches. Oh well.

Once Mr. L had finished discussing logistics, we moved on to discussing the actual lighting elements themselves. Ahh, then I felt as thought I had something to contribute! After a bit of hemming and hawing and indecisiveness on my part, we think we have our decisions made. Hooray!

Our lighting company will be bringing in various sized natural paper lanterns to hang at varying heights throughout the ballroom (and in the trees for the ceremony - yay!). They will also be bringing in 6-8 up lights with navy blue gels to tie in the navy color and add a bit more drama to the room. Additionally, they are going to place a waterproof blue up light in the fountain in front of the club where the guests enter, and I plan on having our rock star florist, Erin, sprinkle a few ivory petals in the water – drama, loves it! Lastly on the lighting front, we are going to have a custom monogrammed gobo shining navy blue onto our white (!) dance floor. All in all, I’m pretty excited about how it’s all coming together. Only 53 days out – gah!

While these aren’t the exact looks we’re going for, here are a few pics of how awesome event lighting can really transform a space:

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6

How much are you relying on lighting to set the mood?