Home Is Where The Heart Is: All the Little Details

Home Is Where The Heart Is: Our First Dance

Home Wedding: Lighting the night

I had read MANY blogs about outdoor, backyard, home and park weddings. One thing that I knew would be key was lighting. My parent's and I had discussed different ideas over the last 6 months. Now it was time to put those plans into practice. The first area to get lights was the patio. It got a simple strand of white Christmas lights along the edge. These went up the weekend before the wedding.


After the tents were up on Thursday and the sun had come up the guys started lighting the inside of the tents. Again, they are just white Christmas lights that we already owned.


Next to go up with the chinese lanterns with the throwies that I had made. This DIY project got a little assistance from my Dad and his Cousin (the electrician) They wanted to use cable to put up the lanterns, but mom & I held firm to the fishing line. They did have to make some adjustments to my throwies though. The first time they put them up we didn't get a lot of light from them.


So the next morning while my Dad was out doing some last minute errands they went and bought some clothespins to help hold the LED wires onto the battery so they would have a stronger connection. This worked much better than my tape, I will admit. The night of the wedding they had the perfect glow:

(You can see the blue glow in the lanterns AND the lighting in the tents in this photo)

The last minute addition to the lighting was actually because some of the lanterns didn't stay on the fishing line and we didn't have time to put them back up. They used some of the taller shepard hooks and attached the lanterns to them and just rearranged the mason jars on the other hooks.


The only lighting that didn't happen was my luminaries. We had purchased white paper bags and they were supposed to line the driveway/walkway from the parking area up to the house. It was probably needed, but with the slightly windy conditions it was making set up difficult, so they did not get set out. Now I have about 500 white paper bags for all future birthday parties, class parties and probably even Christmas LOL.

Countdown: The assembly begin

Now that the tents were up, the lawn was mowed and I had my toe nails done .. it was time to start assembing the last minute details prior to setting up and decorating on Friday and Saturday.

My girls showed up to help and we started getting as much done as possible. We started with assembling the lanterns and putting the throwies into them.






Then we finished up the mason jars. I used the basic steps from previous tutorials I had seen on Weddingbee. No re-inventing the wheel for me LOL. The only slight difference with the wired twine that my mom found at Michael's. Half the jars got tea-lights the other half got sunflowers.


While working on the above projects we also were doing dishwasher loads full of goblets, beer pilsners and champange flutes. We had been buying them at the Dollar Store all summer and storing them, but they had to get washed up before our guests could use them.


Once they got washed we separated everything into boxes. There was one box for each table. The box was marked with the seating chart for the table. It had the total number of chairs for the table, the number of children and was marked wither "high" or "low" depending on the centerpiece for the table. Everything "loose" for the table went into the box: tablecloths, candles, kid goodie bags, goblets, candy dishes, and table numbers. The only things that didn't fit in the box were the water bottles and the napkins.


Speaking of water bottles. We had 4 cases of water (120 bottles) to put the custom labels on.

I had already cut them apart from the file that Staples had printed out for me. But some needed a little minor trimming to remove extra white space or smooth a rough cut edge. We had a nice little assembly line: remove printed label, cut new label, glue new label, attach new label. We had then done very quickly. I was very surprised. My only suggestion would be to use extra glue if they will be sitting out in the sun. Some had to be re-glued on the day of the wedding because the sun was heating up the glue too much.

With many projects completed for the day, we settled in for a nice big pasta dinner and some Margaritas to calm my nerves.



Only 1 more day left before the wedding!

DIY: Lantern and LED Trial

The lanterns that mom bought online were a little bit bigger than we expected. We wanted to make sure that they would still be bright enough with the 3 LED Throwies. I sat down and put together 3 LED Throwies with on/off switches. Then I used some thin wire to put them together and hang in the lantern.

I think they look bright enough. I wasn't surprised that the lanterns turned the blueish color. I knew it was gonna happen. The white lights glow more blue then white, just like all the previous brides have mentioned.

I played with my camera settings to try and get a good photo:





To be safe we decided to order another 100 LED's and batteries. They should be here this week. I already have most of the first 100 made up with on/off switches. It really didn't take as much time as I thought it would.

Let there be light!

Having our wedding in my parent's backyard has a few added quirks to deal with. I have already posted about needing restrooms for our guests and how we are responsible for everything, even food (no catering manager to complain too - bummer!). One additional thing that I have had to think about is lighting. With an indoor venue that isn't something you have to worry about. Even major outdoor venues have already planned to have lighting for you. Not so much in my parent's backyard.

Originally I was just gonna throw white Christmas lights at the problem. That should fix it right? Nope, not really ... you need a power source for those. The added draw on the power from the house could easily trip a breaker. The last thing I would want is for the DJ to start playing and everything go dark because we tripped the breaker. In fact the DJ has already asked that he be on a dedicated power source so that he doesn't have problems with his equipment.

{source}

We can use some christmas lights ... but it will need to be done selectively. I have already started to incorporate candles into my centerpiece design, so that will help with the lighting at the individual tables. That still leaves the tent and the dance floor. Enter Mrs Tiramisu and her wonderful and informative posts about lighting her tent. Her tent was much bigger then we will be having, but the process is still the same. We will be making LED Thowies and using various sizes of paper lanterns to acheive this look


{Mrs Tiramsu's photos}

It makes me smile just to see them all hanging in the day light!

I did some searching on ebay today, my go to source for supplies. Here is what I found
200 10mm White Diffused LED Bulbs $30.00
2 x 100 Lithium CR2032 Cell Button Coin Battery $34.00
both have a free shipping offer!!
Total $64 for 200 throwies = $0.32 each!!

I am still pricing lanterns and trying to figure our what size I will need. Once I find the cheapest source I will buy my supplies and get to work. They don't look too hard to make.

Have you found any inspiring ideas at the hive??