Up Lighting???

Ladies, I am in the same situation as well. My ceremony starts at 5 pm. @Trista Y: How can I make sure that I create that dance atmosphere as well? It is a bad picture but the only one I could upload correctly.

Here is a link to a better picture of the ballroom.

http://www.bullockspringsmanor.com/images/Ballroom1.jpg

My wedding was at noon and reception followed. WE had lighting and I thought it was nice.

Beautiful venue!

You know instead of lighting all around, you could do a monogram spotlight or just a few spotlights framing the dance floor. We concentrated our lighting/draping around the dance floor and I feel like it really pulled people into the space.

@KK what's your budget for lighting/decor? I think a few uplights in your space could be really pretty. Maybe washing up from the bottom of those 3 poles at the "entrance" way and then something in the corners of the room? And maybe a monogram or spotlight on the dance floor? Depending on budget of course.

Our cocktail hour started at 5:30, people were seated for dinner around 6:45 or so and it was still daylight out. The lighting was great! We just started off with amber/candlewash through cocktail hour/dinner/cake cutting/first dance, then the lighting went through blue/pink/purple phases once the dance floor REALLY opened.

Let me see if I can find some pics.

@Krisalicious: Thank you so much for the advice! I dont have a set budget for lighting and drapes. What would be a good amount to spend based on what you sugguested? Your timeline is very similar to mine.

Yes, I would love to see your pics!

Oh man, price can really vary. We spent around $2000 for the lighting all around and draping the four pillars in our main reception area, but that's downtown Chicago so it probably depends. And we chose a premium light package so the colors could change throughout the night.

I'll look for pics that really show the lighting - keep in mind though that in June you're probably going to have daylight for an hour or so longer than we did.

Okay so here's what it looked like while the sun was still shining outside. Very soft and nice but if the whole reception had been during daylight I would've saved the money and skipped it:

And then as the sun went down and the dancing got started (my bustle broke so one of my BMs was trying to fix it, lol - that's the best shot I have of the amber lighting after sunset).

I will say those little scatter pin lights were fun on the dance floor, but they're super annoying in our photos. Our DJ just brought them and set them up. Maybe if they weren't green I might like the effect a little better.

@Krisalicious: Thank you for posting your pictures. Your photos are beautiful. Everyone looks like they were having a good time. I like the purple lighting on the dance floor. I like the amber lighting as well!! So I think I may want to add some drapes to create the look similar to yours.

Aw, thanks!

We only draped the four columns around the dance floor. Drape is so expensive! It gave us the impact for less money than draping walls, and we figured most photos would be taken within that little square instead of focusing on one of the walls, so we'd get the most bang for our buck.

I would shop around for sure, several companies had very different packages for very similar things.

The other thing we did was stalk our venue's FB page for inspiration. They host a lot of events there, not just weddings. We actually got the idea to drape the columns from a corporate event and just copied it.

Here's another wedding held there with no draping or lighting - still SO pretty! I like the light/draping we did, but it was definitely a "nice to have if we have extra cash" and not a "must" by any stretch.

Uplighting can be very dramatic during the day if the drapes are pulled. Here's a video of one of mine during the day. Check the lighting at 1:29 in the video, and you'll see all the lights on the wall in the back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtdnFwwseiU

Thanks Tyrone!

@Krisaliscious: Thank you again! I think I like the idea of draping the columns to save money and doing some uplighting in the corners of the rooms.