Lighting
Midlands Wedding Styling Lighting
Lighting changes a room more than any other element and is the one most often left until there is neither time nor power to install it.
A dressed room in flat overhead light looks like a dressed room in flat overhead light. Lighting is what makes the difference between a scheme and a photograph of a scheme.
The four things people hire
Festoon. Strings of warm bulbs, hung across a ceiling or a marquee. The most transformative per pound and the most rigging-dependent, because it needs fixing points and a load path.
Uplighters. Floor units washing a wall or a pillar. Fast to place, battery or mains, and the easiest way to change the colour of a room. Overdone, they read as a nightclub, which is worth saying out loud when choosing a colour.
Fairy lights and curtain lights. Fine detail, backdrops, behind top tables. Cheap to hire, slow to install neatly.
Candlelight. Covered on table styling, and governed entirely by the venue's fire position.
Power, and the question venues actually ask
Establish where the sockets are, how many circuits are involved, and what else is on them. A caterer's urn and a lighting rig sharing a ring is a familiar way to lose twenty minutes of an evening.
Anything electrical brought into a venue may need to be tested. The HSE's guidance on portable appliance testing sets out what is actually required and when, and venues increasingly ask suppliers for evidence. A professional lighting hire company will have it. Equipment borrowed from a relative's garage will not.
Battery uplighters sidestep the question entirely and are worth the premium in a venue with awkward power, but check the run time against the length of your evening.
Rigging and anything overhead
Anything suspended is a different conversation from anything placed. It needs a fixing the venue permits, a stated weight, and usually the venue's own team or an approved installer.
Beams, sprinkler pipework and light fittings are not fixing points, whatever they look like. Ask the venue where the permitted points are and give the answer to your supplier before they quote. See venue restrictions.
Timing
Lighting installs early, before tables in most cases, because the installer needs floor space and a ladder. That puts it at the front of a setup window that is already tight, and it means the lighting supplier and the linen supplier want the room at the same time.
Sequence it explicitly: lighting, then furniture, then linen and tables, then flowers, then the final touches. Give that order to every supplier in writing. See setup and turnaround.
Daylight, and the hour you actually use the room
Ask what the room looks like at the time your reception starts, in the month you are marrying. A south-facing room in July at six in the evening does not need uplighting. The same room in November does.
This is the single most useful thing you can do and it costs a visit. See seasonal styling.
Strike
Lighting is the last thing out, which means the installer is either staying until the end or returning the next morning. Establish which, whether the venue permits overnight storage of the rig, and who pays for a second visit. See hiring décor.
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