Light up your wedding decorations
Lighting is actually a huge component to any decor, as any interior decorator or theater stage manager might tell you. And even though brides usually prefer afternoon ceremonies and evening receptions, its often overlooked to the detriment of the decorations so painstakingly wrought (and paid for).
Candles are usually the choice of lighting, and candles are a good, albeit small choice. They also can’t really be lit in flower arrangements for fear of sparking a fire. The alternative? Electric and batter-powered lights. Above, a sweetheart table at the Our Lady Of Angels Cathedral gets some major background lighting from DJ lights.
Most lighting is relatively subtle, but with DJ lights you can get really colorful. I don’t recall where this reception was, but subtle it was not. Not only was every arrangement topped with silver-sprayed greens, the tables were decorated with silver and pink fabric on the riser and silver and teal blue fabric on the floor-level tables. Oh, and did you not see the pink spotlights and under-the-table light? Wow. This wouldn’t have been my choice, frankly, but they loved it.
Incidentally, I do love doing under the table lights, but it can be difficult. Most long lamps, you know, the flat kind you put a long bulb into? Those are usually plug-ins and not battery-operated so you have to also do some finagling with extension cords and tape (to tape it all down; having a bride trip over the lights would not be good). But the effect is so nice.
Lighting is a must for points in the room you want to be a focus — at a wedding, this is the head/sweetheart table and the cake table. Above, the cake is old fashioned (to me) but the backdrop is very pretty. And when the cake is eaten and taken away later, it’s a nice place to take pictures.
But lighting is also a must for ambiance. I found some good examples on Flickr, of course.
This was a simple but very effective use of Christmas lights. Those eaves are nice, but look so much more dressed up with those casually strung Christmas lights entwined with some tulle. It also helps brighten the room, which was unfortunately a little dark.
Here’s another good example of using the vertical space. I love these round paper lanterns and wish I could use them at home — but my husband is not a fan. But they give you extra lighting, they distract from those rusty fluorescent lights further up and give some softly lit ambiance. I wish there had been a photo of this room at night.
Here’s a good combo — lighting softened with fabric decorations. Look at all those details — overhead lights softened by the sheets of fabric (not sure what kind, it doesn’t look like tulle), trees strung with lights and attached to the posts, the paper lanterns, the hanging lights. Talk about ambiance.
I would expect nothing less from someone who calls themselves the Christmas Light Pros of Indianapolis. This is an amazing space made even more gorgeous by well placed lights. They made good use of all those posts (often a hindrance to most room layouts, since they might inhibit the placement of tables or chairs), good use of all those eaves, good use of those windows and they even light up the decorations. I would daresay they even stole the show from the flowers. Very, very nice.
At any rate, if you are on a budget and you want to light things up — make a trip to your local Big Lots and stock up on Christmas lights. It’ll really make things beautiful.
Wedding traditions from all over the world
Being American, I’ve heard of a lot of different wedding traditions that actually hail from different cultures. But I guess that’s just how it goes — as people immigrate here from other countries, they incorporate their wedding traditions, which friends from other cultures might think is cool and incorporate into their wedding, and so on and so forth until no one is sure anymore where the tradition came from.
Photo by Flickr’s Hanson SwitzkyFor example, here is probably the most well-known of non-American wedding tradition — the smashing of a glass at a Jewish wedding. It’s been made famous in countless movies (by Adam Sandler a few times, I think), but where did it come from? There are different explanations, of course. The photographer, Hanson Switzky, captioned the photo:
This Jewish folk custom symbolizes many things, including the irrevocability and permanency of marriage, the broken world that requires our unwavering commitment and joyous energy to mend, and, on a happier note, the countless prismatic shards of glass represent the countless colorful and bright years of joy ahead for the couple.
Anyway, I stumbled on this very cool (and long!) article, detailing wedding traditions from all over the world. It’s not quite comprehensive, but it sure is on its way there!
Photo by Flickr’s sqdavis@pacbell.netI saw this tradition in action for the first time earlier this year, when my friend Belinda got married. According to this article:
The most common tradition is ‘jumping the broom’, a ritual originating from the Deep South during the American Civil War when slave weddings were not permitted and so an alternative commitment ceremony had to be found. The broom is placed on the floor and the couple jumps over it. But what does it signify? Well, there seem to be various explanations ranging from a jump from singledom into matrimony, following an African tribal marriage ritual of placing sticks on the ground representing the couple’s new home or it could just be sweeping away the old and welcoming the new. A nice touch is to fill a basket with ribbon pieces for guests to tie around the broom before you begin.
Photo by Flickr’s tamaranashI think we like anything that hails from Hawaii, because of the projection of paradise, romance and free island living. However, Hawaiians do have traditions too! And they mean something! Regarding the traditional maile lei:
The lei is the Hawaiian symbol of love. During the ceremony the kahuna pule (religious man) binds the hands of the bride and groom with leis as a symbol of the couple’s commitment to each other.
Photo by Flickr’s C.P.StormOf course, we’re all familiar with the Chinese fortune cookie. The article says, “Serve fortune cookies (easy to bake yourselves) filled with good wishes.” Fortune cookies, of course, are very in fashion — the message inside could be the date of your wedding, a favorite quote or Bible verse or a silly saying like the one above.
Photo by Flickr’s Duane aThe traditional money dance, according to the article, is done in both Greek and Filipino cultures. According to the article:
If you opt for any Greek tradition it is likely to be the money dance. Instead of giving gifts, your guests will pin several notes to your outfits during this almost never-ending dance!
However, when I’ve seen this in action, this was in addition to gifts, rather than instead of giving gifts. I’ve seen this tradition in action so many times, brides would often ask my mom for an extra box of pins for their money dances.
These are just a few traditions. Check out the list, its pretty comprehensive, but I can’t imagine that its complete. If you have any other traditions to include, comment away!
