How to light a barn?

michellenmarkrock

My reception is in my friends barn. Beautiful place with amazing views of the mountains. However, all they have for lighting are the overhead florescents. That's a no-go. It's a tall ceiling (25 feet or so), so I was thinking of hanging paper lanterns. But from what I hear, the LEDs don't last long, aren't bright and have a very blue tone. None of which sound like a good option.

I have about 30 strings of icicle lights I bought at a garage sale. I could hang these from the top of the wood paneling on the walls (about 10 feet up) and put old style coleman lanterns and oodles of candles in mason jars on the tables. Do you think that will be enough light once the sun goes down?

I'm trying to be as 'easy' of a guest for my host, so ease of installation is also a consideration.

What have you seen/used??

aeliza06

I saw one where they painted a hula hoop (litterally.. a hula hoop) a metallic gold color and hung this from the center. From the hula hoop, they draped the lights extending outward (like sunbeams) to sides of the room and attached the end of the lights to posts along the sides. The more slack it has in the lights, the more dramatic. To disguise the fact that it is a hula hoop even more, you could wrap white christmas lights around the hula hoop itself. 

If they were LED christmas lights, you could envelope each strand to soften the lights (and again- make them look less christmas-y). 

I think as long as you have some candles on the table (whether LED or real), you should have enough light. 

Also, you could do DIY "pin" lightiing with construction lights from Home Depot, secured to posts, with a very flame proof lamp shade around it. No one has to know where it came from :-) 

BubbsNBubbs

Another option is to "wrap" the lights in tulle as it spread the light out a little bit more and takes away from the "christmas light" look. I really like the hula hoop idea.  It would be pretty easy to set up and take down and you could hang other things from the hula hoop in addition to the lights to soften it up...tulle, paper lanterns...stuff like that.

Google wedding lights and tulle.  I saw a pick with colored tulle and I have never seen that before....depending on your wedding colors would be a great way to bring in color.

michellenmarkrock

Oh my gosh the hula hoop sounds COOL!! Brava! I was thinking of getting some paper lanterns, and I could hang them from the strings going out to the walls kind of randomly. Tuck one of the icicle drops into it, and it will glow!

*hi five* THANKS!