Paper Lanters at the Reception

nataliem.22

Another post got me thinking of a few questions regarding hanging paper lanterns at our reception.
I found both asianideas.com and paperlanternstore.com which are both priced similarly.

1. I want two size contrasts, I was thinking 12 and 16 but am now thinking this might not be a good pairing. Someone mentioned 10 and 12.. anyone who has done this have a suggestion?

2. How many is an ok amount to hang? The room is large but I would be hanging them primary over the dance floor and around that area, I was thinking 24, too little, too many?

3. Easiest way to hang them? I read in a blog somwhere that fishing line works best and the way our ceiling will be setup, we should just be able to attach a paper clip to the end of the fishing line and slip it under the ceiling tile to stay in place. Has anyone done this, or alternative EASY ways to hang them?

And lastly 4. Its so expensive to light them so we were going to have them unlighted, will this look ok? Just an FYI we are giong to have a party store come in and hang a tulle display with lights in the tulle and then the ends of the tulle will be met with a paper lantern (probably 6 lanterns in total) so the tulle will spider out to the lanterns and the end of the light string will drop into those lanterns to light them. So about 6 or so lanterns will be lighted by that, the rest unlighted. ok or not ok?

Thanks!

Shleigh02

I was considering lighting ideas like this for my reception, and I asked a set designer (I work in TV) how I could light them w/o buying dozens of bulbs and wires. He suggested xmas lights. They'd be on sale cheap right now. Go buy several long strings and stuff them down into the balls. They can light several balls and if the balls are grouped close together, won't look bad if they show through. Plus, after the wedding, you will have a whole bunch of new xmas lights for your house!
Have you been to Ikea? They carry beige round paper lanterns, and they used to have a display that had them grouped together almost like a drop chandalier. Check out their websited and online catalog, it might still be in there. That will give you an idea of how many lanterns you might want.

nataliem.22

Thanks I will definately check into that