Lights and more lights

Lighting. Itás the most important thing in a room in setting the tone. Though other decoration elements such as flowers, fabrics, etc. can also help bring in the desired tone for an event, lighting provides colours, movements to the event.

Once treated as an afterthought, professional lighting has become a required element for any event with design aims higher than a few centrepieces and votive candles. Planners are realising the impact that lighting can give to their events.

Lighting to change the environment
Style-conscious planners are doing more than just bathing a room in amber light. Theyáre hiring lighting designers to use their techniques to influence a partyás mood in ways that physical objects canát, with moving projections, washes that change colour and patterns throughout the night, and techniques that highlight a venueás strong points-or make it look completely different.

Lighting as a cost efficient option to decoration
As with many trends, the recent popularity of adventurous lighting design may have something to do with the bottom line: As many event professionals grapple with tinier budgets, ambitious lighting can be a way for planners to create a memorable atmosphere without spending too much cash. Explore more advanced set-up such as a patterned wash over the dance floor, gobo lights moving around the ceiling, lights outside the venue…

Lighting offers flexibility
In addition to being cheaper, lighting can allow for last-minute adjustments. When you have ordered flowers or bought a lot of fabric for your decoration and realised that it does not look as good, it’s hard to change. With lights you can just change the gel.

That flexibility also opens up ways to transform the atmosphere while guests are at the party. You can have two or three different atmospheres at the same event in the same venue just from the lights. Projections of a sky filled with clouds on the ceiling can morph into a dark, starry night look by the end of a dinner, for example.

Learn to use lighting effectively
Do not be intimidated by the technical jargon. Lighting offers a lot of possibility, you just need to know what you want out of it; what kinds of effects you are looking for, what kinds of tones you want to set…

Give the lighting designer as many adjectives as possible about what you want: you want the space to feel warm, cool, sexy, comfortable… tell them what you want the guests to feel at your event. Make sure you know what the designer can do, just like hiring any other provider, make sure you get one with a good track record.

What’s what in lighting:

Gel
Filter used to change the colour or shape of the light beam.

Gobo
Metal slides cut in the silhouette of a pattern, image or logo so light shines through it to project that image on a floor or wall. Newer gobos made of glass can use colors and different layers of images.

Leko
Lighting unit that produces a spot or defined circle of light that can be focused and controlled through a system of lenses and shutters.

Intelligent lighting
Automated system of lights that can be controlled remotely by computers to move and change colors or patterns.

Pinspot
Lighting unit that produces a tight beam of light that can highlight a centrepiece or other decoration item.

Uplighting
Placing lights below the item to be lighted; often used on a column or blank wall to create a vertical effect.

Wash
Bathing an area with light without emphasising a focal point; often used to change the colour of a wall, ceiling or dance floor.