Enchanted Dream
How We Created an Enchanted Forest Dream with Wedding Lighting
Let’s be honest, nostalgia might not always be the most pleasant feeling but looking back is often the best way to move forward. It’s true, we set out to create an enchanted forest theme for a wedding recently and it would not have been possible without thinking back to our childhood memories.
But what have memories of childhood got to do with wedding lighting?
Well, wedding lighting is highly important for the atmosphere and overall mood of a reception. You might not know it at the time but even a minor presence or absence of light can change this mood and make everything look and feel different. With this in mind, lighting is hugely influential when it comes to evoking specific emotions and helping guests to feel a certain way.
For example, if we want to foster conversation at a reception, low lights such as candles, dimmed bulbs or twinkles lights can create a feeling of intimacy to nurture discussion among guests. It sounds too good to be true but we are emotional beings and this theory works every time with wedding lighting.
Anyway, the point is, we can use wedding lighting to influence emotions and in the case of our recent theme, it was much easier to think about an enchanted forest through the eyes of a child. That is to say, an enchanted forest is part of a fairy tale and something we were more likely to imagine as children and for this reason, our memories of childhood were instrumental in terms of creating the theme.
Imagining an Enchanted Forest for the Perfect Wedding Lighting
In case you might be asking yourself, we thought back to many famous books and movies during this process such as Avatar, Narnia and even the Jungle Book. When we remembered the look and feel of these stories, we were able to think about what lighting could be used to recreate that kind of environment and also what type of lighting should be avoided.
You see, lighting is designed for a specific purpose and not every fixture is suitable for every occasion. For example, chandeliers are fantastic for large open areas as they provide a natural centerpiece and plenty of illumination for the room. However, chandeliers are expensive, and they would make absolutely no sense in an enchanted forest. Just so you know, I am only using a chandelier to make a point.
Instead, we worked closely with the florist who managed to accentuate what flowers might look like in an enchanted forest. From this point, we were able to use lighting effects to highlight certain focal points during the afternoon and then set this same lighting to transform the room after dark. Needless to say, we still needed to keep our focus on our beloved couple. After all, there is no enchanted forest without a King and Queen and the bride and groom should always be center stage at a wedding reception.
For this process, we simply used our wedding tracking spot to follow our King and Queen for various highlights including the first dance, cutting the cake and the speeches. As you know, photographers and videographers also rely on lighting so we illuminated subjects and parts of the room so that they were able to get the right shots as and when they were needed.
Wedding lighting is often ignored when couples are making plans and this is a huge mistake, especially when you consider most weddings take place at night. At the same time, we also like to think that good lighting can transform a wedding and turn a memorable day into an unforgettable fairy tale.
Either way, you might not want an enchanted forest or anything nostalgic for that matter, but we always do whatever it takes to create the perfect lighting, for your dream wedding.