5 Tips To Design The Perfect Lighting For Your Barn Wedding

Your barn wedding is a ticket to a wedding day experience that will provide a lifetime of great memories. But the unique aspects of a barn wedding can be particularly challenging when it comes to lighting. To help you design the perfect lighting setup for your barn wedding, here are a few tips to put into place.

1. Use the Structure. The barn's interior structure is one of its most unique features — usually filled with beautiful wooden beams and columns, exposed rafters, and rustic timber walls and fixtures. All this interior architecture is ripe for use as part of your lighting plan. You can wrap wooden columns with tiny string lights or hang elements from the exposed rafters. You could also use up-lighting to highlight the antique wood sides.

2. Avoid Flames. A large wooden barn — particularly a vintage barn — is not a good place to have open flames. Modern venue operators go to great lengths to make their barns safe for all, but you can do your part by avoiding actual fires and combustible materials. So, rather than using real candles in your lanterns, make it easy on yourself and invest in some battery-operated ones.

3. Balance the Lighting. With so much space to work with, some couples fall into the trap of overdoing the lighting choices. While you have the room to fill the barn with large hanging chandeliers as well as lanterns, candles, colored lights, neon lighting, Edison bulbs, and more, should you do so? A better approach is to find one or two statement lighting choices — like oversize marquee letters or tabletop candelabras — and balance these with more subtle backdrop lighting (like string or market lights). 

4. Bring Down the Ceiling. The high vaulted ceilings in most barns can make them seem cavernous. But they are also a great place to hang statement lighting to fight this effect. Chinese lanterns, for instance, hung from the overhead beams make things look and feel cozy by bringing the light in the ceiling downward. Fortunately, the empty space beyond still provides a grand feeling. 

5. Complement Rustic and Elegant. Barn weddings are a unique combination of the rustic natural look and the elegance of romantic nuptials. Different light sources help build this combination. You might, for instance, marry natural greenery centerpieces with antique chandeliers overhead. Or line the walkway with traditional lanterns but use neon lettering for photo backdrops. Personalize your lighting to find just the right grouping of the quaint and the formal or modern. 

Want more ideas for lighting a barn wedding? Start by touring a reputable barn venue in your area today. With their expertise in utilizing the space and your creative ingenuity, you will design a lighting setup that perfectly fits your style and your practical needs. Contact a barn wedding venue for more information.