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Last Minute Requests to Event Lighting Design Plans Don’t Scare Us

January 24, 2011

As lighting designers, we know how to evoke an appropriate mood, reinforce the style of the event design and highlight visual elements into a unified environment. Working closely with your event designer, florist or event planner, we begin the design process by listening to the event vision and overall goals before sharing ideas on how light can be used to enhance the vision. In fact, the earlier we get involved in the event design the better the collaboration is in achieving the client’s desired “look” for the event. But sometimes, as all creative or visual art professionals know, all the pre-planning in meetings, in computer-generated renderings or on paper isn’t the end of the design process. Invariably, last minute requests for changes or additions to the lighting design occur during the installation of the event. Most people are “show me’s” and can’t visualize how we can create effects to match or highlight the space, mood or action. And, frankly, very often the lighting designers see something on the job site that inspires an addition, change or logistical adaptation. We happen to love these kinds of last-minute “shoot from the gut” challenges because our ability to adapt on the fly generally separates us from the rest of the pack.

For instance, for a wedding at Winterthur Estate in Delaware our client, Evantine Design, collaborated with us for months on an outdoor celebration around the Reflection Pool. The lighting design would incorporate lighting the entire party area, from 65 foot trees around the perimeter to shrubbery, fountains, architectural statues, walkways, stairs and of course, dinner tables, a stage and dance floor. All was set and in place when a dramatic summer storm meant changing plans completely and moving the wedding inside the adjacent museum. Not only was the new party space rather clinical, with stone facades and walls of glass at either end, it required working with restricted conditions for attachment and installation timeframes. [Photo of the event space just before we began installation]

Our goals were simple: unify the entire room and ceiling with textural light using multiple gobos in layers of pink, lavender and magenta; highlight the stunning floral décor on dinner tables; wash the band and dance floor with photo-friendly hues of amber and pink; and let the rest fade into darkness.

As we were working through the details in the installation, Evantine asked us to light up the incredible columns surrounding the entrance area to the space. We were more than happy to use our new LED uplights at the base of the columns. This simple request turned out to be one of the more memorable design elements of the wedding.