Winter Flowers California

When most people lay out their patio lighting or deck lighting scheme, they anticipate providing light for a relatively small number of people who are not likely to be particularly active. The primary activity expected is generally not more than folks visiting the bar or maybe stepping up to a grill or table to get something to eat.

Recently, however, a friend of mine became engaged and in all the circumstances, it was desirable to have the wedding on short notice. The happy couple soon found that booking a traditional hall on short notice was undoable. Desperate, they decided to have their reception on his parents' large, beautiful deck, which is connected by a short flight of stairs to an equally beautiful patio at ground level.

The existing patio and deck lighting is supplemented by some landscape lighting to highlight some flowers and shrubbery in the area. However, all of that lighting is of the low voltage variety, and not really adequate for several dozen guests, milling about and dancing on the patio.

We got together one night to survey the situation, and decided that supplemental lighting was needed. We decided to take advantage of the presence of the deck to run wiring to support a series of relatively low wattage flood lights to illuminate the center of the patio fairly brightly to accommodate dancing and the traditional garter toss. We arranged tables and seating along the patio side of the deck and around the borders of the patio. The wedding party was seated on the deck and the guests on the patio where they could see the wedding party above.

We provided oil lamps on the tables, using a pleasantly scented oil. Around the boundaries of the patio and along the deck railing we installed oil burning torches, mounted high enough to softly illuminate about an eight to ten foot radius and allow any smoke to drift harmlessly away.

Taking advantage of a number of trees located in the yard beyond the patio, we strung LED (light emitting diode) icicle lights around the periphery. This allowed the guests to wander about in the yard to talk and mingle. Directly under the deck we placed the bar and food serving line. We installed some temporary spotlights under the deck, and attached them to a rheostat, which allowed us to increase the brightness for food service and dim it when just the bar was in use.

Although the patio lighting set up we inherited wasn't designed to accommodate upwards of fifty people, it all turned out very well.

If you enjoyed this article, you might want to read more about outdoor lights [outdoorlightsguide/] and patio lighting [outdoorlightsguide/patio-lights/].