Lighting the Lawn and Porch

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One of our big projects was lighting the outside of our venue.  It was going to be prohibitively expensive to have the florist do this, so we decided to take it on ourselves.

{Mark Brooke}

The yard and stairs were lit with 100 votive holders (purchased from Candle 4 Less at $7.99 a dozen) and battery operated tealights purchased from Hobby Lobby (my mother was able to negotiate a significant discount as she was purchasing so many!).  In hindsight, as it wasn’t so windy, we probably could have gotten away with regular candles, but didn’t want to take the chance.

TIP: have your small glassware, like votives, shipped to you, rather than purchasing at a local craft store.  You might have to pay a little extra in shipping but it will give you a box to transport the glassware in and will save you a lot of hassle!

{Image via Jenna}

For the porch, we purchased over thirty pieces of glassware in varying shapes and sizes from Ross, Michael’s, Home Goods, Marshall’s, AC Moore, etc and my mother sourced white, unscented candles locally.  The porch on my venue is huge so I would have loved a few more pieces but I think the effect was very charming!

{Jessica Claire}

{Image via Jenna}

Because everything was purchased piece-meal, I actually have no idea how much this project cost.  But all of the glassware is going to be a part of an upcoming project on EAD, so it’s doing some double duty!

There’s actually a lot of work to be put into a project like this and I was very lucky that my mother and sister were available to help.  All of the glassware had to be washed and bubble/shrink wrapped for transport.  At the venue, thankfully I had Eventologie to unwrap and arrange, light candles, etc, but the day after the event, we also had to re-wrap everything for transport back home.  So be sure to factor in not only the cost of the glassware and candles, but also the cost of bubble and shrink wrap.

Are you DIYing any of your decor?  Do tell!