Let There Be Light!

Hey, hive, guess what's cluttering up my guest room?  These pretty babies!  

Christmas decor might still be showing face at Pyramid Manor.  I've been busy, y'all.

That's right, I bought and began assembling my coveted chandeliers!  I had been eyeing up this one from Home Depot online, but they were out of stock for several months.  I couldn't find anything that looked as pretty for that low of a price anywhere else, so as soon as they were back in stock, I ordered up four!

If you're just tuning in, hello, I'm Miss Pyramid, and I love chandeliers and am bound and determined to hang some in the trees in our venue's courtyard.  

I completely recognize that this is a frivolous and  unnecessary thing.  But it's my frivolous and unnecessary thing./Found on Southern Weddings./Photo by Stephanie Yonce/Lighting by Lighting Professors

This chandelier is all plastic, but it has a lot of dangling beads to give off the perfect effect.  Honesty, I'd be scared I would break something that was glass or crystal, so this was the ideal option for me.  As far as assembly, it isn't too bad.  The instructions aren't the clearest, and some of the included strands of beads have the wrong number of links, but it's easily workable.  We've only put together two so far, for sake of storage space, but I was able to get a good handle on how they worked and how long it took to assemble each.  The first one took a little longer (because of the vague directions), but the second one was done in about half an hour with Sphinx's help. 

The box, the pieces, and the progress.

We found that hanging the fixture up while attaching all of the strands was the easiest way to go, so we used an indoor pull up bar.  

I definitely love the look of it, it's exactly what I was going for.  I had seen some options from the florist, the linens guy, and lighting company that we didn't go with, and none were exactly right.  I'm glad I held out for what I had my heart set on all along.  Also, I'll be incorporating this into my house somewhere after the wedding, so I wanted one that I really loved.  

Since these are light fixtures that people normally use in their houses and not often found in foliage, I had to do a little modification to the electrical system.  I changed the fixture from a hard wired system to an extension cord plug without too much effort at all!  

SUPER IMPORTANT:  I am not an electrician and am only providing you with what worked in my case.  Please consult a professional if you are unsure of what you're doing.  Electricity is nothing to play around with.  I did have an electrician friend look at these, and he said that it is correct, but this is only for my exact items.  Use your smarts here.  

Okay, that's out of the way.  When was the last time I attempted anything without first consulting the internet? I found my help here and here,  for the most thorough instructions.  So I bought the wire nuts, electrical tape, and an extension cord and got to work.  

The tutorial talks about a "swag kit," but the Home Depot employees were thoroughly confused when I asked for that.  When I described to them what I was trying to do, they said that I didn't need anything special, and I could cut the "female" side of an extension cord and hook up to that.  I was able to find some for sale with the wires already exposed on an aisle with the rest of the extension cords, since I didn't want to deal with cutting and stripping, but it's good to know if I have trouble finding that again.

Twist the extension cord wires with the light fixture wires, then cap them off tight and tape them up.  

Everything that I read said that you might have a ridge running along the wire to indicate which cords should match up, but I did not since my prongs were the same size (if you do, then please make sure that you're connecting the right ones).  I then capped off the wires with the wire nuts, placed them facing opposite directions and taped them up tightly!

The fixture calls for six 60-watt bulbs, which is great if you're using this to add light to a room.  I think this wattage might be a little too bright for our courtyard, as it takes away from the soft, romantic, garden feel that I'm going for.

Our front porch with the lights turned off and then on.  What, doesn't everyone hang faux-crystal fixtures from flower basket hooks?

You can see in the picture above, that the lights really do create a lot of brightness, so I will try a lower wattage bulb to see how that looks.

And that's it!  Like I said, we still have to assemble two more sometime before the wedding, but they were pretty easy overall.  I'll get these over to Kevin the week before or so, and he can hang one in each tree of the courtyard, and all of my sparkly, faceted dreams will come true!

Last one (today), I promise!

Did you have to rig something up to make it work for your wedding?  Chandeliers belong in trees, right?