Reception Lighting

One of the things that I've been trying to figure out is how to add color to our big white box of a reception hall.  We decided that we are going to use dark purple tablecloths, but our centerpieces are not tall and the ceilings in the reception room are, so I still feel like we need something to add some color to the walls and really bring our wedding colors into the room.

I don't have a huge lighting line in my budget... in fact, I don't have a lighting line in my budget.  I'm going to make it happen, but I'm going to have to get a lot of bang for my buck on this one.

The lighting decision is going to be made while I'm in Indiana for Christmas... so here's a glimpse into my research.

Let's start with what I'm NOT going to do... this is a good example.  There's no need to make the whole room one color... it's already white... not need to just turn it in to some other color.

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I'm also pretty sure something like this is not in the cards... there are too many lights involved.

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I think we are headed more along the lines of these...

minus the stars and monogram

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Plus purple table cloths

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This one is AWESOME!












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As is this one...

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So I think that I know the look I'm going for.  I can't afford to put lights all around the room, and really, I don't think I'd want to because basically an entire wall of our room is taken up by a bar, so that would leave 3 walls with lights and I'm too symmetrical a person to be able to deal with that.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with lights behind the head table and a few behind the buffet lines to add a little bit of color on either side of the room.  I just don't know where to put them, how many I'll need, or what color(s) I should to with, but I guess that's why I'm paying a party rental company... so that they can help me with things like that.  

What do you think?!?!?