String Lights vs. Uplighting: Choosing Wedding Reception Lighting in Colorado

At a Lyons ranch wedding last September, string lights strung across the pergola did most of the heavy lifting once the sun dropped behind the foothills and dinner service began. That is usually how it goes with wedding reception lighting in Colorado: the choice between string lights and uplighting can shape a reception more than almost any other single design element. String lights tend to work best outdoors, under open sky or a barn roofline, where a warm glow overhead sets the mood. 

Uplighting tends to work best indoors, in tents, or against blank walls, where color on architecture does the work instead. Many couples working with M3DIUM Productions choose to use both, but which one carries more weight depends entirely on the bones of the venue.

Quick Facts — Recommended lighting lead time: 2-4 weeks – Lighting can be added within packages ranging 800-5,000 dollars – Event sizes served: 50-800+ guests – Company experience: 600+ events over 8+ years – Quote turnaround: within 24 hours

What Is the Real Difference Between String Lights and Uplighting?

String lights are overhead. They hang across a patio, a barn ceiling, a tent frame, or between trees, and they create ambient light that falls down onto the whole space evenly. Uplighting works in the opposite direction. Small fixtures sit on the floor along walls, columns, or trees and shoot light upward, which makes it a tool for coloring architecture rather than lighting people directly. The distinction comes down to what problem each one solves. A space that needs to feel warm and lived in calls for string lights. A room with plain walls that need to match a color palette calls for uplighting. Framed that way, the choice usually sorts itself out fast.

Which Wedding Venues Work Best for String Lights vs. Uplighting?

Venue structure decides more of this choice than personal style does. A barn with exposed beams in Longmont or Erie is a natural fit for string lights, since there is already structure to hang from, and the classic barn wedding lighting look comes from string lights doing what they do best without fighting the space. Some couples choose a denser crisscross pattern known as market lights, which uses the same bulbs in a tighter zig zag layout across the ceiling instead of long parallel runs, and it suits venues with a lower ceiling where a single straight line would look sparse. 

A hotel ballroom in Denver or a conference space with flat drywall and no visible rafters is a better candidate for uplighting, since there is nothing to hang string lights from and the plain walls are exactly what uplighting is built to transform. Outdoor wedding lighting in Boulder and across the Front Range, especially for tented receptions from June through September, often uses both, with string lights inside the tent peak and uplighting around the tent’s interior liner or perimeter poles.

How Much Does Wedding Lighting Cost in Colorado?

String lights and uplighting are typically handled as an add on rather than something folded automatically into a base quote, and that lines up with how the wider Colorado DJ market prices lighting too, since some providers include basic lighting and others charge for it separately. Within M3DIUM’s package structure, lighting can be added onto an Essential booking starting at 800 dollars for an intimate wedding, layered into a Professional package running 1,200 to 3,500 dollars for a mid sized wedding, or built into a Premium booking from 2,000 to 5,000 dollars for a larger festival style production. 

Exact cost depends on the venue’s ceiling height, whether a lift is needed, and how many fixtures the space calls for, which is why M3DIUM asks about date, venue, and guest count before quoting rather than posting a flat lighting price online. A smaller footprint, string lights over just the dance floor and dinner tables instead of the whole tent, is a reasonable way to manage cost without losing the effect in photos.

Comparing String Lights and Uplighting Side by Side

What Is the Unique Boulder Factor Most Couples Do Not Think About?

Colorado’s elevation and dry climate matter more for lighting than most out of state planners realize. At altitude, temperature swings hard between afternoon and evening, and that matters for string lights specifically because the wire runs contract slightly as they cool, which can leave a small amount of sag that was not there during an earlier walkthrough. A final tension and safety check shortly before guests arrive is a smart part of any outdoor string light installation, rather than trusting the initial hang from setup. 

Wind is the other Front Range specific issue. Venues near Lyons or up toward Estes Park sit in canyon corridors where afternoon gusts pick up fast, a wind pattern that specifically complicates mountain wedding venue lighting, and string lights strung between two points without a center support can sway visibly on camera. A center pole or a third anchor point solves it, but it is the kind of detail a first time DJ vendor without event production experience might not catch until it is already a problem during the reception.

Do You Need a Lighting Designer or Can Your DJ Handle It?

For most weddings, a separate lighting designer is not necessary. A wedding DJ lighting package from a production company that already handles sound and AV, the way M3DIUM does through its four in one model, can usually cover both string lights and uplighting without adding another vendor to the mix. That bundled approach is one of the more practical reasons couples planning uplighting for a Colorado wedding lean toward a single production company instead of hiring a separate lighting company. 

The exception is large scale productions, festivals, or multi stage events in the 500 to 800 guest range, where lighting complexity increases enough that a dedicated lighting technician working alongside the DJ and sound engineer makes sense. For a mid-sized reception at a Boulder venue, having one point of contact who is already handling sound and possibly videography tends to simplify the planning process instead of adding another vendor relationship to manage.

How Far in Advance Should You Book Lighting?

Booking lighting at the same time as a DJ or sound package is the easiest path, since it is one conversation instead of two, but for lighting added later, two to four weeks out is generally enough lead time outside of peak wedding season. During June through September, when most Front Range venues are booked back to back on weekends, four weeks of notice gives the production team enough runway to plan the install around a venue’s ceiling height, power access, and load in restrictions. A rush job on lighting is still possible, and M3DIUM has completed installs with less than a week of notice, though it usually means fewer creative options and a simpler fixture count than a plan with more lead time.

Does Uplighting Work Outdoors Too?

Yes, though it is used differently outdoors than indoors. Outdoor uplighting typically goes around tent perimeters, along fence lines, or up into trees rather than against blank walls, since there usually are not walls to speak of at an open air venue. It pairs particularly well with string lights in a tented reception, where the string lights handle the overhead glow and the uplighting adds color at the edges of the space, which keeps the tent from feeling like one flat wash of white light all night.

Ready to Light Up Your Reception?

For couples who already have a venue in mind, the easiest next step is reaching out with the date, guest count, and a rough idea of the venue’s layout, whether that is a barn, a tent, or an indoor ballroom. From there, M3DIUM Productions can walk through the space and put together a lighting plan built around what the venue actually needs, and since quotes typically come back within 24 hours, real numbers are usually only a short wait away. A quote can be requested through the booking page, or by calling (720) 893 1933 to talk it through with the team directly.

Frequently Asked Questions