Outdoor Party Lights

One of the wonderful things about having a nice outdoor area in your own home is the possibility of entertaining your friends outside during the warmer months. There is nothing so elegant and fun as an outdoor party with friends gathered together - whether around a barbecue, or with cocktails and nibbles. In this article I want to share some ideas to spice up your next outdoors event by using outdoor party lights to create some extra ambience.

Outdoor Party Lights are Festive
A party is much more festive with outdoor lights and they also serve the purpose of lighting the area for the guests so that they may move about and see where they are walking. There are hundreds of themes that can be portrayed with outdoor lighting.Some sets come in shapes and many colors and a strand of lights can be made into anything you desire if you want to design your own theme.

When decorating, you should decide on how long you want the strands of lights and how far apart you want them spaced. The smaller the lights and the further apart they are will supply you with more of an ambient soft glow. The larger closer spaced bulbs will light your area up much brighter.

For an outdoor party you will want to choose fade resistant bulbs and definitely need waterproof outdoor lights. End to end connections are best so that the strings can be linked together and will appear as a continuous strand. Another quality of good party lights is a bulb life of about 25,000 hours. These qualities will ensure that you can get a lot of life out of your purchase.

There are several types of lights that can be used. The mini lights are available in solid, multi-color and clear, as are most outdoor party lights. The cords are available in white and green to be less noticeable in their surroundings.

Rope lights are an extremely useful decoration idea because they are very flexible and can be twisted or looped tightly without breaking the strands. They are constructed of lights in a clear plastic tube and are ordered cut to length. The company you order them from will seal the ends before shipping to you so that they are safe and secure. These also come in a variety of colors and are virtually crush proof and are 1/2" bulbs with 12 inch spacing between them.

Globe lights are round in shape and slightly larger than a golf ball with a candelabra base. These larger bulbs are spaced 12" apart and give much more light. A great concept with globe lights is that when 1 bulb burns out the other bulbs on the string will remain lit.

For the best lighting that will last many years, you will want to purchase commercial grade lighting. These bulbs are quite large and spaced 15 inches apart with commercial grade extra thick cords. These are the type seen at carnivals and other outdoor amusement parks.

Then there are the specialty lights that are available in strands with different shaped bulbs, spheres and sculptures. These items are real time savers in decorating. The shaped bulbs are readily found in an immense quantity of themes. There are chili peppers, cowboys, and anything needed for a western theme. There are Christmas and Thanksgiving themes also. The sculptures are created out of rope lights attached to a non-rusting frame and come ready to set up. These can be purchased in pink flamingos, horses, cows, moose, lobsters, and farm animal themes. They can also be found in wildlife themes, zoo themes and every holiday imaginable.

Therefore, any party can be decorated to exactly your specifications and to please all of your guests because of all the choices available. And please have a look at my other article for some ideas on rustic outdoor lighting, if you want to go for a more earthy feel.