Friday, June 24, 2011

Globe Lights

Globe Lights
Globe lights are instantly recognizable and synonymous with festive lighting. They can be seen at restaurants, on patios, around pools, lighting at weddings, the list goes on and on. Many customers are so surprised we carry globe lights, but we carry a very large selection of  Globe lights! We have multiple sizes of bulbs that fit Candelabra, Intermediate, and Medium Base bulbs!

There are different designations for sizes of Globe bulbs, they start with G and are followed by a number. We carry the following sizes:

  • G8 - These bulbs are 1" in diameter and are very small! Cool for small sign style displays
  • G30 - These bulbs are 1 1/4" in diameter. 
  • G40 - These bulbs are 1 1/2" in diameter.
  • G50 - These bulbs are 2" in diameter. G50 are the size that people typically associate with Globe lamps.

Globe bulbs come in a variety of colors, but they are different than traditional C7 and C9 bulbs. They are usually a satin color and are often painted on the inside of the bulb. This type of paint inside the bulb gives the bulbs a soft glow when lit. Multi-colored packs are very popular but Pearl White and Clear reign supreme. 


I hope this post gives you a little more info on Globe Lights, please go to our Bulb page and see what we have to offer. Click here (Globe Lights are at the bottom of the page).

--
Zach
All American Christmas Co.
www.aachristmas.com
www.allamericanchristmas.com

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Decorating with Curtain lights (Updated)

    As trends go, the use of curtain lights for Non-Christmas events has risen steadily over the past 5 years. The biggest use of these Curtain sets has for this non holiday use has been for Weddings and other Special Events. We carry 2 main types of curtain lights, Standard and Commercial. Standard are built like you're standard mini light string only in a curtain design, using quality 22 gauge wire and shunted mini light bulbs, these are great from smaller applications. Commercial sets use larger wire and bulbs, these sets are almost twice the width and height of a Standard set and have many more bulbs, commercial sets also have molded in holes to make mounting easier. One thing to keep in mind is that commercial weigh more than double that of a standard set, so be sure you can hang them if you decide to go that route.

Curtain Lights     The most common way people use these for weddings is by hanging them on a wall or on a frame of some sort. Hanging curtain lights from your wall is simple. If you have a drop ceiling then you can easily use a light weight wire or string and hang them from the ceiling grid. If you have walls you can drill or hammer into then you can very easily put some nails or small hooks up. The biggest issue people run into is not being able to drill into a wall, or having concrete walls and no drop ceiling, but don't worry you have a couple options. If you can hide it  heavy duty adhesive tape is a good option. Tapes come in a variety of colors and even clear duct tape is now available, using clear or white would be ideal. Many customers have said they use items like 3M's Command Line of adhesive hooks and hangers to hang these sets, you just have to make sure with any type of product like that you can get it to adhere to a surface and distribute the weight evenly. Nothing is worse than hanging your sets only to have not hung them properly and they come tumbling down.

    Hanging them from some sort of frame is and easier option, so long as the frame itself can handle the weight. The frame or stand could be anything from just a couple pieces of PVC pipe made into a stand or frame of wood. After you construct your frame/stand you can easily mount your sets, depending on it's construction you can screw clips, mount nails, tape, zip tie, etc the sets to your frame. Using this method  allow makes things easier for you to hang some sort of fabric in front of your lights. This is a great way to set the mood and soften up the lights. Like in the picture below.

Wedding Curtain Lights

     I hope this give you a little insight into hanging curtain lights. Please visit our Curtain Light section and Wedding Light section for more wedding decorating ideas!

--
Zach
All American Christmas Co.
www.aachristmas.com
www.allamericanchristmas.com

Monday, June 20, 2011

Spice up your decorations with Chili Pepper Lights!

Chili Pepper lights
Chili Pepper Light String
       Chili Pepper lights are a great novelty light string that look great hung just about anywhere. At All American Christmas Co. our chili pepper lights come with rubberized chili covers that slip over incandescent mini lights. Typically these come with red chilies but green and multicolored ( red, green, and yellow chilies) are available.  These are inexpensive light string and are a great way to spice up any decorating project. Pun intended.

Chili pepper lights come in different light string styles as well, the standard light string is a 6 inch spaced light string with 35 lights/chilies per string. These are great for hanging  and look killer in restaurants and around grills on a patio.

Chili Pepper Light Clusters
Chili Pepper Light Cluster
We also have a Chili pepper cluster which looks like a hanging bunch of fresh peppers. These have 35 lights and have a great look and would be a great addition to any decorations with existing chili pepper lights. We also carry a wreath that is lit with different colors of peppers.

If you're interested in these light strings, please visit our site and look at what we have and if you have any questions give us a call or email us! Click here to view our Chili Pepper Lights.

Thanks!


--
Zach
All American Christmas Co.
www.aachristmas.com
www.allamericanchristmas.com

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Wedding light ideas

     There are a ton of great products to use for a Wedding ceremony and/or reception! I've gone on and on in previous blogs about how popular Curtain lights are and how great they look for weddings. I'll get to them but first I'm going to give some details on some other great lights for weddings.


White Wire Mini Lights
Click here to see our Mini Lights
     White wire mini lights come in a variety of bulb spacings and bulb colors! Bulb spacing can vary from 2.5 inches apart all the way up to 8 in some cases, and Mini light bulbs come in all the standard colors; Clear, Frosted White (show), Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Pink, Purple, Amber, Teal, and Multi. Mini lights are a great way to accent the colors of wedding party and a great for table decorations. Mini lights are also great for hanging from the ceiling creating a swag effect!  Mini light strings vary in bulb counts from 20 all the way up to 150 lights per string so unless you're lighting a football stadium chances are mini lights will meet your lighting needs!


Globe Lights
Click Here for Globe Bulbs
They are on the bottom of the C7 & C9 Page
     Globe lights are pretty common for decorators, they are the quintessential outdoor decorative light! They come in a variety of colors and sizes but it's hard to beat a clear or pearl white color Globe lights especially for a wedding! These lights go in either C7 or C9 light line which you can custom cut from a spool to fit almost any need. Globe lights are perfect for hanging outside outdoor tents and are killer for lighting walkways if you're doing a dusk/nighttime wedding. The standard size is called G50 and can fit into either C7 or C9 base,  G50s are approx. 2" in diameter. Some people complain about price (around 16 bucks for 25 bulbs) but these bulbs will last a long time if maintained.


Rope Light
Click here to view our Rope Light
     Rope light is a great form of accent lighting. It's compact, attractive and easy to decorate with! Rope lighting is great for going down walk ways or aisles, for wrapping columns or hand rails. Rope light comes in spools of 150' with all the accessories you would need to make multiple runs of rope light for your special day. Just like mini lights rope lights are great to make swag lights.





Curtain Lights
Click here to view our Curtain Lights
     Curtain lights for weddings are super popular! Many decorators and the like rent out curtains lights but if you're a do it yourself-er like many of us are and want to save and buying your own to use and reuse on other holiday projects. We offer a smaller light curtain thats around 5 feet tall and a larger one that's around 9.5 feet tall! Like the picture on the right shows these curtains are great for going behind tables at a reception, they are great behind the bridge and groom during the service. A great effect is had by putting the light curtain behind some sheer fabric, this hides the wires slightly and looks great!


If you have any questions please visit the site or give us a call Mon-Fri 8-5 CST

--
Zach
All American Christmas Co.
www.aachristmas.com
www.allamericanchristmas.com