Friday, April 6, 2012

Using Christmas Lights for Weddings

     We have done many blogs over the years about using Christmas Lights in Weddings. Curtain lights, Net lights, Icicle lights, Globe bulbs and more all look great to add just the right amount of light on your special day. By and large our most popular strings for weddings are our Commercial Curtain lights, or Wall of Light sets, these 9.5' tall drops have a great look and the drops are removable/replaceable so they allow you to easily repair drops after years of use or remove drops to customize your string.


Globe lights are another very popular light string for weddings and are perfect for outdoor weddings. We sell Globe screw in bulbs in both a C7 base and C9 base variety, which means you can use our Christmas light strings with most Globe lights we carry. The most popular way to use Globe Christmas lights is to swag a light string (preferably White or Black wire) and use them as a type of ambient lighting. They are also very popular around the edge of tents or to light paths. If you are needing a lot of lights we recommend buying a Spool of Christmas Light wire, this allows you (or your decorators) to custom cut every string to fit perfectly. The remainder can be stored or used for other holiday lighting needs. 


Mini lights are a classic light string that will NEVER go out of style. They easy to decorate with and inexpensive so you can get a ton of lights without spending a ton of cash.We have White Wire Christmas Lights  with clear bulbs in many spacing and styles so you can find just the right set for decorating everywhere during your ceremony and/or reception. We also offer many of these sets with colors on white wire to match the brides chosen color palette, a simple way to ad some accent lighting without blowing your budget. 


We also carry a wide selection of LED Christmas lights, these are a great alternative to incandescent lights and look great. They come in a wide array of colors and styles and can fit exactly your needs. We love the 5mm Wide Angle LED Light strings, they are small bright and have vibrant colors. 


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

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Flicker Flame Bulbs

All American Christmas Co. carries a selection of flicker flame lamps which are great for any occasion or just as a accent lighting. Flicker flames typically go into a candelabra base, which is what a C7 light bulb goes into. These types of simulated flame bulbs are most commonly found in electric candles, these plastic (sometimes wax) candles can be plugged into the wall and are a much safer alternative to actual candles when you are only seeking the look of a flame. We recommend these to anyone needing candles for windows or table arrangements.

We carry a variety of different styles of Flicker flame lamps, and the image above gives an idea of what the bulb looks like once lit.

Check our Special Lights page for Flicker flames and other candle lights!
--
Zach
All American Christmas Co.
www.aachristmas.com
www.allamericanchristmas.com

Monday, March 12, 2012

Warm White LED vs Incandescent Christmas Lights

LED vs Incandescent Christmas Lights

Warm White LED Christmas lights are a great alternative to traditional Incandescent Christmas lights because the color is about as close as one can get to that warm filament lit glow that classic Christmas lights offer. The images to the left is a comparison of Warm White LED Christmas Lights and Incandescent Mini Christmas Lights.

I grabbed the one of each our of craft light cases, these LED set in the picture is our Warm White 25 count Wide Angle 5mm String, the Mini lights are our 20 count Craft Light sets. The LED Light set is on the left and the Incandescent Mini lights is on the right. Now for a caveat, Colors are subjective everyones eyes are a little different and furthermore monitors are a little different, colors on a Mac may not look like a PC, your computers color settings could be different so don't take what your eyes see on a monitor as a 100% accurate representation of what ANY color of something is.

Here are some differences in LED vs Incandescent
  • LED Craft Lights use 2.4 watts a set
  • Mini Craft Lights use 9.6 watts a set
  • LED Craft sets generate no heat
  • LED Christmas lights bulbs are molded in and won't become loose or twisted when inserting into a bottle or block.
  • LED Craft sets have 24" lead wire (the plug to the first bulb)
  • Incandescent Craft sets have either 24" or 36" lead wire

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


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Brown Wire Christmas Lights

Brown Wire Mini Lights
"Our Brown Wire Craft Mini Lights"
All American Christmas Co. is proud to carry a selection of Brown Wire Mini Christmas Lights!

Brown wire mini lights are a fairly popular light string for those that know about them, they are easy to integrate in to many designs and they don't look too "Christmasy" so they are great for using other times of the year. You can incorporate brown wire christmas lights into indoor and outdoor decorations, they hide easily against trees for lighting parties or weddings, and look great lighting for other holidays like thanksgiving.

Our newest member of the family is our Brown Wire Craft Lights sets, these sets feature Brown wire, 20 clear mini lights 6 volt lamps, Approx. 3.5 inch bulb spacing, 24" lead wire, and only one plug. These sets are just like many of the other 20 light sets we carry and since they only have the one plug they are perfect for crafts such as lighting glass blocks or wine bottles.

In addition to our brown wire craft lights in 20 count we also carry the same type of set in a 50 and 100 light count option. These sets are spaced closer to 4 inches apart and can be strung end to end. These are the sets you'd want to go with if you are needing to do long runs of lights and again they are great indoors and out.  We also offer these larger sets in case lots so you can buy multiples and save in the long run!

If you are interested in our brown wire light strings please Click Here to check out what we offer on the site. Be warned that we only have around 100 of the 20 count sets in Brown wire. Our 20 light sets are some of the most popular light strings we carry and these are bound to sell out before we get our new stock for 2012 so order early to insure you'll have them when no one else will!

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

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Spt-1 Wire Vs. Spt-2 Wire.

Spt1 vs Spt2 wire
Spt-1 on Top, Spt-2 on bottom
18 gauge wire is found pretty much everywhere, almost every house and office in the country has some that is used for power cords on products and for those of us in the lighting industry it's the standard for C7 and C9 light line. The wire come in generally two varieties Spt-1 and Spt-2. These are both 18 gauge wire, that means that the copper wiring on the inside of the wire itself is the same. The main difference is the insulation!

On the left the photo shows both Spt1 (top) and Spt2(bottom), as you can see Spt-2 wire has almost double the amount of insulation. This added protection lets you run more power through the wire itself.


Spt-1 wire can handle up to 7 amps, or 770 watts.
Spt-2 wire can handle up to 10 amps, or 1100 watts. 

Using that information will let you evaluate your power needs, be sure to never exceed the recommended amperage this WILL cause the wire to fail and be a potential hazard.
Click here to check out our rolls of 18 gauge wire!
Click below to read more.