Pacing the evening: dinner, first dance, party, last song
An evening has an arc, just like a song. If you show everything at 9 p.m., you have nothing to add at midnight. So plan the light in stages and hold back the biggest things.
Four stages
The percentages are rough starting values for brightness.
- Stage 1, ambience: reception, dinner, speeches. Uplights in the event's color, warm, about 30 to 40 %, with light on the cake and decor. No movement, no strobe, nothing on the beat.
- Stage 2, moment: entrance, first dance, cake. Soft, warm light on the people, the rest dark, slow fades.
- Stage 3, party: color and calm movement, about 70 to 90 %. Strobe as an accent only.
- Stage 4, peak: full movement, strobe hits, blinders, lasers or cold sparks. These come only a few times per evening.
Start at stage 1 and climb slowly. You can step back in between. A slow set or a sing-along round with no movement or strobe gives guests a break and makes the next peak stronger.
From dinner to party
This transition takes time, so do it in steps: the house lights go down, the dance floor gets a little brighter, volume and tempo rise slowly.
Don't flood the dance floor with light. A brightly lit, empty floor puts people off, and the first guests find it easier to step onto a dimmer one. Lasers only come out once the floor is full.
Watch your guests
At a wedding, kids dance next to grandparents, and the music jumps between sing-alongs, classics and charts. Older guests and couples dancing together need to see. Hard club looks with a dark room and lots of strobe belong late at night, if at all.
End on purpose
The last song should feel like an ending. One option: warm tones, the big look one more time, then a calm white. The last song then mirrors the first dance, and the evening gets a frame.
Step by step
- Tap “Fill bank” above a bank, choose your event and pick the layout “Flow of the evening”. The pads then sit in the order of the evening, see Fill bank.
- Set up Static Looks for the moments: “Entrance”, “Speech & cake”, “Cake & candles”, “Group photo” and “First dance”. See Choosing a mood.
- Open “Run sheet” in Live mode and tap “Wedding template”. You get the steps Reception drinks, Dinner, First dance, Party, Cake and Last call.
- Set up the light for a step, then tap ⋯ on it → “Fill with now”. The Space bar walks you through the evening step by step, see Evening run sheet.
- Show your client the day in the visualizer: the “Day schedule” timeline runs from reception to late night, see Room, guests and day schedule.
Questions
Often for the party, but not for the moments. That's what Static Looks are for.
No. The evening run sheet only exists in Live mode. It helps you prepare and rehearse.
More from “Lighting know-how”
- Colors that work togetherGood shows get by with few colors. Two main colors plus white as an accent cover most of a song. What matters is which two you pick and where they land.free to read
- Why variety mattersA show works through contrast. If every light runs all the time, everything ends up looking the same and the big moment gets lost. Dark, calm stretches are what make a peak feel big.free to read
- Building a song show: from intro to dropA good song show retells the song: it starts small, opens up in the chorus, takes a breath in the middle and saves the brightest moment for the end. Droplit builds this arc by itself. Once you know how it works, you can fix things with more purpose.free to read
- Lead your moving heads, don't just wave themMoving heads get noticed right away. If they circle all the time, the show looks restless. Well-led heads often stand still, change position with purpose and move when the music calls for it.free to read
- Using gobos, rotation and prism wellA gobo is a small stencil inside a moving head that shapes the beam into a pattern. Add rotation and a prism and one head can give you many different pictures, as long as you use the three tools on purpose.free to read