ZWEVEGEM, BELGIUM – Destination weddings have become quite popular, but newlyweds don’t have to journey to some faraway exotic spot to find a unique and memorable venue for their marriage celebration. A young couple in West Flanders demonstrated this in electrifying fashion recently, when they held their reception at Transfo Zweegem, a former power plant that was built in 1911.

With its matrix of crisscrossing steel girders and beams, boilers, tanks and generator housings, the venue’s long narrow main hall resonates with echoes of a distant industrial past. Accenting the evocative power of this setting, while complementing it with a stylish 21st century touch, was a vividly colored lighting arrangement by Présence that featured over 40 CHAUVET Professional fixtures supplied by Solico Events & Expo Technics.

The warm amber, and purple-blue light form these fixtures endowed the room with an inviting sense of intimacy without detracting from the stark, intense effect of its industrial nature. “We definitely liked the industrial atmosphere,” said Isabel D’Hulster of Présence. “It was captivating and distinctive. Our goal was to give the industrial element a warm, cozy touch with the lighting.”

Featured in the lighting rig, which was brought to the venue for the wedding, were 22 WELL Fit fixtures, 20 Rogue R2 Washes and two Rogue RH1 Hybrid units. Positioned at the base of the former power plant’s tower, as well as at its elevator and main entrance, the RGBA WELL Fit uplights accented key architectural elements and set an elegant tone for the wedding. The sleek aluminum casing of these fixtures complemented the venue’s industrial setting.

Providing added visual excitement to the reception room entrance were the Rogue RH1 Hybrid fixtures. Serving primarily as spots, the high-powered moving lights were also used to light the pianist who performed at the reception.

Lining the long event room on each side were the Rogue R2 Wash fixtures. Positioned on truss towers, they were relied on to wash the room in subtle, evocative shades of different colors throughout the evening.

The former power plant venue not only evoked timeless images for guests, it also gave the production crew a firsthand sense of the industrial past. “Our biggest challenge was to get everything in and out of the building because it needed to go up to the fourth-floor with a big factory crane,” said D’Hulster.

In the end, however, the production team moved their gear in and out with no problem. As a result, this couple was able to enjoy a truly distinctive wedding event, not by journeying to some far-off destination, but by traveling in time.