So our pergola is up! YIPPIE!!!

We still have about a million little things to still do to it before we can raise our hands in the air and yell "DONE!" but one of the main things we wanted to tackle first was our lack of night time lighting.

Via Pinterest (and our wedding rehearsal dinner) we had fallen in love with clear globe lights that gave off the perfect nighttime mood...

via

via

We knew we would need about 75ft-80ft of lights to string through our pergola and had searched some websites that could provide "restaurant lights" (a bit more of a professional grade/look) but at $250, it wasnt necessarily "in our budget" (read: no way in hell)

Lucky for us, I was browsing the Target ad while watching Mad Men one night (spoiler alert: Don killed a chick!!!... ... ... or did he?) and noticed that their string lights where on super sale!... $9.... yes, $9...

Here's the link in case you wanna see

Since they were 25ft, we would only need three of them, it brought our patio light total to $27... (Basic DIY Homeowner's Math $27 > $250 )

PLUS, at $27 it was worth a "why-not-i-guess-we'll-try-it" investment...

After picking up three packs at the Target down the street, we brought them home and wasted no time putting them up.

However, before we started, we read some reviews online which stated that the bulbs were pretty fragile and a couple people had problems with theirs breaking while trying to put them up...

Solution? Take out the bulbs before putting the strings up:
I put them back in their little plastic boxes, then on the ground so they couldnt accidentally fall off the railing...
Chris and I chose an every-other-beam zigzag pattern and broke out my trusty staple gun to secure the wires...
See?! No bulbs...much easier and FASTER to put them up without worrying about bulbs breaking.

While Chris staple-gunned away, I was hot on his tail screwing the lights back in...
Rocky and Gus played, barked, chased each other, ran in circles, dug up what is left of our poor lawn, nipped at heals, got rowdy, supervised....
We were SO tempted to plug the lights in right away, but we knew if we waited until it actually got dark outside, it would be even more worth it... Time lapse past dinner and an hour long trip to Home Depot:
Oh.my.goodness, its perfect...

We're kinda in love with it... they look AWESOME! Not cheapy at all, like we were worried about!
And the next night, the lights were PERFECT for a little birthday get together we had for two of our friends...
 (I love how I captured Blake throwing back his head in a fit of laughter... ha-ha-ha-ha!... and yes, that would be a beer pong table to the left... We've been out of college for less than 5 years so we still think its legit)

We also bought down a little patio table from Pottery Barn my mom, aunt, and grandma got us as a wedding shower gift... we now use it for nice dinners on the deck drinking games.
 I took these pictures pretty early in the night, but all in all we had about 20 people in, out, around, and on our deck and it never once felt cramped.
I can see this becoming a weekly thing... have I mentioned how much we LOVE this deck???

Have you guys done outdoor lighting? String lights or something different? We love the look when their hanging from trees, but didnt want to do too much... I would love your opinion!
-Samm