Inexpensive lighting

Christmas is coming, you should be able to find some then, also look at the lights they have for halloween, they may have some that could work

I made centerpiece lights that can sit or hang with cups and string lights. It has good lighting. If you are interested you can pull the how to video up on youtube but dont hot glue the cups staple them

What about paper lanterns? IKEA has them pretty cheap

String lights will give you plenty of light and give a great ambience. I'm using them to light my whole outdoor reception.

Hi biloute! Make sure to upload a picture for your avatar (instead of the default icons) so that we can get to know you and tell you apart from all the other posters.

Does the park have any restrictions on candles / open flames? I'd definitely ask about that before buying a ton of candles!! I think string lights and paper lanterns are both great suggestions!

You can get the string lights from lowes or home depot any them. They have rope lights too which we used for our back porch and they right up really well.

Does the picnic shelter have electricity? If not, you'll have to use battery operated lights.

After Christmas lights saleeeee!!! Lanterns, Car lights! Lol. I am not sure....

You have plenty of time to hit the stores after Christmas for discounted string lights.

Thanks everyone. I might just wait until after Christmas. And the picnic shelter does have electricity. It even has a couple of lights, but they don't look very nice and I'd like to keep the atmosphere as medieval as I can.

Medieval? Well, forget any lights and just have torches!!!

eta: Sarcasm.................

Another vote for after Christmas sale. They'll be super cheap then.

Not completely related, but have you checked with the park regulations regarding candles? I ask because the last time I had an event in the park and applied for a permit there were a ton of restrictions on what fire/flammable items we were allowed to bring.

I second using mostly torches for your theme!

Michael's has sales on outdoor lights quite often and i would wait until after halloween to see if there are any cool lights on clearance to match your theme and of course if you wait until after christmas string lights will be super cheap! if the regular string lights don't do it for you you can always try taking ping pong balls and cutting small holes to go over the lights to make a more globe light.

What about wireless up lighting?

The string lights should do an adequate job of lighting a pavilion. The church I attend has a pretty ugly fellowship hall, so someone strung gold Christmas lights all over the ceiling so that we could turn out the lights and have a nice atmosphere for congregational events. There's more than enough light to function and it provides a much nicer ambiance than the room actually has when the room lights are on.

Yes to after Christmas clearance sales.

Recently I have gotten some great deals on solar outdoor string lights, also after Christmas sales.

Also flame less candles might help!

Lightsforalloccasions.com has great prices on outdoor lighting. I just ordered 50 ft of string lights with 50 bulbs for $41.00. Which I compared prices and that was the best price by FAR!