A Quest

I've mentioned before about my love of round, clear string lights (often called cafe lights although the actual lightbulb is a G40.)  They look like this:

(Source)

I decided I had to have them to decorate the tent for the wedding.  Only problem was, those suckers are expensive! One lighting quote from a rental company we were considering was well over $500, just to line the perimeter.  Yeah, not so much.

So ever-resourceful me decided I could find them myself for cheaper.  I did a few quick internet searches but didn't have much luck coming up with anything affordable.  Then Trail Mom had the idea to go look for them the day after Christmas, when all the lights and decorations are on sale.  Brilliant!

So a few days ago, Trail Mom, Lil Bro Trail Mix and I set off on a quest to buy approximately 550 feet of round, G40 string lights.  To be honest, I thought this was going to be an easy task.  I've seen these lights all over the place during the holiday season, surely we'd be able to zip into one of the big discount stores, gather up all the boxes we could and be done.  Ha! As you may have already guessed, things did not exactly go as planned...

We started with Home Depot.  Nada.  We then moved on to Wal-Mart.  Again, zilch.  I was starting to get a little nervous.  Maybe I would be unable to score my beloved cafe lights for a good price.  Sadness!

Our next stop was Target.  Here we came across many boxes of the smaller-sized round lights (the G30's, if you're interested) but only about 100 feet of the big G40's I was looking for.  However, they were only $4.50 a box so I got them.  Our spirits buoyed somewhat by this find, we continued our search.  A local hardware/gardening store turned up nothing.  So did Big Lots, Lowes and Rite Aid.  My stomach started sinking.  We tried a second Wal-Marts.  Still nothing.  By this point, I think we had all given up much hope since after 7 stores, we were coming up empty-handed.

After calling two other stores, who reported they did not carry this particular string light, I was about ready to call it a day and relegate my search to the internet.  Trail Mom suggested checking out one last Target which was a bit of a drive away from where we were, which I agreed to go even though deep down, I had little faith we would be successful.

But there, amidst all the clutter and mania of the Christmas markdowns, sat boxes and boxes of my beautiful G40 string lights. Quick as we could, the three of us frantically grabbed all that we saw and then scoped out the entire aisle for boxes put back in the wrong place, of which we found several.

Here's Trail Mom, raising her fist in victory!

(Personal Photo)

I think other shoppers thought we were a little bit nuts, look at how full our cart is and it's all the same box of lights! Another photo featuring my partners in crime. Greeeeat success (in the Borat accent)!

(Personal Photo)

This is what 675 feet of lights looks like all boxed up in the back of a car...

(Personal Photo)

And the best part of the whole thing? Since all Christmas lights were 50% off, the 27 boxes of lights cost me a grand total of $130.  Whoohoo!!

I have to say that although it was a fairly long and frustrating search process, it was incredibly satisfying to finally accomplish this mission and get my beloved cafe lights for such a good price. So now hopefully my wedding will look like this:

(Source)

Did you find any good wedding bargains in the sales section after Christmas? Are you using these kind of lights and if so, where did you find them??