ILIOS Lighting, LLC

I came across two Ilios equipment vans parked illegally in the street downtown, so I stopped to let the crew know. I assumed they were simply unaware, since the city recently changed the street configuration. But based on their reactions they must have known and thought that street users were just less important than them. The first two people I interacted with seemed to not care and tried to blow me off («Whatever, I’m not the driver»). But two guys rushed out anyway to move the vans — which was great, I appreciated their hurry.
That’s when it got rude though. One of the crew members tried to tell me I was illegally standing on the sidewalk. What? Another made a rude comment about the «crackheads» in East Austin. There were a few other snarky and unprofessional comments which was all really uncalled for.
I guess Illios employees are above the law. Or at least way more important than anyone else on the street. There were at least 3 or 4 people that had to squeeze by their vehicles during the 45 seconds of interaction.

We had ILIOS bring in 4 circular antiqued iron chandeliers for our roof deck wedding at Brazos Hall on ¹⁄₃₀. It was the kind of impulse purchase that as it gets closer to the wedding you start to wonder if you really needed those chandeliers and then you get to your wedding and you look up and think YES this TIES IT ALL TOGETHER. The chandeliers were an amazing focal point that people kept commenting on, ILIOS was incredibly easy to work with and we couldn’t have been happier with our «impulse wedding purchase»!

I worked with Bryan at Ilios on an evening buffet dinner party for 200 at Barton Creek’s Pavilion. He was easy to work with, easy to get in touch with, and came up with great lighting ideas. Unfortunately, day-​of, there were some snafus, but my compliments to Ilios: They fixed the major problem with plenty of time to spare before the event began, and for the minor issue that went unrecognized by all the guests (only the crazy detail driven perfectionist who planned the party — me — noticed), Bryan looked into it afterward and made things right. I would not hesitate to work with Ilios again.

I worked with Stone at Ilios Lighting for the overall look for my wedding reception in December. He was extremely knowledgeable and helpful in determining what I needed to create my «vision». I chose to have blue lighting for my reception, and amber/​white lighting for my ceremony, and Stone did a phenomenal job. Every alcove, every corner, nook, and cranny was professionally lit, and it was AMAZING! He even transformed my dancefloor from a romantic first-​dance stage to a nightclub for dancing the night away, as well as projected a GoBo on the dancefloor, and pinspotted each and every centerpiece! He also made my ceremony the most romantic, candlelit and spotlit ceremony I have ever seen at any wedding, whether in person or on TV! I cannot wait to see the photos, because the lighting is what made the wedding what it was! THANK YOU SO MUCH STONE!!!

These people are REALLY good at what they do. There is no doubt about that.
That being said… the «working with them» aspect of the process was frustrating. I felt like every few months I would have a new point person to talk to, and had to kind of start over. And some of the prices! Like renting two microphones and a speaker. You would die.
While this conversation in no way happened, this is the feeling I got throughout our communication:
Me: «you want **#$*$ how much for a microphone and speaker???»
Ilios: «well do you know how to set up and run this equipment?»
Me: «No.»
Ilios: «then yeah, we want that *$&#*$ for a microphone and speaker»
And because you have already poured your heart and soul into your wedding and can’t exactly get the job done without audio equipment, you close your eyes, write a check (cause don’t even get me started on the poorly worded credit card fee disclosures in their contract) pour a margarita and hope they are worth it.

They’re off the grid a bit, out across a few miles of bad road on the way out of the East side of town, but within Ilios Lighting there lurk boucoup surprises nonetheless: I was recently on the hunt for a gobo canister (the kind that project light through a metal die cut, thus throwing a logo or other art up onto a wall). Turns out that these guys have those lightning canisters handy, and they’re cheap. I was able to rent mine for a genuinely reasonable number.
The site suggests that if you’ve not rented with them before you should submit a request through the website and they’ll get back to you: they may be super expedient to that end but in my case I rang them and we were able to sort the entire matter out over the phone with little to no trouble. And in the end, I netted a killer gobo light in the deal. Definitely worth a repeat trip.

Kellen at Ilios Lighting and his team made my daughter’s wedding a beautiful success! Many of the guest commented on the beautiful lighting! As well as creating beautiful lighting, they were very professional and easy to work with though out the process. We won’t hesitate to hire them again and again for special lighting events!

I got married at the Highball last month and hired Ilios to do the lighting for the ceremony. The ballroom/​stage area of the Highball is dark, so we needed someone to add some light without making our wedding look like a school play. I initially didn’t want to spend the money, but I’m really glad we did. The stage looked awesome.
Our wedding coordinator worked with Kellen on the set up. He made the stage look special, but not «weddingish». The design definitely fit in with the look of the Highball. Ilios did a great job!

I recently hired Ilios Lighting to do stage lighting for a seven member band, dance floor lighting, and some ambient room lighting for my wedding reception. I worked with Kellen on the set up, and they did a good job at a comparatively reasonable price.
I would definitely recommend Ilios to others. As other reviewers noted there were very minor communication issues, but me having to call them back once or twice did not bother me. The important thing was that on the day of the event, the setup went exactly as planned, the lights looked good, and there were no problems whatsoever!

Lighting for my wedding looked amazing! I’m knocking off a star due to some communication issues and confusion about new staff in charge. They are the best in town for a reason!

I remove a star from Ilios because they are terrible about answering the phone or getting back to you. They really only want to deal with wedding coordinators. That being said, I got married at Laguna Gloria 10÷03÷10. They did everything they promised to do and the lighting was AWESOME. I also had them hang lanterns which were also awesome. I can deal with them not communicating with me if they do good work and they came through.

I hadn’t really given lighting much thought and certainly did not have it in the budget. But my wedding planner recommended I think about it and meet the gang at Ilios. They were easy to work with, flexible and offered great ideas. In the end — the lighting made the difference on how beautiful the day was. Everyone commented on the colors. And the photos were awesome with all the extra mood lighing at the venue. I definately recommend Ilios — you will love what they can do for you… even if you didn’t know you needed it!
–Kari Trecker Pena