When it comes to outdoor lighting, the quality of your lights can affect the quality of your life. Nothing spoils the holidays like climbing up a rickety ladder with a string of lights that may or may not go out more than you do. Avoid shouting matches, broken bulbs, and broken ankles by hiring an expert to teach you everything you need to know about exterior illumination — and keep your beautiful displays free from stress, seasonally or year round.
Wonderly Lights
As the name suggests, Wonderly Lights is here to put a little wonder and sparkle in your life — particularly if you love Christmas watts and watts. Although part of a franchise, the company is locally owned by longtime Cary residents Stacey Schaeffer and Tiffiny Consoli — who thoroughly enjoy bringing a little holiday spirit to their community.
“Bringing joy to our customers is really what this is all about,” said Schaeffer, who retired from SAS in 2021. “This business is very visual, so it’s not just for your own heart — it’s bringing joy to many other people in your neighborhood, too.”
Technician Scott Vollgrebe is a designated “roof guy” at Wonderly Lights.
Both Schaeffer and her wife, Consoli, have professional backgrounds that give them a distinct advantage in running a quality business. The couple has owned Pool Scouts, a seasonal business providing residential swimming pool services, for the past seven years.
“That’s one of the things that we like to think differentiates us,” said Schaeffer. “You can count on us to make it right. You can count on us to be trustworthy, honest, fair, and do a quality job.”
All zip lines go into one plug, complete with a timer.
Schaeffer describes Wonderly Lights as the “Hallmarks, not the Griswolds” of the holiday lighting world. In other words, no one will be climbing up on your roof with a ball of tangled lights and a staple gun! With corporate training and backing, Wonderly Lights is a well-oiled machine.
“We have two dedicated office personnel, not including myself and Tiffiny, and we have multiple trailers. Each trailer has three team members assigned, so one is the captain, one is the roof person, and one is the ground person. They each have specific roles and they work together to get the job done,” said Schaeffer.
Hanging the lights is just the beginning. Schaeffer describes the service as “hassle free, from start to finish.”
“We install; we store; we ensure that your lights are going to be working throughout the holiday season. We keep you off the ladder, so we’re keeping you safe. If anything goes wrong, we’re going to come out and fix it,” said Schaeffer.
Wonderly Lights offers customers a complimentary design consultation, during which team members work with the client to create whatever look they desire.
“There’s a lot of collaboration. We want the customer to get joy every time they drive into their property at night,” said Schaeffer. “We want people to really feel like they’re treated professionally and in a premium way.”
At Wonderly Lights, homeowners have the option of standard, premium, or grand packages.
Wonderly Lights offers commercial-grade lights in multicolor or white, and all of their garland is lighted. If you’re worried about your electric bill skyrocketing, don’t be — commercial-grade LED lights barely pull any amperage from your home.
“You can put up hundreds and hundreds of lights and it’ll barely pull 4 amps from your electric bill,” reassured Schaeffer. “It’s not exorbitant; these are low-energy-sucking systems. Your toaster requires 15 amps!”
2022 was Wonderly’s first year serving the residential community. This year, the business will service both homes and businesses, with hopes of expanding into year-round lighting over time.
Wonderly Lights technicians are professionally trained and fully insured and bonded.
“As we kind of get traction and become the experts in holiday lighting, there’s all kinds of opportunities for growth in years to come,” said Schaeffer. “It could be landscape lighting. It could be yearlong lighting, like a string of lights on the roofline of their business. It could be weddings. It could be special events. So that’s the opportunity with our business: We want to make sure that we grow incrementally.”
For those who are interested in shining bright this year, Wonderly gets the jump on holiday lighting starting in October, with installations typically ending in mid-December. Take-towns typically begin the first week in January, and all lights and garland are labeled and stored in a climate-controlled environment until it’s time to get your glow on once again.
“We’re fully insured and bonded. You don’t have to worry about pushing your significant other to do something they’re uncomfortable with,” said Schaeffer. “There’s no contract or anything like that, but we do hope that our service and quality of lights suggests that we’re a good company to go with.”
Bolt Outdoor Lighting
For those who need to lighten up year-round, Bolt Outdoor Lighting is a high-end, family-owned lighting and audio company that can help you find the perfect outdoor lighting system for your property.
Bolt Outdoor Lighting provides customized lighting options to celebrate holidays, birthdays, and more. Contributed photo.
“Our clients seek the wow factor, with custom-designed lighting tailored to their site and spaces,” said owner Kevin Bolt Fontaine. “We provide modern solutions made in the USA which integrate seamlessly into the surroundings with smaller LED and highly efficient integrated products. We also provide permanent year-round color options, where clients can change the colors via an app and preprogram automated scenes throughout the year to celebrate all holidays.”
Fontaine started getting serious about outdoor lighting in 2018, following a mishap on his own property.
Bolt brings the wow factor to any of your outdoor living spaces. Contributed photo.
“I had a relative stumble on my own walkway that had some path lights,” said Fontaine. “I had been installing lighting for many years through my landscape company, but neglected to obtain formal lighting training or certification, so I was just an installer not knowing the proper safety and design elements of professional outdoor lighting. I dove head first into learning — worked for free at a prestigious outdoor lighting company in Katy, Texas, attended the prestigious International Landscape Lighting Institute conference in late 2018, and became a member of the Association of Outdoor Lighting Professionals. I eventually obtained my design certification in 2022.”
All his hard work paid off — Fontaine now combines his lighting design education to blend sight and sound into a creative art form that brings continuous joy to his clients throughout the year. Whether you’re looking for an outdoor sound system or auto-programmed, customized lighting options to celebrate birthdays, the holidays, or breast cancer awareness, Bolt has you covered.
Year-round lighting can add elegance and curb appeal to your home. Contributed photo.
For businesses, branding services are provided in the form of outdoor projections to highlight any grand opening or event. Words and logo projections can be up to 40 feet large — great for retail spaces, open houses, and more.
“We have an initial 100% covered bumper to bumper warranty period as well as ongoing maintenance plans,” said Fontaine. “While we provide complimentary initial phone calls, we charge a small nominal fee for all on-site consultations. This is credited back to the job should they hire us to implement. Lighting designs start from $650+ with 50% credited back to initiating the job.”
Bolt’s efficient, dependable systems and formal design training will help create the look you’re dreaming of. Contributed photo.
Bolt covers all areas of the Triangle, but it doesn’t stop there — design services are offered nationwide. To pull up videos covering Bolt’s lighting and landscaping, visit @outdoorinspirations on YouTube!
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