A Query About LED Lighting

I am looking for LED lighting, in particular the strings that are often used for Christmas. Why? Because I wish to decorate with them. I want to put them up as decoration for a few parties. So I thought to inquire among people I know online to see if anyone has had a particularly good (or bad) experience with a website or a manufacturer so that I might have some clue as to where to purchase them or what to look for.

Alternatively if you local to me and have a string of LED lights you won't need back for some months I'd be happy to rent them for a while.

The ideal situation would be to put up enough lights that I would softly light a room to set a good party mood and I like LEDs for this purpose because of their low power consumption and their wonderfully bright and clear colors.

I've done a google search and I'm uncertain about my results. Some sites mention full wave rectified strings (that sounds good since it means they will be brighter due to not being off half the time) and a huge variety of prices. This leaves me uncertain as to what to do since I don't want to buy something that will quickly become dim or cause a fire hazard. But I also don't want to end up paying commercial grade prices for something that isn't so just going by price is no guarantee of quality one way or the other.