Archives for November 2016

Guide to Renting a Tent for Your Wedding

Living here in California we often joke about how the weather is and we don’t know from one day to the next if it is going to be rainy, sunny or windy.

While many couples dream of having a wedding outside with a scenic backdrop in the California foothills or in the wine country area of Sonoma, sometimes your wedding venue will require you to have a backup plan in the event of inclement weather.

We have done a lot of outdoor weddings and know that heat, wind, cold and rain are not our best friends and we always like to have a back-up plan like tenting.

Way before you sign on the dotted line for your dream wedding venue, you should factor in the cost of a tent if you are planning on getting married outdoors. If you are not careful, an unexpected cost of tenting can blow the budget of your dream wedding venue over the top.

We are sure you are wondering how much do tents cost and where do you start?  Well, tents are broken down into two different types of tents: pole tents and frame tents.  Pole tents go on the grass since the stakes have to be in the grass and there is a center pole inside that helps hold the tent up.

You have more flexibility with a frame tent because it can go on multiple surfaces whether it is grass, asphalt, concrete, a courtyard or dirt.  There are not any poles inside the tent to hold it up and because of this you will have more room inside the tent.

Winery Wedding

Photo Credit: Celebrations Party Rentals

When planning to rent a tent, you must consider what will work best for your venue.  Talk to your wedding planner, party rental specialist or venue manager regarding what might be needed to suit your event needs.  Tent frames work best in narrow spaces, whereas pole tents work well in spaces that are much larger.

Don’t know how much tent you will need? A good place to start is to ask your wedding planner or venue manager to give you the dimensions of the area in question.  They will most likely have that information or if you are planning on having the tent at a venue that repeatedly uses a party rental company for tents, it might be helpful to talk to the rental company regarding dimensions and costs.

Another part of your tenting needs is to decide whether you want flooring, side walls, draping, lighting, heaters or fans/AC.  Let’s not forget that if the venue does not offer a kitchen for prep work or a full-service kitchen, the caterer might need a smaller tent to work out of.  Some caterers bring their own tents and others don’t.

What is the bottom line for tenting?  This following will give you a general idea of tent rental costs. Pricing may vary between rentals companies and the area that your venue is:

Basic tent: Anywhere from $500 – $10,000

Flooring: This can be from $300-$2,000.  Think of tent flooring like you are purchasing new flooring for your home.  The more expensive flooring like bamboo is going to cost more per square foot versus traditional oak or laminate flooring.

Generator: Runs $250-$2,000

Generator: $500-$1,250

Side walls: These are charged by linear square foot, which costs could around $300 and above and is based on the size of the tent.  The bigger the tent, the more side wall costs will increase.

Tent heaters: $95 and up

Delivery fee:  Varies

Once you start adding up the costs of a tent rental and if it is not within your budget to have one, you might consider looking at another venue.  All the pricing that we have listed above are averages.  Each venue is different and therefore pricing will be different based on your needs.  If you have questions, ask a wedding professional to help you out.

Are you going to use a tent on your wedding day?

 

How to Hire the Right Wedding Professional

We are back from the annual Association of Bridal Consultants conference which was held in Dallas this year and we are so inspired by all the things that we learned!  So many topics and so little time to catch up on all of it.  It made us think about when couples are looking to hire wedding professionals for their big day, how on earth do they choose the right one?  There are so many on the internet, where does one start and what questions does one ask?

You want to make sure that you hire the right person and the process can be quite stressful.  How do you find the right person for you?  Who do you trust?  Where do you go for advice?

It is not like you plan a wedding each and every day. Remember to breath, be patient and trust your instincts.  It is about chemistry.

When hiring a wedding professional, you should look at the following:

  • Do Your Homework – Make sure you do a little bit of background homework before talking on the phone or meeting with a wedding professional.  Make sure you have all your ideas collected in one spot, whether it is a binder or a Pinterest page.
  • Go through the internet, attend wedding shows or talk to friends or family that have recently been married.  Look into what wedding professionals are charging for your area.  Sometimes when a wedding professional is charging an amount that is too good to be true, it might not be true.  You get what you pay for.  Write down what you like and what you don’t like.
  • Always meet with the person you are thinking about hiring – We all have busy lives and there are times when it is isn’t convenient to meet with a wedding professional.  It’s great to talk to someone on the phone or email, but an in person meeting, Skype or Google Hangout is the best way to interview a potential wedding professional.  This gives you the chance to fully experience who they are as professionals.
  • Ask a lot of questions! Just don’t ask what the price is.  There is more to your wedding than the price.  Give the wedding professional the chance to explain what they charge and why they charge what they charge.  There is no such thing as a stupid question.  Get clear and concise answers to your questions.  If you don’t understand something, speak up!
  • Make sure there is a contract – there have been many times in which we have seen wedding professionals NOT have a contract.  Do you really want to work with someone who doesn’t take their business seriously? If a wedding professional has a problem you asking questions, you need to find someone else.  You want someone to be professional, patient and understanding.
  • Listen to what the wedding professional says and does – Look at body language.  Are they confident and comfortable?  Or they too cocky?  Do they appear nervous or their eyes dart around? If your gut tells you something is amiss, thank the wedding professional and move on.  There are too many out there for you to settle with one you won’t be happy with.
  • It’s great to get questions off the internet to ask the wedding professional, but don’t let those questions be the deciding factor.  Those questions are a benchmark to help you but don’t let them be the end all be all.  The person you hiring you have to actually like and you develop a relationship over time.
  • Don’t price shop too much – We all love a great deal, but are you going to hire someone because they are a whole lot cheaper?  Cheaper doesn’t necessarily mean better.  Just because one professional might charge more than another professional doesn’t mean one is better than the other.

If you do your homework, you will find the right person to do the job.  It takes time, thought and patience just like finding the correct mate!

 

Inspiration by Gina