Don't Forget This If You Have An Outdoor Venue

Tents and Plan B for Outdoor Ceremony 

 Man oh man this is such a hot topic here in sunny Florida, or maybe it might hurricane south Florida. I would say of all of the small details wedding planners have to work with in our career, making the weather call is probably the most stressful and dreaded part of our job. There is TRULY no way to foretell what the weather will actually be on a wedding day.

 Trust me, I’ve had clients literally look into the weather of said wedding date like 5 years in the past and yet it still did not follow a pattern. Unfortunately in Florida the only time you can really make a call on whether you should go inside or stay outside is the morning of the wedding (and EVEN THEN it’s sometimes risky). So it’s always a good idea TO ALWAYS have a back up plan if you are having ANY part of your wedding outside. And it is so essential to make sure you are fully aware of what the weather back up plan looks like (logistically) and financially.

 Sometimes the venues require you to make the decision a few DAYS before the wedding day, which is even more difficult for tropical areas like Florida where weather changes hourly! You’re probably wondering how do I make the call to bring the wedding indoors? Well I look at 8 different weather applications, stare at the radar and wind patterns, and if the probability is over 20-30% and the precipitation is over 20% then I call it for the wedding to take place inside.

 Here’s the thing that many people don’t realize...you might need more than one tent. If you are completely outdoors, sometimes you need multiple tents for different parts of night aka ceremony, cocktail, reception.

 For example, if you are just tenting the reception space, what are you going to do for the ceremony and cocktail hour? If you don’t mind just having guests take their seats at the reception tables during the ceremony then you can utilize one tent but if you are not then start planning what your plan B options look like for the ceremony and/or cocktail hour.

 You have to be completely comfortable knowing that you have a 50% chance of using the tent and you have to be happy with it. Tents can truly be beautiful! You can even get a clear tent and string lights and draping and it will literally look so stunning. Also, consider the

open air path guests walk to the tent in the venue, is that covered? If not, are you providing umbrellas for guests to walk with? This might seem like a lot of information but it’s something to really think about when you have your heart set on an outdoor ceremony.

 In addition, consider if any of your vendors “require” a tent, for example Band/DJ and catering typically require a tent.

What Tent Size Should You Use?

 Speak to your venue about measurements or measure the space yourself or hire a vendor to come onsite to measure. Typically our tent size is based on the guest count. For example, if you have 200people + dancefloor + 2 bars + stage for band + dessert table + buffet, that takes up A LOT of space and you want to be prepared accordingly. We will discuss this further in our walkthrough chapter, but it’s always a great idea to do a walk through with a tent vendor/rental vendor and get measurements to use on www.allseated.com to make a floorplan! (Hopefully one of those vendors will make one for you but if they don’t, check out this amazing site!).

 When booking a tent for an outdoor venue, make sure to know the venue’s rules about tents. Do the tents have to use cement buckets or can they spike into the grass? Sometimes outdoor venues don’t allow the spikes so it needs to be buckets of cement. Sometimes people don’t want their guests to be walking on grass during the reception so there is a subflooring option but that does add up quickly. 

 Types of tents to consider are: Clear, white (self explanatory), frame tent, and pole tent, and maybe string lights or draping to accent it.

 Tip To Save: If you have a cocktail hour area that’s out of sight from ceremony and reception, you can ask your rental company if they can stay on site and move ceremony chairs to reception during cocktail hour so you don’t have to have double the chairs!

Fun Fact, This Is A Portion Of Our Wedding Planning Ebook! To Learn About The Ebook Please Click Here and To Download The First Three Preview Chapters, Please CLICK HERE