My husband and I decided to get married at inn and create a “weekend away” atmosphere, and we found the perfect venue, the Bee and Thistle Inn in Old Lyme, Connecticut. When planning began, we originally considered a significantly smaller guest list than our final count, and the inn had a policy of around 90 guests could be accommodated inside of the inn (with tables set up throughout its gorgeous living and dining rooms), but any wedding larger would be required to host a reception in a tent on its lawn.
As the guest list grew, we decided to take the plunge and go full force into planning a tented wedding reception. I have always loved weddings in a tent, and as tricky as planning might be, a tent truly gives you a blank slate and let’s you enjoy your day in nature. Our tent was set underneath a gorgeous tree, and as the sun went down, it left a gorgeous shadow of leaves across the top. It was truly dreamy and felt so right for our day. But enough reminiscing, we learned a lot from hosting a tented reception, and I am sure there is still so much more to consider, but these are some of the lessons we learned along the way.
Tent weddings are expensive
As I shared in my post about our key takeaways from our wedding, you must figure out your budget and what’s most important to you before making any decisions or hiring vendors. To be truthful, having a tent wedding probably isn’t going to save you money, and I would advise you to really have a clear budget on exactly how much you could allocate for not only the tent, but the endless rentals that are required (more on that below!).
Size and style
There are several styles of tents (we had a beautiful Sailcloth Tent) that range in price and you must also consider the proper size to fit your guests. It seemed like the tent we were renting was going to be massive, but as soon as you add in tables, chairs, a bar, a dance floor DJ table, dessert tables, and 150 people (plus staff!) it quickly filled up. You do not want your guests to feel cramped.
Have a plan B
I thought I wouldn’t want to look at the weather forecast the weeks before our wedding, but it turned out that I couldn’t look away. We were prepared with a solid plan B thanks to our incredible coordinator, which included walkway tent rentals that attached to the inn and our outdoor ceremony location moving underneath the tent. By a true miracle, we had perfectly sunny weather that was neither too hot nor cold for our mid-June wedding. However, I think it’s important to also mentally prepare for a rainy wedding day if your event is going to be outdoors. A friend said it best before her own outdoor wedding that the weather will simply dictate the vibe of the day—if the sun is shining there will be a joyful, lighthearted energy, and rain will create a cozy, more intimate feeling. It is all about perspective, but it’s still necessary to have a backup plan!
Consider the weather
Even if it doesn’t rain on your wedding day, you still must consider the time of year and temperature when planning a tent wedding, and if there is a chance for your guests to be too hot or too cold, make sure there are rented heaters, air conditioners and/or raise or lower the tent walls.
Rentals on rentals on rentals
In addition to renting the tent, there are many other elements that need to be rented as well. It really is a blank canvas so be prepared to essentially build out a restaurant from the ground up. Every single item needed to be rented from the plates, forks, spoons knifes, salt and pepper shakers to the glasses and champagne flutes. Chairs and tables also needed to be rented, and you must not forget the cake table or a table for your DJ. We also rented a dance floor, a wooden bar and had furniture rented for our escort cards and desserts. In addition to those rentals we also needed to supply the less obvious: including generators, kitchen equipment and kitchen tent for the caterer, and you might need to rent a heating or cooling component. It was a lot! Also, we rented outdoor luxury bathrooms for our guests and finding the perfect option was an interesting task.
Noise restrictions
Many venues will need to adhere to town noise ordinances, which can vary, but from the venues we checked out ranged from 10pm-12am on when the music had to stop. Our venue’s town had a reasonable 11pm outdoor noise restriction, which worked perfectly well, as we were then able to move the party inside of the inn for the after party (which I unfortunately was too tired to attend by that point!). When planning though, we were considering hosting a silent disco (with rented wireless headphones to skirt around the noise restriction) after 11pm so we’d be able to stay inside.
Dress code
A tent wedding sets the tone for the day, and unless the ground is completely covered with a floor rental, you must be mindful of the guests’ shoes (especially high heels that you don’t want sinking into the grass!) and clothing. Definitely take the tented wedding into consideration when deciding on the dress code. While I love a black-tie wedding, we chose to have our dress code to be Semi-Formal, with pastels strongly encouraged.
