Saturday, August 16, 2008

Under the Big Top

A tented reception the week after the wedding. Doesn't sound hard does it? Just get a tent, throw some chairs, tables and food inside and it's a party. At least, that is what I thought. And then I realized that I live in the middle of nowhere.



That cute little crown marks the approximate spot where I live. A tiny little town of 3,000, if you count every single person (and possibly a few pigs and cows) living in a 25 mile radius. It's a 3 hour drive one way into Seattle, and the closest mall is 1.5 hours one way to Tri-Cities.

Some google searching led me to a rental company that should be able to provide everything we need, and for a great price IF we want to drive 2 1/2 hours one way to pick it up, and set everything up ourselves. The driving would be worth it though, as it would cost an additional $500 to have the company transport everything, set it up, take it down, and come pick it up again. Poor farmers like my father like to save every penny they can and so we plan to go with the self help option.

We are anticipating having approximately 150 peole show up to an open house type reception in the middle of October where no formal dinner will be served. The average temperature in my town for that time of year, for that time of day, (according to my handy wedding planner on weather.com) is 62 degrees. Chilly.

All of the little details that are popping up all over the place (heating, tables, chairs, lighting, food, drinks, tent, tent panels, parking, linens, just to name a few) are making my head spin. The guy on the phone says I can rent a 30'X40' tent and fit everyone in just fine. My dad feels like a 30'X75' would be better (although I think he would prefer something even larger!).


An example of a 30'X60' tent according to this site.

So I turn to all of you married ladies for help (and all of the brides planning tented receptions). How many people (a few tables and chairs included) can a tent really hold? Is there a fantastic tented reception planning resource out there that I have not yet heard about?

3 comments:

Shaylene Andersen said...

So I looked up some facts about Royal ....
As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 1,823. The racial makeup of the city is 66.32% White... I don't think they count the illegal people in either of those statistics!!!

Jess and Carl said...

So a little late for a comment or advice, but if you are planning on even having a bit of music that may result in dancing (which I know you so dancing will happen, even if it's just sparatic!) I would go with the slightly larger tent... I know that I wish we would have had about 3 or 4 more tables and more room to dance at our wedding... Whatever you do will be perfect and beautiful though!

Jenna said...

Jess-I am sure there would be dancing if you were coming :)