Outdoor venues are very popular for weddings. There's a certain unique ambiance that you get from the outdoors that is very difficult if not impossible to attain in a traditional brick-and-mortar venue.
Most couples will usually plan very well for their outdoor wedding events and part of this preparation would include renting a wedding tent to prevent any disruptions from inclement weather.
They take this a step further by setting the wedding date during seasons that are known to have very little precipitation. But even with all this planning, the weather forecast might let you down and a sudden storm whether it is a wind, rain, or sand storm can throw your event into complete disarray.
There are certain steps you can take with your wedding tent to ensure that your guests are comfortable and the diverse weather outside does not bring down the mood of your special day.
Selecting a tent that is larger than you require for the number of guests you have can help reduce the claustrophobia associated with having many people in a small enclosed space.
Outdoor weddings also have the unique advantage that they can be accessorized to provide elegance that is difficult to achieve in brick-and-mortar venues.
Prepping for rain when planning for your wedding
The size of the wedding tent
One of the first steps to take when preparing for possible rain showers during a wedding event is to calculate the size of the wedding tent that you need to comfortably host all your guests.
Most reputable wedding tent suppliers will provide excel tables or PDFs indicating the relative size of tent that you need for a certain number of guests based on a certain sitting arrangement so, for example, a wedding tent for 50 guests seated in a cathedral style will be smaller than a wedding tent for 50 guests seated around circular tables.
You will also need to add a buffer to allow for free movement of guests within the tent and possibly space for dancing and DJ and sound equipment.
Increased anchoring
With heavy precipitation, the frame of the tent will end up carrying more load because of the water weight on the canopy. To prevent the frame from buckling and collapsing under the pressure of the water weight, it is important to increase the anchoring of the tent so that it is more stable and able to bear more load. Reputable wedding tent suppliers will provide you with options on how to reinforce your structure during inclement weather like heavy storms and strong wind.
Sidewalls
The default setup for a wedding tent is usually the top canopy, but if you're prepping for rain and don't want any surprises we strongly advise that also rent sidewalls that go with the wedding tent.
The canopy of the wedding tent ideally will only protect your guests from the strong glare of the sun but should it start raining, it is inadequate and you will need sidewalls for additional cover.
The sidewalls of the wedding tent are designed to withstand heavy rainfall. With modern wedding tent designs, sidewalls can easily be added, pulled back, or even removed depending on the weather conditions at that particular time. When the temperature in the wedding tent is too high, the side walls can be pulled back to increase air circulation in the wedding tent and when it gets cold particularly, at night, they can be drawn to retain the heat in the wedding tent.
Select the proper flooring for your wedding tent
With heavy precipitation definitely comes surface runoff. Surface runoff from rainfall will create puddles on the ground where your wedding tent is pitched. Sidewalls are not designed to prevent surface runoff from entering your wedding tent and secondary with heavy precipitation even if your wedding tent is elevated ground saturation will occur and produce puddles of water on the turf wear wedding tent has been set up.
You definitely don't want your guests' feet and shoes getting wet, and you most certainly want to avoid any accidents that can occur from slipping on a wet surface.
To prevent the inconvenience that is associated with ground saturation and runoff, it is important to ensure that a wedding tent has a floor. The personnel erecting the tent should make sure that the floor is as level as possible and it should be raised from the grounds of the venue so that any water that runs on the surface will simply travel under the floor of your wedding tent.
Electrical wiring
It is important to engage the services of a qualified electrician to safely run power conduits to your wedding tent especially considering the risks of electrocution associated with electrical cables coming into contact with water.
Electronic equipment should be set up on raised surfaces where they do not come into contact with any form of precipitation.
Provide Canopies and dry walkways to your wedding tent
It is easy to forget that your guests also need to be dry from the parking lot to the venue of your wedding which is the wedding tent if it is feasible you can set up temporary canopies that act as a walkway from the parking area to the tent. Try and situate your tent in venues that supplies preset up paved areas where the wedding tents can be pitched.
You can also provide umbrellas for your guests to use from the parking area to your wedding tent, although this might include hiring personnel to provide this additional service it will be a great convenience for your guests and improve the quality of the experience.
Providing towels and other accessories
Inevitably someone might get some rain on them and as the good guest you are, it will be a kind gesture to have clean towels available for guests to dry up and not have to suffer the inconvenience of being wet in your wedding tent during the ceremony.
Towels can be situated in a decorative bin or cabinet where they are easily accessible and with the keen eye of the extra personnel you have, can be offered to any guest who clearly has been rained on.