My Top 5 Tips for Designing a Beautiful Tent Wedding
With covid the way it is, I expect that we’ll continue seeing a lot of tent weddings throughout the 2021 wedding season.
There are many things to love about a tent wedding:
the ability to host your loved ones at a special property, the ease with which you can customize the event design, and the ambiance can be so exciting and inspiring.
Planning: Gather Events | Photo: Nancy Ray | Via: Town & Country
Let’s ensure your wedding is more beautiful than the typical tent event.
Read on for my 5 top tips to design a beautiful tent wedding!
PS Before you scroll too far, open up this Pinterest Board in another tab! Here you’ll find more awesome tent wedding ideas 😘
Pay Attention to the Colour Palette
Tent weddings usually mean lots of green (grass) and lots of white (tent walls). This makes it really easy to design a classic white and green wedding, but if you’re working with a different colour palette, you really need find ways to incorporate your palette to make it stand out!
My favourite way to bring a colour palette to life is actually with the table linens. Upgrading to coloured table linens makes a massive difference simply because of the large amount of visual real estate that table linens take up. Choose the foundational colour in your palette so that you can make the rest of the palette sing with other accents, like your centrepieces.
Planning and Design: Alison Events | Photo: Tec Petaja | Via: 100 Layer Cake
2. Play with the Floor Plan
One of the awesome bonuses of a tent is that you are not restricted to any structural barriers, nor do you have to feel like you have to follow any set of rules. You can do whatever you want! Mix of long banquet and round tables? Do it. Want to put the head table right in the middle of the floor plan? Love it.
Choose what you want to be the focal point of the tent, and design your floor plan around it.
Planning: Always Yours Events | Photo: Jessica Schifilliti
Planning: A. Dominick Events | Photo: Jodi & Kurt Photo | Via: Ruffled
4. Incorporate Unique Lighting
Enlist the help of a great lighting team. Frequently, tent weddings take place outside of the city where it gets really nice and dark in the evening. Whether you want bistro string lighting, classic chandeliers, or a collection of casual textured basket lanterns, some sort of overhead lighting will make a large impact on the overall ambiance. And, of course, don’t forget about the power of candlelight, flickering low to the table all night long.
My go-to lighting experts here in Winnipeg are Event Light. They cover everything power-related (thank goodness, because I don’t think I’m alone in not knowing what any of that means), they’ve got a great inventory of stylish lighting options, and they also have all the tall ladders I ever need to hang flowers 😉
Planning & Design: Amorology | Photo: Tenth + Grace | Via: Style Me Pretty
3. Make a Grand Entrance Statement
Tents are often large, and with the side panels open, guests can trickle in from anywhere. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the flow of traffic can feel a little directionless, so establishing a focal point can make an enormous difference to your guests' experience. I love taking this opportunity to create a gorgeous entrance to the tent that also serves a purpose: welcoming guests, guiding them to their tables, and adding to the overall event design. This could be a large floral installation or oversized floral urns flanking the entrance, an expertly designed seating chart or escort card table, or a welcome table set with champagne. Create a focal point, designed with a purpose, and add something extra to the guests’ experience.
Planning: Amorology | Photo: Scott Clark | Via: Style Me Pretty
5. Upgrade Your Rentals
This one is a big one for me: upgrade your rentals, people!! Caterers often include a very basic set of plates, glasses, and cutlery but we’re talking BASIC. Not at all beautiful. Coloured glassware, layered dishware, elegant metallic flatware, a coloured napkin…these things make a HUGE difference in your overall event design. Don’t forget about the chairs — the basic white folding resin chairs that are available from most tent companies are fine, but they don’t necessarily fit with every aesthetic.
Here are a few more ideas to make your tent wedding the BEST:
Invest in a sanitization company! In a Covid world, it’s a fantastic idea to hire a local disinfection company to come in after all the vendors have set up and before your guests arrive, to give you a clean slate to start your celebration on.
Kasina PureTek is a Manitoba-owned disinfection services company who were hired for one of the tent weddings I worked this summer!
If space allows, incorporate a great lounge area. Many typical venues will have some sort of entry area with couches and chairs where people can relax post-dinner if they aren’t interested in dancing. A tent doesn’t have that opportunity, so build it in to your plans! If your wedding is in summer, place a lounge outside the tent under a tree, rent some great soft seating (here are some of my faves!) — don’t forget about adding a coffee table and end tables for drinks to be placed on! — and create a great atmosphere.
Make sure your guests are comfortable with either portable heating systems or fans. And if it can be a misting fan, all the better.
If your wedding is in spring or fall, a clear top tent is your secret weapon: the greenhouse effect created keeps the atmosphere a little more toasty and gives you a little more natural heat.
Hire pros. Hire hire hire. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard people say, “We’re just going to make it easy and have a tent wedding.” LOL guys. Since when is building a venue from scratch in your own yard easy?? But if you hire the right professionals, it can be both easy AND beautiful. This starts with a planner who is well-versed in tent weddings and knows how to take care of all of the logistics — because there are a lot of them. If you need some recommendations, just ask away :)
Proof of how amazing the misting fans are! On a hot summer day, a misting fan is the little piece of heaven you didn’t know you needed. This one is available through Event LIght.
Planning: Soiree Event Planning | Photo: Brittany Mahood Photography
Find the full gallery from this elegant tent wedding on a private estate here, for some more great inspiration!
LOOKING FOR A WEDDING FLORAL AND EVENT DESIGNER IN WINNIPEG?
Getting married in 2022? Flowers are the best way to make a statement at your wedding. Whether you already have a specific vision or want me to dream up something custom just for you, reach out to Stone House Creative for stunning bridal bouquets, truly unique ceremony backdrops, and beautiful floral centrepieces to create the perfect ambiance for your wedding!
