No ones wishes to actually need their rain plan, but it’s important to have one and it’s even more important for you to like it. I always tell our clients to have a plan b and sometimes a plan c and to love them as much as your fair weather plan. These plans of course usually occur when you’re hosting an outdoor wedding. This series of blog posts is going to help you create your rain plans, making sure you think of all the elements involved and what your options are in order to execute the plan if the rain does start to come down!
Today’s post will help you think about how your guests need to get from point A to point B or C without ruining their hairstyles. There a number of ways to keep your guests dry which you may have thought of such as umbrellas. We will touch on those briefly in this post, namely where they are best used and what size to have on hand. We really dive into the walkways between your tents and/or buildings utilizing tent marquees. What is a marquee you ask? Where do I rent one? Can you order them at the last minute? All of these questions will be answered below and we even have a few images from past events showing successful rain plans in action!
GETTING GUESTS FROM HERE TO THERE
So, there’s rain in the forecast. The kind of rain that’s going to stick around for a while and allows you to pre plan a bit. If you have a wedding that’s spread out across a large plot of land, you’ll have to think of the traveling path of your guests in order to create a rain plan. Start with their arrival, right where they park or valet their car. If it’s close to a building or the main tent, you can offer oversized golf umbrellas to guide guests indoors. If it’s a bit of walk from one point to the next, consider renting marquee tents, which are usually 10′ wide and 10′ long structures that can be connected to each other to create any length you need. They connect right to your main tent so guests never get wet. The challenge with marquees is they need to be reserved in advance to guarantee you have access to them if the rain does decide to show up during your wedding week. Talk with your tent vendor during the initial walk through and proposal stage to see the cost of the marquees and their availability. As an alternative, you can use a smaller tent such as a 32′ round or 46′ round Sperry tent as a marquee connecting two tents or connecting a building to your main tent. Using a tent instead of a marquee will give you additional dry square footage for your guests to gather and use. Marquees are really only useful as a protected walkway. People will not hang out in them because they’re so long and skinny. In terms of your wedding budget, most tent vendors will allow you to pay a 50% deposit on your marquees and you only pay the balance if they install them on site, so it’s better to have them on your proposal, spend a little money up front, and be guaranteed dry guests if they’re necessary. Here are some photos from past events where rain plans really came in handy. That was one long marquee!
Malloy Weddings
Tent companies who offer marquees:
Sperry Tents Seacoast: www.sperrytentsseacoast.com
Exeter Tents & Events: www.exetereventsandtents.com
Marshall Tent and Event Rental: www.marshalltentandevent.com
Photography by Geneve Hoffman.
Kate Malloy
Kate Malloy is the creative director and lead planner at Malloy Weddings. Malloy Weddings specializes in destination New England wedding planning and event design, and Kate has planned over 500 weddings throughout New England and beyond. Kate has been planning and designing weddings since 2003 and recently launched the weddings brand of Malloy Events, the corporate and non profit sister brand to Malloy Weddings.