Luxury Open-Air Wedding Tents for Your Special Day
Open-air wedding tents are perfect for spring and summer. If you’re like the rest of us, you’re ready to plan a big blowout wedding celebration with your closest friends and family, but you might still not be entirely comfortable gathering many people in an indoor location. We have a solution: Open-air wedding tents! An open-air wedding tent is simply an event tent without walls, providing a 360 view of the glorious landscape. While the tents are beautiful and come in various styles, a key asset is their versatility. A wedding reception beneath a gorgeously decorated tent can provide the best of both worlds: you get the feel of an outdoor reception, yet you’re protected from the elements.
Choosing the Right Wedding Tent Style
A wedding tent acts as a blank canvas for your wedding. Working with a reputable tent rental company will ensure that you choose the perfect tent for your event's location, size, and style. Here are the most common types of wedding tent structures available for rental:
- Frame Tent: This is held up by a metal frame and is among the most versatile of the structures, meaning it can be set up on most types of ground, including harder surfaces like concrete or wood.
- Pole Tent: This wedding tent is held up by poles, which create a unique peaked effect on the tent's ceiling. This type of tent structure can only be set up on a softer surface, like grass.
- Sailcloth Tent: The most stunning and impressive wedding tent is the Sailcloth Tent, with its swooping peaks and valleys exuding luxury and elegance.
- Marquee Tent: This tent structure features the peaked ceiling of a pole tent without the use of center poles and is often used as walkways or cocktail hour spaces.
| Tent Type | Support Structure | Surface Compatibility | Key Visual Feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frame Tent | Metal frame | Hard and soft surfaces | Freestanding with no center poles |
| Pole Tent | Center and side poles | Soft surfaces (grass) only | High peaked ceiling |
| Sailcloth Tent | Wooden poles | Soft surfaces | Translucent fabric and romantic silhouette |
| Marquee Tent | Framework (no center poles) | Hard and soft surfaces | Peaked ceiling for smaller spaces |
Key Factors to Consider Before Planning
Of course, planning an outdoor tent wedding is a bit more complicated than simply pitching a tent atop a picturesque green space. Before you say yes to a tented wedding, take these considerations under advisement:
Weather and Temperature Control
The number one consideration before booking a wedding tent should be the weather. A tent can give you the protection you need, regardless of what mother nature has planned for your wedding day. You’ll need to factor extra accessories into your budget – like air-conditioning units or fans in the summer or propane heaters in the winter. Investing in sidewalls for your tent to block out potential rain is also a must.
Budget and Professional Setup
A wedding tent is basically a blank canvas, but it also means nearly everything has to be rented a la carte—and pricing varies widely. From tent size to lighting to a dance floor to furniture rentals, a tent rental and its attendant accoutrements can add up quickly. Professional companies for tent and lighting installment are highly recommended to ensure proper set up so that wind, rain and power are taken into consideration.
Essential Utilities
While a tent is supposed to mimic the feeling of an outdoor wedding, you’ll most likely want some of the conveniences of an indoor reception – namely, you’ll need electricity! Plan to include a generator in your budget for a tented reception to reliably run a heating or cooling unit and light up the tent if your reception will extend into the evening.
Designing and Decorating Your Venue
Tent décor and furnishings will add magic to the overall visual and ambiance. You can use decorations, lights, and other accessories to realize your wedding concept and transform the wedding tent to fit your style or theme. Lighting is key to creating an unforgettable ambiance within a tented space. This open air reception pairs white chiffon draping with twinkling fairy lights to conjure a scene of enchanted romance.
Creative Decor Ideas
- Greenery Wrap: Make the eye soars disappear by wrapping the poles in a voluminous garland of verdant greenery.
- Lighting Solutions: Use exquisite chandeliers, paper lanterns, or strings of fairy lights to provide subtle accent lighting.
- Natural Color Schemes: Fresh florals of various shades of white, verdant greenery, and natural wood accents create a scene that captures the organic beauty of the season.
- Clear Top Reception: A clear top structure allows for full appreciation of the surrounding views while giving the illusion of being under the open sky.