You’ve booked a tent from tent rentals. You feel ready.
Unfortunately, besides the tent, there are many other things you should have for your party to be a success. These things include:
Ground mats
Grass looks sturdy until fifty pairs of heels and a fully loaded dessert table sit on it for six hours.
By hour three you’ve got ruts, soft spots, and an unhappy guest whose heel just disappeared into the lawn.
To avoid this, rent floor protection or ground mats for any high traffic zone. Put them under the bar, the buffet, and wherever people will stand still and shift their weight for a while.
When getting the mats, ensure they are high quality and match the theme of the event.
Extra bathroom
“We’ll just use the house bathroom” is the sentence that ends with a line out the back door and someone’s aunt genuinely upset.
For anything over 30 people, you need a real restroom plan, and one indoor bathroom is not it. You need an extra bathroom.
Thankfully you can rent one from the rental company. If you aren’t sure of the size that you should go for, simply explain the number of guests you are expecting and the rental company will advise you on the right size to get
We usually recommend one restroom station per 50 guests for events under 4 hours, and you go up from there the longer the party runs and the more alcohol is involved. Yes, alcohol changes the math. It always does.
Put the restroom in an area with proper lighting and a navigation path.
Extra power outlets
Everyone remembers to rent speakers. Almost nobody plans where the power for those speakers will come from.
One overloaded outlet running the DJ booth, the string lights, and a coffee station is how you get a dead dance floor at 8:45pm.
We have been in situations where the host spent thousands on entertainment and forgot the outlet behind the garage only handles so much.
To be on the safe side, map out every single thing that needs power. Lights, sound, food warmers, phone charging stations, and so on.
Then talk to your rental company about whether you need a generator instead of relying on your house’s circuits.
While you are at it, remember to tape down your cords. A tripping hazard at an outdoor party is not a fun surprise.
Weighted plates
A tent isn’t decoration. It’s a structure standing in an open field, and wind treats it like a sail.
Stakes work in soft ground. They do nothing on a patio, a deck, or anywhere concrete gets in the way.
That’s why you need water barrels or weighted plates, not just whatever the rental company throws in for free.
If the rental company will be installing the tent, ask how the tent will be anchored given your surface.
You should definitely get weighted plates if you are having your tent on concrete and it always doesn’t hurt to rent a few extra plates even if you are anchoring the tent on the lawn.
Trash station
By hour two of any party, someone will be holding a paper plate looking around helplessly for a place to put it.
If there’s no clear trash station, plates end up on tables, on the ground, tucked behind planters and this ruins your yard.
When this happens, it’s not because your guests are messy. It’s because you didn’t give them an obvious option.
Set up at least two visible trash and recycling stations, and put one near the food and one near the exit. Label them clearly, so everyone can see them.
Remember to empty them halfway through the party. A visibly overflowing bin isn’t a good sight to look at.
Proper lighting
String lights are gorgeous in photos and nearly useless for giving you the illumination you need for your party to be a success.
You need two separate lighting plans running at once. One is ambiance, the pretty one for the vibe and the pictures.
The other is function, the lighting that keeps people from twisting an ankle on the path to the restroom.
Pathways, steps, and anywhere the ground changes level need real, bright light. Not a candle. Not a fairy light. Proper visibility.
We always tell our clients to walk their own party route after dark before guests arrive. If they can’t see where they’re stepping, nobody else can either.
Wind and rain backup
A good tent will handle rain without any problem. Unfortunately, it does very little for sideways wind, and it does nothing for a lightning warning.
Ask your event planner what the plan is if weather turns aggressive, not just rainy.
Where do people go? Is there a sturdy indoor space nearby, and how fast can decor and food get moved?
If you will be having your event in times of bad weather, it’s always wise to have it in an area with another building where the guests can run to should the tent fail to hold up.
Emergency kit
It doesn’t hurt to have a place where your guests can get bobby pins, safety pins, stain wipes, a sewing kit, bug spray, sunscreen, and a phone charger cable.
This might sound unnecessary until someone’s dress strap breaks right before photos, or a kid gets a bee sting, and there’s a mad scramble through purses.
We usually provide a version of this kit at every event we help set up because it gets used at almost every single time.
Put it somewhere obvious. You shouldn’t burry it in a bag in a car three blocks away.
Parting shot
If you thought you only needed a tent and chairs for your outdoor event, now you know what else you need.
Regardless of what you are getting, ensure that its high quality and matches the event theme. This calls for you to work with quality party rentals Frederick known to stock quality products.
The technicians working in these parties should be able to answer your questions such as the size of outdoor bathroom you should go for and offer tips to make your event a success.