17 Tips for Best Wedding Tent

Wedding tents usually rent for $0.50 per square foot of space per day. This means a 10’x10′ tent would cost $50 or 20’x20′ tent would be $200per day. If you speak to the clerk instead of booking only online, you can get a discount if you’re going to keep it multiple days.

No. We have tried some portable air conditioners, and none of them were able to cool the tent a noticeable amount. The shade fabric simply isn’t a good insulating material, and the tent will absorb the heat outside.

All wedding tents will at least be water resistant. They will be able to block rain and keep the attendees dry.

Yes. We have found success with some ceramic heaters. The heat dissipates outward from the heater and can be a nice option to keep the wedding guests more comfortable.

Our general rule is that you want at least 8 square feet per guest. This means a 20’x20′ tent can reasonably hold 50 people. Some people prefer to have a more open wedding space and use 10 square feet per guest, but the choice can go to your personal preference.

Our favorite string light comes in 48″ stands so it can wrap around the entire perimeter of a 10′ x 10′ tent with some slack. This extra wire allows for the slight sway. Also, if you are going to use lights on the inside of the tent across the rafters, you can use any slack by increasing the angle . We definitely prefer long strings of lights so that you can keep the joints over the rafters.

We suggest multiplying the number of guests you’ll have by 8 and get a tent with that many square feet. As an example, you’ll want a 400 sq ft tent (20×20) for 50 people. If you have 100 guests, then you’ll want to go with a 30’x30′ tent which could hold up to 125 attendees.

Yes. Most large wedding tents can be setup by one person, but it will take a couple hours. If you have two people that have experience with tools, the setup can be 45 minutes,

This really depends on the number of people and their experience. It could be several hours for one person, and 30 minutes for a group of 4+ people.

The two most popular colors are white and transparent. We’ve seen a few people on Pinterest choose a fabric that is one of their wedding colors. From our experience these don’t work out as well in pictures so we normally suggest people stick with white.

Tents are a great alternative to keep wedding costs within a budget. Venues can range several thousand dollars and place restrictions on the catering options. As an example, our wedding had 120 guests, and we spent 2400 on the venue. We were also forced to choose a food vendor that was $3 more expensive per person adding another $360 to us. Finally, venues will often have corkage fees that are added to bar bills even if you supply an event wedding. Using a tent can keep all the elegance of a venue while avoiding a lot of the unnecessary costs.

Yes, we’ve seen many dance floors placed in a wedding tents. They make some great portable dance floors.

Yes. All wedding tents are going to stand up to rain, and they will be able to keep the guests and bridal party dry.

GSM stands for grams per square meter. The heavier the better. 180 is the least we normally ever recommend. For shades that will be outside year around, we even prefer 240 GSM or higher. For the wedding tent, we have one product that only has 120 GSM. Our rationale for including this is that we live in Phoenix with great weather most of the year. The tent needs to be up for a few hours on one specific day. The 120 GSM fabric should be able to make it through the wedding and reception without issue.

Galvanized steel is stainless steel with chrome or nickel added. This will extend the life of the frame. Powder coated steel is stainless steel that gets an electrostatic charge, and then an outer covering applied. This approach has en even longer lifespan than galvanized steel. We absolutely recommend avoiding any party tents that have have aluminum or PVC frames.

Nope all the event tents we reviewed are traditional style tents. We are not aware of any large event tents that are pop-up style tents.