Photo: Hudson River Photographer
If you're hosting your wedding at an outdoor or non-traditional event space you'll need to rent everything for your reception. This can prove to be a tricky process, and because your actual venue won't have any necessities on hand, you'll want to ensure you'll have enough tables, seating, and place-settings for everyone involved. You'll also want to ensure that you have creature comforts like temperature control and bathrooms. Here, everything you need to know about reception rentals.
Like finding any other wedding vendor, you'll want to choose your rental company based off of recommendations and heavy research. Once you find a potential, visit your ceremony and reception site with a rental agent to go over lighting needs, room layout, and everything you'll need to decorate. At this point you might want to also ask about any extras (like a fountain!). Once you've decided on everything you'll need, you'll want to finalize the agreement three to six months before the wedding.
As a precaution, rent more than you'll actually need on the big day. For a seated meal, rent 10 percent more place settings than guests who have RSVPed, one and a half the amount for a buffet. Regardless of the type of dining you choose, you should have 10 percent more napkins and one and a half the amount of glasses (people will likely dump their glass and get a new one!).
See more: 5 Signs a Wedding Venue is Not for You
For an outdoor reception, you'll want to ensure that all of the equipment is weather-proof and that your tent has temperature control (no one wants to sit in a scorching hot or freezing cold environment for hours on end). Renting port-o-potties, if there's no available restroom close by, is also a good idea. Once all is said and done, sign an itemized contract listing all of the equipment you'll be renting, date of delivery, rental fees and delivery charges, waivers against damage, the deposit amount and if it's refundable when the full balance is due.