How To Choose A Wedding Tent

Renting a good tent is important when planning an outdoor wedding. While tents provide a cozy and personal touch to the whole outdoor wedding décor, they also shield you and your guests from unfavorable weather conditions. Tents are also more flexible than existing facilities because you have more options regarding where and how you want to have your wedding. However, they are more expensive and can cost you around $3,000 to $6,000 without the extras such as lighting, flooring, and the cost of delivery, setup, and removal.

Types of Wedding Tents:

These are some of the popular tents that you may want to check out before making a decision.

Party Canopy: This is a lightweight tent designed to protect from sun and rain. Installation is easy, and inexpensive to rent in comparison to other types.

Pop-up Canopy: Another lightweight tent with collapsible-frame fabric. Installation is also easy.

Frame Tent: A tent with a metal frame having no center poles. The rental company usually installs it.

Tension tent: This type is built with high center poles, a steeply sloped ceiling, with a more open feeling inside of the tent.

Pole Tent: This type has poles around the perimeter and in the center, which is very practical for harsher weather conditions. The rental company will install it.

Location and Flooring:

The best location for setting up the wedding tent is on an even high ground, and should be free of overhead utility lines. If the site has uneven terrain or experiences high rainfall, try to include plywood or plastic flooring. Plywood can be expensive but it will provide a durable raised floor and is suitable for almost any type of terrain. Plastic floor is ideal for paved surfaces and is much cheaper than plywood floors. Also consider parquet-wood floor which can be used as the dance floor.

Size of the Tent:

There's no harm in renting a tent that's a little larger than actually required. Think of a tent size in which your guests can be comfortably seated. Here's how you should estimate tent seating specifications:

All chairs in rows: 6 square feet per person Round tables: 12 square feet per person Rectangular tables: 8 square feet per person Cocktails and receptions: 8 square feet per person

Along with these specifications, figure in the bar area, cake table, band area buffet tables, and dance floor.

Color of the Tent:

The traditional color for tents is white but you can choose from a wide variety and combinations, depending on the theme and mood of your wedding. For example, if you want a romantic starlit night sky to be part of your wedding, rent a tent with a translucent ceiling. Sidewalls can be solid white for more private affairs, clear vinyl to let in natural light, and cathedral-window walls for a more decorative touch.

Optional:

Remember that every rental firm also provides optional accessories which can really underscore the décor of your wedding and the tent. Choose those that will fit in to the theme and tone of the wedding. Other accessories that you can't do without may include air-conditioning (for areas with extreme climates), carpeting, portable bars, decorative lighting etc.

Charleston Bans Smoking

Legend has it that there was once a sign on all of the bridges leading into Charleston, SC, the stated “Welcome to Charleston. Unencumbered by Progress for the Past 100 Years.” Putting together “cutting edge” and Charleston in the same sentence is an oxymoron. Recently the Charleston City Council heard a rumor about something called second smoke. After a bit of research they were shocked to discover that cities such as LA and New York had banned smoking from public places.

Now, being one of America’s favorite vacation destinations, they couldn’t let those other popular spots do something they weren’t doing. Especially them damn Yankees from New York City. The last time the City got this riled they launched a few cannonballs out into the bay at Ft. Sumter which started the American Civil War.

With much hand wringing and gnashing of teeth by local bar and restaurant owners, Charleston City Council passed a ban on all smoking in public places. The non-smokers in the Low Country are breathing a sigh of relief; the bar and restaurant folks are threatening a law suit. Apparently they haven’t noticed that it is easier to find a place to park a dumpster then it is to find a place to smoke these days. Courts from one end of the country to the other have upheld these bans.

Generally we come down on the side of the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment’s Freedom of Assembly clause. If people want to gather and smoke a legal and highly taxed product, what business is it of local government? If no one is being held against their will in these places, where is the problem? We would find these laws easier to swallow if they gave restaurant the option of being smoking or non-smoking with signs clearly marked on the door. But the promoters of the nanny state are never willing to go along with this.

As non-smokers we’ve figured out what places to avoid because they are smoked filled. Smoke billowing out to street whenever the front door is opened is usually the first clue. In the West Ashley suburb of Charleston, you learn pretty quickly that you can lose sight of your server in the haze of the smoke at Manny’s and the food at the Map Room starts tasting like a nicotine patch after 9 pm. If one of these places wants to become a private club for smokers then let them go at it. Make it illegal for anyone under 18 to enter. If the bar owners think they can make more money than honoring the ban, so be it.

The larger concern is what will they target next? McDonald’s french fries haven’t been the same since the quit cooking them in lard. Then “trans fats” were bad. Remember “saccharin?” After winning the anti-smoking battle does anyone seriously think the “health Nazis” will disband and start leading a normal, productive life? Don’t count on it.

They can pry my key lime pie from my cold dead fingers.

All About Wedding Rings

You get to the alter and you say your I do’s and it's time for the best man to present the wedding rings, he pats his top pockets then his bottom pockets and you stare at him getting worried that may be he has forgotten or lost the most important part of your wedding, the rings! But there they are in his inside pocket and he passes them over to you and a look of relief washes over your face!

Wedding rings are the be all and end all to any wedding, they are usually just plain gold bands and it is the engagement ring that has the diamonds. But some men like to spoil a woman and get her a wedding ring encrusted with diamonds. Like they say diamonds are a girl's best friend! The wedding rings are usually put on the fingers at the end of the vows and then there is the famous “kiss the bride” moment.

The wedding bands symbolize unity and a constant circle, they are you and your partner together through everything, thick and thin, sickness and health and everything else that a married couple in love will go through together but it means that although there may be rocky or bubbly parts you will still be together to the end and the circle will continue! Some mothers pass their wedding rings down to their daughters as a symbol of love and friendship, not when they are married of course, but when their husband passes away and they are left widowed.

Wedding rings are usually bought from a jeweller but they can be purchased second hand or even on the internet, yes the internet does sell everything these days! The most important part of the wedding is saying "I do" then slipping that ring onto the person that you love finger knowing that you will spend the rest of your life loving them and cherishing them, no day is more special than your wedding day!