TEXTILES.ORG
A tent, a Jonas brother and a blizzard.
On December 19, 2009, at Oheka Castle in Huntington, N.Y., a crew from P.J. McBride Inc., West Babylon, N.Y., battled the weather—and won. The company was hired to provide the tent for the high-profile Kevin Jonas wedding. The goal of the groom—the eldest brother in the Jonas Brothers band—was to provide a fairy-tale wedding for his bride, Danielle, despite blizzardlike conditions that threatened to mar the event.
Ironically, the theme of the event was a winter wonderland, which was reflected in the blizzard outdoors and, by design, in the interior of the tent. The company installed a fully-lined, 80-by-100-foot Anchor Century® Tent with white carpet, six hard doors and a 20-foot floored and lined marquee leading up to the building. The white dance floor was skinned with a white vinyl cover so the entire floor would appear seamless.
The challenges for this installation came in the form of 2 feet of snow and wind gusts in excess of 35 miles per hour. Because of the initial threat of high wind and significant snowfall—sometimes the weather forecasters are accurate—additional stake and webs were added, as well as wood stakes and auger stakes. Ladders were lashed to the tent at several locations and ropes were placed over the tent to enable workers to get on top to clear the snow as it accumulated. To make sure the tent did not exceed its snow load, the company had workers clear snow throughout the night preceding the event.
Because P.J. McBride had a realistic timeline and had planned the installation with a margin for the unexpected, there was plenty of time to deal with the last minute challenges brought on by the weather.