Planning a whirlwind wedding

An extraordinarily short timeframe and
strong winds challenge a Wisconsin rental company to do its best work under pressure.

Tented weddings are often planned over months or even more than a year. But when a
regular customer of Modern
Rentals Inc. of Ripon, Wis., inquired about the possibility of a wedding ceremony and tented
backyard reception on a few weeks’ notice, the company stepped up to make the event happen.

“We are used to doing things on short notice for certain clients, but the lead time for this
event was especially short,” says Steve Manthei of Modern Rentals Inc. “We had a little over two
weeks to plan the event before the installation date.”

The client settled on a tent style and liner quickly after visiting the Modern Rentals showroom.
Other details, such as linen choices, required multiple visits to the client’s residence.

“I had done lighting in a tent with a liner a number of times using chandeliers,” Manthei says.
“The client liked the chandeliers but asked for more lighting less than a week before the event.
Working with another nearby rental company, we were able to come up with an existing skirted center
pole package that included lighting. They fit very well with the liner and really helped define the
look of the event.”

For the main reception tent, Modern Rentals installed a 40-by-80-foot Anchor Century® Tension Tent with an Anchor gathered liner. The company also
provided two 10-by-10-foot Anchor Fiesta® Marquee tents for walkways, a 20-by-20-foot frame tent for
catering, ceremony seating for 100, reception dinner seating with linens for 140, a 15-by-18-foot
Floor-lok dance floor, a 16-by-6-foot Bil-Jax®
stage and an LB White®
Premier 170 portable heater.

“The installation and removal was made difficult by strong winds gusting more than 50 mph that
blew the entire time prior to and following the event,” Manthei says. “The wind blew so strong that
the clips of the sidewall wore 1-inch-deep grooves into the wood side poles.”

Fortunately for the client and guests, the winds subsided the morning of the wedding. The
ceremony took place in the front of the residence beside the waterfall of a pond. Guests then
followed the bride and groom down a flower-lined pathway to the tent behind the residence, where a
plated dinner was served followed by a short dance.

“I would have liked to have more time to plan, but sometimes we do our best work under pressure,”
Manthei says.