Backyard Wedding with Tent in New Orleans
Backyard Wedding with Tent on NYEKelsea was a local bride that hired our team for wedding event management services for her wedding over the course of two days, culminating in an epic and personalized New Year’s Eve celebration at her parents’ home. She had always wanted a ceremony in the chapel at her alma mater, Academy of the Sacred Heart, but because ASH did not perform weddings on holidays (including NYE) she elected to have a ceremony on December 30, then follow up with a reception at her parents’ home on New Year’s Eve for a backyard wedding with a tent.
Because of the bride’s relationship with many stellar suppliers in the hospitality industry, she was able to leverage her relationships into opportunities for supplies and support for her at-home celebration. From catering, tents, electrical equipment, rentals (including tables, chairs, and linens), and restroom trailers, there were a number of vendors contributing to this event that logistically speaking added to the challenge of ensuring every aspect of the event was taken care of prior to the big day.
The Client:
The bride, Kelsea, local to New Orleans and planning a two-day affair for her wedding celebration, including a Catholic wedding ceremony at Academy of Sacred Heart, followed by a rehearsal dinner at ASH on December 30, and a backyard wedding reception with a tent for over 200 guests the following day on New Year’s Eve, culminating in a fireworks display and celebration into the new year.
The Objective:
Managing a number of various hospitality-based vendors over a busy holiday week for an at-home celebration, while managing the logistics of bridal prep and ceremony at Sacred Heart, followed by a rehearsal dinner hosted by the groom’s family after the ceremony. On NYE, the bride returned to her parents’ home for a second day of bridal prep with her bridesmaids, plus the logistics of running a reception seamlessly in and around the parent’s private home for this backyard wedding with a tent, culminating in a fireworks display at midnight. Wedding event management services from our team would employ Kelsea’s plans for everything so she and her family could thoroughly enjoy the momentous occasion for both days of their epic celebration.
Challenges
Kelsea was an incredibly detail oriented bride and naturally quite organized, so planning this event herself was very attainable. Breaking up bridal prep over the course of two days in two different locations (one at a private home closer to the ceremony location, and the other back at the parents’ home) was a different element to a more traditional single-day wedding affair. Coordinating with the Academy of Sacred Heart for the rehearsal dinner following the ceremony under the threat of rain created a weather challenge that further increased the complexity of the day. The main challenges to the celebration on NYE included the number of vendors Kelsea wanted to bring in for the reception at her parents’ home. There was no pre-existing floor plan or landscape blueprint of the property that we could rely on for use in drafting a scaled floor plan of the various stations, backyard wedding tent locations, and table and chair placement. Many of the vendors supplying support for the at-home celebration also had various quantities of materials and inventory, so nailing down how was bring how many of what items proved a complicated task. While these suppliers were wonderful resources for this wedding, few (if any) were readily familiar with the timing and flow of a wedding reception, and our expertise would be a critical asset toward ensuring that everyone understood the lay of the land and flow of events.
Our Strategic Solutions
Our wedding event management team initiated a production meeting several months prior to the wedding for a walk through at the family home hosting the backyard wedding with a tent for NYE. From this meeting of all the hospitality vendors contributing supplies and services for the event, our team was able to draw up a working draft of the expected floor plan and confirm with each of the vendors in person location and accessibility point for electricity, water sources, parking for trucks and setup for a complete back-of-house outdoor kitchen. Marking off tent locations and measuring the available spaces on the property while appreciating the grading of the land helped our team of vendors understand any complexities they might encounter with installation the week of the event, allowing them the opportunity to fully prepare themselves with all the tools and equipment necessary to address the challenges of the property.
Our team facilitated communication among all parties well in advance of the date, in order to efficiently and proactively manage the expectations of each of the moving parts for this two-day event. Because of this, we were able to effectively manage the expectations of each of the suppliers, and organize the arrangements made on behalf of our client with knowledge and a comprehensive understanding of what equipment would be placed where, and in what order everything needed to be installed.
Results
The abundance of communication with each of the vendor team members in advance of the date ensured for the client that the overall experience of entertaining a large number of guests at her parents’ home would be faithfully carried out according to her wishes, so that she and her family could fully enjoy the celebration without care or concern for the finer details of executing the event. Having our expert event management team on hand from an early stage in the planning process allowed our client to contact us for any advice and consultation early on, as she was putting into place her ideas and plans, with the guidance of her team of experienced professionals guiding her on a path to success. Most importantly, because our event management team was in communication with our client from the beginning, this allowed us to understand the complexity of the extent of Kelsea’s planning details, so that we could facilitate an organized task force with her vendors well in advance of the wedding day. This ultimately served to set everyone on the wedding vendor team up for success, delivering a solid product and service to our clients, and a seamless and conflict-free run of show for the multi day celebration.