9 Summer Beach Wedding Tips
White beach wedding with burlap and dark bamboo arbor
9 Summer Beach Wedding Tips
June has arrived and as we are heading closer to the official start of summer (June 21st), the team at SOHO Events and Weddings were talking about summer beach weddings, and how we plan and prepare for the big day. With a lot of our clients (Friends of SOHO:) hosting events in Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, and Pensacola Beach we thought should share these wedding tips. If you have wedding tips or beach tips that we should add to this list, please mention in comments - Thanks!
9. Provide program fans
With the heat and humidity in Orange Beach on a summer day, a fan in the chair is always a welcome surprise for your guests. Another wedding tip that we have seen is printing the program on the fan. Local tip: you could also contact Southern Calligraphy about getting custom fans made with calligraphy. Here's an example of a place card from Southern Calligraphy.
8. Water Spritzing Stations
Wedding place cards from Southern Calligraphy
Water misters can help reduce the temperature at your wedding by as much as 35 degrees. We have misting fan rental available and we can also install custom temporary misting to a deck or porch for your wedding. Another option is providing a small spray bottle filled with water that your wedding guests can use to spritz themselves. According to The Weather Channel, a Gulf Shores wedding in July or August have average high temperatures in the 90's.
7. Beat the Heat
There are various ways to beat the heat in Gulf Shores during the summer. You could rent a tent for your reception, you could also rent fans to help cool down the area, we also have sun shades available to cool down your wedding venue or reception venue. Renting a tent in Gulf Shores also has the added benefit of providing relief if/when #6 on our list of summer beach wedding tips arrives - RAIN.
6. Rain
Orange Beach, Al Temperature and Rain from OBA.US.COM
The Gulf Coast, especially from Mobile to Pensacola is known for its afternoon shower. We get so much rain, according to Weatherunderground.com, Mobile, Al is the #5 wettest city in America with 65 inches of annual rainfall - and the wettest months of the year are July & August. So how do you beat our afternoon showers? For starters we recommend first that you have a wedding back up plan, which could be reserving a local venue. Another option is you could rent a tent to help get you through the shower, this would also help with the heat.
5. Frozen Treats
Once you've teamed up with your caterer & wedding planner and selected the perfect menu for your wedding reception, now its time to add some fun to the event. Consider adding a light frozen treat to help lower core body temperature. You could rent a snow cone machine, set up an ice cream bar, or use our custom ice cream freezer and stock it with your favorite frozen treat bars.
4. Sunscreen
You will be spending a lot time outdoors at your beach wedding, it is wise to apply sunscreen liberally this day. You also want to have plenty on hand to offer to your guests. It is nice to offer a wide variety as you will probably have children, babies and sensitive skin in the audience. Don't forget to double up on those shoulders as they receive the most sunlight.
3. Stay Hydrated
After you have selected your custom wedding cocktail, and stocked your bar, don't forget to supply extra bottles of water and other hydrating beverages to help keep you and guests in top shape for your beach wedding. Dehydration is serious and you don't want you or a guest spending time at South Baldwin Hospital from lack of hydration.
2. Choose Wedding Makeup Carefully
After you've decided who is going to help with your hair and makeup, and ya'll have collaborated on your colors and look - don't forget to consider the heat and stay away from liquid eyeliners, foundations or blushes. Consider applying a primer to keep things in place, and using powdered or crayon versions. Finally finish your look with waterproof mascara. To take the stress out of all of this, you could contact a local makeup artist, such as Makeup & Hair by Chaney in Fairhope, Al.
1. Traffic
Each year 5 million people travel to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach for their summer vacation, Pensacola Beach sees about 4 million vehicles each year, and Destin has about 4.5 million visitors each year. With these large number of visitors it is no wonder that traffic slows down during the summer at the beach. When you are planning your beach wedding you want to take the traffic into consideration for everything vendor arrivals, last minute trips to the store for forgotten items, travel time to your beach venue, making reservations, etc.
We hope these 9 summer beach wedding tips help you plan your beach wedding and maybe even provided some wedding inspiration. We will continue adding to this list so if you have any local beach tips that you would like to share, please add in comments, send us an email, or send us a message on Facebook.
3 Steps to Dance Floor Rental. What size dance floor do I need?
Dance Floor Rental set up for a wedding at Rock Creek.
What size dance floor do I need?
When you do wedding rentals in Mobile and Pensacola areas, you get a lot of questions regarding wedding planning. This is to be expected as most people don't normally plan elaborate events every day.
One of the first questions that we ask our clients is if they have a local wedding planner or event planner that they are already working with. While this is not a necessity it certainly helps to have a partner in this process to help you navigate the wedding and event process. Your wedding planner has established relationships with local vendors, florists, venues etc and with their expertise can usually save you money in the end. One of the areas they can help with is dance floor calculations.
If you are still with us and need a pick me up here is a little Justin Timberlake singing a wedding reception song, push play and enjoy:
Would any discussion about dance floor rentals be complete without a little Justin Timberlake?
Ok on to the math, yes MATH, How much dance floor do I need for a wedding? Well to begin with, there are a few questions that you must answer:
- How many guests are going to attend your event?
- Where is the Dance Floor going to be located? (Indoors or Outdoors)
- Are there any space constraints at your venue for a Dance Floor?
Once you determine how many guests are going to attend and any space constraints, calculating your dance floor size gets a lot easier. Now if your event is going to be outdoors and you want to setup the dance floor on the grass you will need to get a sub floor to help keep the dance floor level, and stable so that it doesn't sink into the grass.
Dance floor rental sections usually come in 3 x 3' sections and we lock these together to build your dance floor. Generally speaking about 1/3 of your attendees will be on the dance floor at any given time, then multiply this number by 4.5 to get an approximate amount of dance floor rental you will need in square feet. (You could then divide this number by 9, to figure out how many dance floor rental sections you would need)
Here's the math:
- If you expect to have 200 guests and there are no space constraints
- To get the number of dancers it would be 200 * 33% = 66 dancers
- 66 dancers * 4.5 sq ft = 297 sq ft needed for your rental dance floor
We have also loaded the quick dance floor calculator on our tools page here.
Please contact us if there are any further questions that we can help you solve with your dance floor or any other setup or rental questions. Please provide any feedback in our comments section below and we are social, click the links below to join the party.
Chiavari Chair Rentals
White Chiavari Chairs on the beach
Chiavari Chair Rentals
From Mobile to Pensacola, chiavari chair rentals are one of the most elegant statements that you can make at your event or wedding. We have chiavari chairs available in gold, silver, mahogany or fruitwood, and white to fit any occasion. When you are ready to discuss your wedding rentals contact us and we can meet to help bring your vision to reality.
History of Chiavari Chairs
The history of chiavari chairs dates all the way back to 1807, when Giuseppe Gaetano Descalzi was invited to rework some chairs in the French Empire style, and in doing so reworked the chairs and made them lighter. The new chiavari chair was an instant success. The name comes from the town that they were invented, Chiavari, Italy.
In the comments section at the end please let us know your favorite color chiavari chair. Thanks!
Here are a few pictures of chiavari chair rentals that are very popular in Mobile, Fairhope and Pensacola these days.
In the United States, chiavari chairs really came onto the scene when President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy wedding pictures were in Life Magazine and they were pictured sitting on chiavari chairs. Instantly everybody wanted to know how they could rent chiavari chairs, and an industry was reborn.
Even the Kennedy's had chiavari chairs at their wedding.
We also have kids chiavari chairs for rent, and these are oh so cute. Take a look at a few photos below for some wedding inspiration.
Kids white chiavari chairs used for a girls tea party birthday
Kids White Chiavari Chair
Teardown day can be sad: (
We are so blessed each day that we get to work with all the great wedding planners, photographers, bakeries, venues, etc. Everyday we come to work and get to help bring a vision or inspiration together and it is very satisfying when you see that smile of approval or the text or email after the event.
The one part of doing wedding rentals in Daphne (or in Gulf Shores like the above photo) that is bittersweet is teardown day. You work to get everything pulled together and looking great and them you come pull everything down and return it to it's original form.
The SOHO Blog
Our intent with the SOHO blog is to have fun, be informative, and hopefully shed a little light on party rentals in mobile, pensacola, and the gulf coast.