A wedding at home sounds so easy, doesn’t it? Even if you’ve watched The Father of the Bride a million times, and you saw everything that Steve Martin had to pay for, from the seafood to the swans, it’s hard to really imagine all the little things that can add up. Especially if you want your private home wedding to rival some of the chicest venues in town.
There are so many reasons why a wedding at your own home, or the home you grew up in might be the best choice for you. A wedding venue that you rent for one night cannot compare to a one time only venue built just for your wedding in a place that already holds so many memories.
As with all things wedding planning, it’s best to start the process of planning a private home wedding knowing as many facts as you can. It can be surprising how complicated planning a wedding in your own backyard can get once you start meeting with the tent companies, the caterers, and the rental companies.
We tapped our North Shore Massachusetts Wedding Planner, Ashley Tangerini to go over some of the biggest surprise expenses that can come along with planning a private home tented wedding.
01. The infrastructure
This will probably be the biggest line item in your private home wedding budget and includes everything that you need to build a venue for a day in your own backyard.
The tent. Possibly a tent floor (the cost of a floor is always a surprise, especially if you are dealing with a slope or uneven ground that needs to be leveled!). Functional lighting for the tent and surrounding areas like parking, catering tent area (yes the caterer will need their own tent to cook out of!), restroom area, etc, dance floor, tables, chairs, and other dining requirements like china, glassware and flatware.
Don’t forget to think about if you need additional infrastructure in the case of rain - a ceremony or cocktail hour tent, covered walkways, boardwalks for low points in the lawn, etc.
As with every other line item in your wedding budget, the infrastructure can be as simple or as complex as you can dream it up to be, but even when you check the most basic boxes, these items will add up to be at least as much as a venue rental fee.
02. Generators
A generator is imperative to the success of a private home wedding. There are so many important aspects to the wedding that need power to run on - the band, the restrooms, the lighting, the coffee makers, and each thing typically needs its own circuit. Luckily most tent companies can provide a generator - extra points for a ‘whisper quiet’ version! So be sure to ask for this to be added to your quote.
03. Restrooms
Unless your wedding is exceptionally intimate, auxiliary restrooms are highly recommended for an event like a wedding. The absolute last thing you want to deal with in the middle of your celebration is an overflowing septic system, or old plumbing that inevitably decides to give out at just the wrong time. Not to mention the lines that could form by your downstairs powder room!
Again, hosting a wedding in your own backyard is one of the best ways to completely personalize your wedding, and make it a true representation of you as a couple. It is sentimental, and is quite literally the dream for so many couples! The best way to make planning a wedding at your home as stress free as possible is to understand the unique complexities of building your very own personalized wedding venue before you get started.
Of course, in our (biased!!) opinion, the best insurance policy is to bring in a wedding planner with private home wedding planning experience on to your team. A planner who has this particular skill set can make the entire process much easier and more enjoyable for you and anyone else involved with your plans. An experienced planner will know exactly the right tent company to build your wedding structure, will be able to advise on the best use of space and how to create a seamless guest experience whether the weather is perfect or… not as perfect as you might have hoped (sadly rain does happen, even at a private home wedding!). They’ll also know how to work with your catering company to be sure that they are set up for success from day one. Most importantly, a wedding planner will help to allocate your budget, and advise on the best places to splurge and save to make your vision a reality.
If you are planning a private home, tented wedding in New England, Rhode Island, New York, or Charleston SC, fill in the form below to connect with our team. We absolutely love private home weddings, for so many reasons, and would love to help make yours a reality.