Hi there - I wrote my first post on my local board and someone replied and told me about this board for Outdoor Weddings. We are having our ceremony & reception in my backyard on 10/1/11. We have started talking to caterers who are helping us decide on a menu and tent rentals, etc. Ideally if the weather is fine (in Central Mass), then we'd have the ceremony and cocktail hour outside and have the reception in a large tent and most likely include heat. The caterer is suggesting a ceremony tent as a back up plan for bad weather, however I'd almost prefer having the ceremony in a bigger tent and just moving chairs around afterward. My fiance wasn't loving the idea of such chaos...but I'm guessing if we have a ceremony tent and a reception tent that I am paying for another tent and twice as many chairs, or would they move them in the rain?! Not to mention a tent for the catering staff. Any idea on lead time for ordering a tent that is slightly larger to include a ceremony last minute? How far in advance do they usually set up the tent? Since we are expecting between 150-175, we'd need porta potties, just not sure how many for that many people or how that trailer option works? We figured we would do mostly a buffet style with food stations, but weren't sure we'd get to table-hop to thank people for coming if they are all over the place and we decide not to do a receiving line? Considered doing a plated salad first, then the rest buffet. Any suggestions on that? We'd still need room for a dance floor, buffet tables, DJ & bar (if bad weather)...so finding a tent big enough for all of that is hard to calculate. I know I am throwing out a bunch of questions, thanks in advance for the feedback!