Has anyone had a BAD experience with clear tents?

Futurekoch

I already posted a 'clear vs. white' tent post and people seemed pretty positive about the clear tents.  Before I pull the trigger, has anyone had any major issues/bad experiences with clear tents? (heat, shade, melting cake, wilting flowers).  It will be an evening wedding with guests taking their seats around 530pm.  Thanks!!

carrieoz_76

Just because someone on here hasn't had a bad experience doesn't mean that it doesn't happen, or that guests don't melt during dinner served under one.  While feedback on here is helpful, the folks who have the greatest depth of knowledge about which tent works best when are the experts - the WCs and rental folks.
IMO, more important than your cake melting is your guests' comfort, and I'd opt for ensuring that they're not sweating their butts off, whenever possible.  If it were me, if I expected ppl to be sitting to eat when the sun is still going to be up (i.e. not set yet), I wouldn't put them under a clear tent.  If they're not eating till after the sun was set, then I'd consider it.

jackcody

Vendors/planners have cautioned that you look at tents in person--clear tents tend to get scuffs on them apparently.

kaesha

It's true. They are beautiful, but I'm with Carrie on this one - we're a very small representation of brides!

ginajade

Just remember the sun sets early in Hawaii...so unless your wedding is in the AM slot (which it is not) the sun is already heading towards the horizon, so the tent doesn't really provide any shade by that point.  It's really just to define the space and protect you if it rained. 

If you are worried about your cake, you can set it up outside your tent and add a market umbrella - we were going to do this, but just decided to roll the dice and we did not have a problem.  We had all kinds of mixed responses - your cake will melt, it's like a greenhouse, your flowers will die... but then our cake person did not ever have a problem with cakes melting and our florist said if it did get warm, it would actually help the flowers bloom... so really I would just follow your heart and pick what you really want, because while the vendors know a lot... they are also not there when your wedding actually happens - the rental people leave, your cake person and florist are gone before the guests arrive...so none of them really have a ton of first hand experience sitting under the tent and eating a meal.  So who knows, maybe people did have bad experiences, but people also had good experiences... If one person said they had a bad experience and 5 ppl said they had a good experience, would that make worried about your decision the entire day?  If so, then get the white tent and eliminate the stress.

For me, I knew I wanted the clear tent so I just needed one person who had used it to give the thumbs up and I never looked back - for us, it was really just if it was worth 2X the cost of the white tent when it got down to crunch time... and to me (DH probably has other opinions)... it absolutely was.  GL with your decision!

Futurekoch

Thank you so much everyone! I'm pulling the trigger on the clear tent!

erindevents

Here's a link to a short blog posting I wrote about pros/cons of Clear Tents.
Hope this helps anyone trying to make that decision!

 http://tentgal.wordpress.com