Our reception venue is fairly new and is run by some very nice old men who are trying to break into the wedding business. We fully understand that we aren't going to get the advice, direction, thoroughness etc of a professional wedding venue but the place is unique enough that it is worth it to us.
The venue has three tents that they own, one 40x60 and two 20x30s. They are telling us that is is possible to have a nice sit down dinner with all 240 guests at round tables without anyone feeling like an outsider from the "main" tent.
I'm too nervous that this is just the honest opinion of nice older man, not necessarily what a bride would be picturing.
They did say that the 20x30 tents are about a foot shorter than the big tent. And that they can be set up close to eachother (even though I still don't have a clear understanding of how b/c the ropes and stakes need a 10 ft clearance on each tent).
I'm worried about people in the furthest small tent feeling isolated. I'm worried about people having enough room to be comfortable at round tables + a head table, DJ table and dance floor. I'm worried about people trying to go from tent to tent if it happens to rain.
When I read the tent size suggestions for number of guests on various sites online it looks like the math should work but they never say what kind of tables their estimates are using. You can always fit way more people in with banquet tables - which I don't want.
I tried a few interactive table-layout sites and I don't see how this is going to work.
Any opinions??