When Scranton Rent-All in Throop, Pa., was hired to make wedding dreams come true for a family living on the edge of a golf course in the Pocono Mountains region of Pennsylvania, the company reached out to long-time partner Tents For Rent in Lititz, Pa., to help make it happen. “We have a long-standing relationship with Frank [Sweeny, president of Scranton Rent-All],” says Daryl Sensenig, office manager for Tents For Rent. “Frank takes care of meeting with the client, measuring the space and deciding on the proper equipment. He gets a quote from us and lets us know when the client places the order. Then we show up and install what he requests.”
For this wedding, Tents For Rent quoted the event in June; it was ordered in July and the company completed installation for the event in October 2024.
Rain or shine
Among the many things tent and event rental companies do in the event planning process is help clients navigate the potentially changing elements that will impact their event—which means creating an adaptive plan. As a business looking to give clients what they want while maintaining a positive cash flow, this can be a delicate balance. The Poconos in October typically has a high rainfall—which often comes in heavy showers—so the plan for this installation included a “worst-case scenario” plan, with tents for all segments of the events, including more tents than were ultimately needed.
As the October event drew near, the weather forecast indicated clear skies, which meant the client felt comfortable canceling the ceremony tent and a 10-by-30-foot marquee walkway that would have connected the ceremony tent to the cocktail tent. In anticipation of these types of changes, Tents For Rent requires a 25% nonrefundable down payment when the client places the reservation; if the client cancels at any point after the truck is loaded, they have to pay 50% of the cost. In this case, the client paid 50% of the cost of the canceled tent rental.
The final installation included a 40-by-60-foot cleartop Anchor Navi-Trac® for cocktails with clear walls all around; a 59-by-118-foot Aurora sailcloth for the reception; three marquee walkways (10-by-40-foot, 10-by-10-foot, 10-by-20-foot); as well as green AstroTurf® carpet with Dura-Trac® flooring underneath. To prepare for the possibility of inclement weather, the Aurora sailcloth included WeatherShield™ technology that seals all the way to the tent top. “The WeatherShield walls keder at the top and fasten to the poles, which is really nice,” Sensenig says.
Arrangements and access
As always, there were challenges. A flagpole and trees on the clients’ property presented some difficulties regarding how to align the tents and marquees with these stationary elements. What made the layout even more challenging was that the plan included a combination of a round sailcloth tent and a rectangular clearspan. “A rectangular tent is pretty straightforward with four corners, but with the rounded ends of the sailcloth tent connecting to it, there were additional challenges,” Sensenig says. “Because it was a tight fit, we had to very carefully measure and mark everything out and build the floor so it didn’t get out of angle.”
To add to the challenges, the homeowners’ driveway was too small to accommodate all the necessary vehicles for load-in, so the neighboring golf course came to the rescue. While the smaller trucks were able to pull into the homeowners’ yard, the semi with the flooring was unable to do so. “So we parked in the golf course driveway,” Sensenig says. “From there, we transported the skids of flooring with a telehandler to the space for install. Thankfully, the ground was solid, so we didn’t have to lay anything down to protect it.”
As a subcontractor, Tents For Rent wasn’t responsible for communicating with the golf course or the client to coordinate load-in logistics—one of the benefits of being the subcontractor. “Scranton Rent-All holds those relationships. And Frank Sweeny was great,” Sensenig says. “He has great relationships in that area and so that was all smooth from our perspective.”
Under the tents
Tents For Rent installed Dura-Trac flooring with green AstroTurf on the top as the base for the tent structures. “Clients more commonly choose black or something like that, but I think they wanted to go with an outdoor feel, so they chose green,” Sensenig says. “Green can feel like grass underfoot.” Scranton Rent-All took care of everything else under the tent, including the tables, chairs, lights and decor.
“We’ve worked with Scranton Rent-All many times over the years. Frank has a lot of the local relationships in the Scranton area,” Sensenig says. “We’re a little bit further away and have larger tents, so if there’s something a little bit outside of Scranton’s ability, Frank reaches out to us. We have a very good relationship with him.”
Sigrid Tornquist is a Minneapolis, Minn.-based writer and editor and former InTents editor.
By the numbers
200 guests
1 40-by-60-foot cleartop Anchor Navi-Trac®
1 59-by-118-foot Anchor Aurora sailcloth
1 10-by-40-foot marquee walkway
1 10-by-10-foot marquee walkway
1 10-by-20-foot marquee walkway
14 staff
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