Short answer is no. If you need string lighting (or any lighting that’s actually attached to our tent), we require that lighting to be provided, installed, and removed by us. Here’s why:
– Liability. Our rental agreement states that clients may not install or remove anything attached to the tent, and that includes string lighting. This is because we can’t control how you install or remove the lights, and tents are made of metal frames and vinyl fabric. Metal frames can conduct electricity from poorly insulated or damaged lighting, and vinyl tent tops can be very easily cut by knives and scissors when removing lights from the tent. We don’t want you electrocuting yourself or your guests, and we don’t want you to have to shell out big $$$ for a new tent top because your hand slipped while cutting off the zip ties and sliced a hole in the tent. We’ve seen both of these things happen in the past, so we know from unfortunate experience that these are legitimate and reasonable concerns.
– Labor. It may not look like much work, but trust us – if you haven’t done it before, installing several hundred feet of string lighting in a tent, and then taking it all down again is actually a lot of work! And don’t you have something better to do with your time before and after your big event? Probably…so let us take care of it for you. We do it every day, so we do it much faster, safer, and make it look nicer than you could do it on your own.
– Equipment. For certain types of tents, there are specialized brackets that we use to hang your lights, especially on center poles of our large tents, as well as unique tools to speed up the process and make your lighting look great. If you don’t have all these tools (and you probably don’t), it’s just better to leave it up to us to handle.
What lighting can you provide and install on your own? Anything free standing like lamps and utility lighting, stand-alone lighting rigs (like for stage and theater lighting), or DJ lights. LED bulbs are best. If you have hanging lights like chandeliers you would like us to hang in your tent, that’s a possibility too – we would have to install and remove them for you, but if you want to provide the fixtures that is a possibility we can discuss. Please note that we do not allow any lighting at all that utilize halogen bulbs due to the very high heat they produce and the potential to melt our tent vinyl or start a fire.
