Wedding Tent Reception Disaster. Help!

I would definitely listen to the advice of your venue and vendors. They have done this a thousand times and know what works and what doesn't.

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Well that's kind of the thing. Our Vendor for the reception area is turning out to be difficult to work with. The ball was dropped somewhere and now they really aren't accommodating. I don't want to be a bridezilla but we are not getting very good cooperation with them and it's troubling this close to the wedding. I am definitely taking as much advice from the tent vendor as I can, she's been incredibly helpful.

Why isn't the tent possible? It's hard to offer advice without knowing the reason why! Is it a venue issue or a rental issue?

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There's a difference between being a bridezilla and pushing for what you paid for/signed a contract for. If you were originally contracted it, I say go for it, girl!

It's a little of both. The tent can't be anchored on the space like we originally planned. The next size down is available and can be set up without anchors. Yes we did pay for the outdoor reception so I don't feel it's too much to ask for the outdoor wedding. We even paid an extra fee to do so.

Does your contract include the number of guests and the size tent that will be used to accommodate the outside reception? If so, I’d push to either have them figure it out or demand some of your money back. Just because they messed up on what they contracted for your event doesn’t mean they can just sweep it under the rug.

Could you do two smaller tents side by side that would encompass the same (or close to it) area as the originally planned larger tent? Or perhaps if they don't have two of the same size smaller tents, you could have one even slightly smaller that would house the band allowing you to utilize more space for the guests. May not be the exact look you're going for, but might be a reasonable compromise since it's likely that neither smaller tent would need to be anchored. It's hard to suggest without being familiar with the space or the options available to you.

I realize you aren't crazy about switching things up and settling but in reality you are really only switching the cocktail and dinner spaces around. Either way guests are going to spend some of their time in the inside space. And if you want to shorten that time, you could do all of your toasts and things outdoors at the tail end of the cocktail hour before going in for dinner. Some may say that's a little out of order, but it's your wedding and you can make things happen in whatever order you like!

I went to a wedding in which the DJ and the bar where under one tent, everything else under another. Maybe that would work?