Ultimate San Diego Wedding

Party Production Rentals was selected to participate in the Ultimate San Diego Wedding as the rental partner.  The Ultimate San Diego San Diego Wedding takes a collection of some of the best wedding vendors San Diego has to offer and puts on a spectacular wedding for one lucky couple. 

Paula had fun working with a talented group of event professionals including caterers, coordinators, and photographers to put on an amazing day for this year's winners: Jannel & Matt.  This year the wedding was held at the Mt. Woodson Castle in Ramona.  We provided the rental products for the ceremony and reception, including Chiavari chairs, belly bars, tables, linen, dishware and glassware.

Here's a picture courtesy of La Vida Creations, one of the participating photographers:

Here's a link to some additional photos on the La Vida Creations Blog.

Here's a link to video from the event that SideBySide Cinema created.

Here are more pictures we received from La Vida Creations:

Determining How Much Dance Floor You Need

Having a dance floor at your party can provide an inviting space for your guests to dance.  It provides an ideal surface for dancing and it let's your guests know they should dance and where.

Portable dance floor comes in sections, typically 3'x4' or 3'x3'.  So how do you know how much to rent?  The general rule of thumb is that, at most, 50% of the people at your party will dance at any given time.  For each pair of dancers (1 couple), they will need about 9 square of dance space.  You can adjust if you know your party-goers to be more likely to dance, but this formula works out well in most situations.

Here's an example of how this plays out:  If you have a party for 80 people, 20 couples (40 people) will be the maximum number dancing. You need 180 square feet of dance floor, which would be require 15 3'x4' dance floor pieces.

Using this approach, here are some common sizes*:

• 50 person party: 12 couples: 9 pieces of 3'x4' dance floor
• 65 person party: 16 couples: 12 pieces of 3'x4' dance floor
• 80 person party: 20 couples: 15 pieces of 3'x4' dance floor
• 100 person party: 25 couples: 20 pieces of 3'x4' dance floor
• 120 person party: 30 couples: 24 pieces of 3'x4' dance floor
• 160 person party: 40 couples: 30 pieces of 3'x4' dance floor
• 200 person party: 50 couples: 36 pieces of 3'x4' dance floor

*Note: we rounded to the nearest size dance floor based on the rule of thumb explained above. 

Happy Dancing!

2nd Annual SoNo Fest a Success!

Yesterday in North Park was the 2nd Annual SoNo Park Holiday Fest & Chilipalooza.  Thousands came out for chili, craft beer, live music, kids activities, shopping - and a lot of community fun.  Paula and I were again proud to be co-chairs of this event, called "one of the best neighborhood events of the year" by one community leader.  Besides raising money for the school our boys attend, the most gratifying thing was just seeing so many people come out and having a good time.  There was a great picture in the U-T today (aptly named "A Chili Day in North Park"), and below are a few other early picks from the event.

Party Production Rentals was a sponsor of the event and provided the majority of the rentals. 

A view of Thorn Street not long after the event started

The Beautiful View was a crowd-pleaser on the North Park Stage

A few members of our awesome event committee

The Creepy Creeps on the South Park stage

Casa del Prado Balboa Park - Wedding

Balboa Park has a lot of venues for parties, weddings and events.  One of the most dramatic has to be the courtyards at Casa del Prado.  Here are some pictures from a midday wedding and reception we did this year.

We set up the reception in the inside courtyard

The upstairs balcony provides some great photo opps

The courtyard between the Casa del Prado and the Junior Theater is quite dramatic

Sweetheart table for the bride & groom

There are no chairs set up in these photos... the client had the caterer move the chairs from the ceremony area to help their budget...

The client used succulents as centerpieces

Belly bars helped make a nice area for the cocktail hour

The tables were set up in a star shape out from the center with market umbrellas for shade and effect

The archways provide a nice view of the event and a barrier from the park's foot traffic

Party Production Rentals Is Moving

We are excited to announce that Party Production Rentals is moving to a new location in East Village!  Our new, bigger location is the latest of the investments we’re making to better serve our clients.  Our new location will be at intersection of the 5/94 freeways, just 10 minutes form our current facility and more freeway accessible.  The move will happen late August through early September.

 

Why are we moving?

We've been investing in new equipment and our business is growing, and so we need more space to support the growth.  As anyone who's seen our current warehouse can attest, we're bursting at the seams. This bigger location will enable us to better serve our clients by having space for more inventory, better maintenance facilities, improved freeway access and better systems.  In addition, it will be a better work environment for our staff.  This location enables us to be close to our many South Bay clients, and more centrally located for our other clients.

What is the new address?

The showroom/office address is 705 16^th Street, Suite 200, San Diego, 92101.  Pickup (will call) orders can be picked up at the back of our warehouse at 710 17^th Street.

Will the phone number change? 
No, our main phone number will remain 619-585-3605, and our web site will remain www.partyproductionrentals.com.

What is the last day to pick up orders at 657 Palomar Street, Suite J in Chula Vista?

The last day to place orders for pick up at our current location is August 26th. The last day to pick up those orders at our current location in Chula Vista is Friday, September 2.  We'll then be closed on September 3rd, 4th, and 5th for Labor Day Weekend - and to finish moving.  The orders can be returned to 657 Palomar Street, Suite J in Chula Vista, but they must be returned no later than Tuesday, September 6th.  We will be completely out of our current building by the September 6th.  Any late returns will be charged a late fee and must be returned to our new location.

Will there be any interruption to our services?

No, we will continue to offer our services as usual.  However, our showroom will be moving the week of Aug 29^th and there will be no items available for viewing.  Our office will be open to place orders and receive payments, take questions, etc. We hope to open our new showroom by September 8th.  Work has already starting in getting the space ready.

Will delivery fees change?

Delivery fees will largely stay the same as we are not moving far.  However, our fees are based on travel distance, and customers in the immediate vicinity of our current office may see a nominal increase.  Delivery fees for downtown San Diego and the surrounding areas may see a decrease. 

We'll be sending additional communication to our clients in the next week, but please don't hesitate to email us or call (619-585-3605) if you have any questions

How Many Tables Fit in a Canopy?

We do a lot of canopy set-ups at Party Production Rentals, and we often get asked how many tables will fit under a canopy of a certain size.  Generally, people have a preference for round tables under a canopy (though you should always go with personal preference), and there's a simple rule of thumb if you're using 60" round tables.  (60" rounds are the most common size, and they seat 8-10 people.)  For each 10' x 10' square section of the canopy, you can comfortably fit 1 60" round with chairs.  The picture below demonstrates how this would lay out in a 20' x 20' canopy. 

This canopy will fit 4 60" rounds as there are 4 10' x 10' sections, and each table fits 8-10 people, so you can accommodate 32-40 people.  For larger canopies, just use the same approach.  For example, a 30' x 30' canopy has 9 10' x 10' sections, so it will fit 9 60" rounds or 72-90 people. 

Note: I typically recommend capping the number of chairs at 8 per table for more formal events or events where you have a lot of table items (i.e., large place settings, you are serving family style on the table, or you have large centerpieces).  We do 10 at many events, and it's great for those events... but know there is less space, and the chairs don't push all the way under the table. 

Another option which would allow more people seated under a canopy - but is typically considered less formal - is to put rectangular banquet tables under the canopy.  Below I've demonstrated how this might look, though there are other variations. 

Keep in mind that sometimes you want space for other features under your canopy, such as a dance floor, bar, buffet tables, or a different size/style head table.  It helps to break the canopy into 10' x 10' sections, but we are also available to help you design the ideal layout for your event in the San Diego area.  We include this as part of the service Party Production Rentals offers when we do a canopy set-up.  Please feel free to give us a call or email!

Holiday Parties - Transforming a Space

We were inspired by one of our client's use of a warehouse for their company holiday party.  In a time when companies are watching their expenses closely, they made creative use of some empty warehouse space they had at their facility.  We helped them with the layout and the rentals, and one of their employees liked to decorate - together the space was transformed!

SoNo Park Holiday Fest - Success in the Street!

It's now been a few weeks since we put on the SoNo Park Holiday Fest.  The event was a street fair in North Park benefiting McKinley Elementary, and we had 3 goals:

1. Raise money for McKinley's arts and music programs - our target being at least as much as we did in 2009 with the Chili Cook-Off and Arts and Crafts Fair.
2. Draw in the community to support McKinley.  The school had a tendency to hit up the school families over and over again. We wanted to start an event where the community would pay to participate, and we would build a knowledge and experience base to do it again in the future.
3. Last but not least, put on a fun event! We wanted attendees, restaurants, bands and vendors to want to do it again and go away talking about it so they'd draw in even more people for the next year.  They'd also see what a special school McKinley is because they do this kind of event.

I'm pleased to say that met all 3 goals.  Having goals really helped us focus our efforts and to set expectations with the McKinley PTC and participating businesses.  It's also a basis for us to say we were successful.  While we haven't completed the final accounting for the event, we've surpassed last year's fund-raising from the 2 events we replaced by more than $1,000.  We wanted to get at least 1000 people to attend from the local community, and our best estimate is that we had more than 2000.  And while the "fun" aspect is harder to measure, the anecdotal evidence suggests people had a great time.  We received many compliments from a broad range of participants, such as "This was the best street fair ever!"  Perhaps most importantly, we learned a lot, and we have many insights that will enable us to make next year's event even more successful - especially financially.  In light of our fun goal, we may have erred on the side of providing too much value.  Something for us to consider.

I'll go into some of learning at a different time.  In the meantime, here are some pictures of the event, and I've highlighted some of the gear provided by Party Production Rentals: beer tent, belly bar with linen, stage, canopies, pop-ups, tables with umbrellas. 

Party Production Rentals for Your San Diego Party Rentals

Party Production Rentals is proud to announce we have expanded our outstanding San Diego party rental service to reach more of Southern California. We're now serving San Diego to Riverside and from Long Beach to Palm Springs and everything between. Whether you're having a Special Event, Private Party, Wedding, Corporate Event or a Romantic Dinner when it comes to your party rental needs we are here to help. Our experience means that you will be 100% satisfied.

Now, for your convenience we have a new party planning form to plan your event needs. Please browse our catalog, then go to the form and select the items you need, enter your information, and one of our experts on San Diego party rentals will contact you within 24 hours to help you with your party planning.

We look forward to servicing you!