It takes a village

‘It takes a village to raise a child’

Matt and I are firm believers that this is very true. The problem is that nobody wants to join our village – can’t think why! Actually, Helen is totally on-board but Craig is taking more persuading! I say keep Helen and the boys and ditch Craig but the business kinda needs him! And so do we, truth be told!

Luckily, it doesn’t take a village to make a bell tent event. There is something very comforting and safe about a single bell tent, sitting in a beautiful garden, hosting a personal and intimate celebration.

However, there is also something fabulous about a bell tent village. The comfort and intimacy can be maintained in the way that the tents are arranged (who knew that tent orientation was a thing?!), whilst also creating a great sense of occasion and celebration.

We were beyond excited to set up our first village for a wedding in a beautiful location. Our customer, Claire, was very organised so we knew exactly what bed combinations and colour combinations we needed, which really helped. There was a bit of time spent at the start showing Ash and Seb (more used to gigantic marquees) the ropes (no pun intended) but they were short-lived novices!

There were certainly a few learning points from our first village including:-

  • Don’t leave pumped air beds in direct, blazing sunshine
  • Don’t trust the storage labels – the ‘single sheets’ box doesn’t necessarily have single sheets
  • If the venue is on a slight slope, pillow end points up
  • Drink more water on hot days

But there was nothing that we couldn’t sort out. And, before we knew it, we had our first 5-tent village erected, bunting, lights, furniture and 23 beds all made up.

Since then, there have been villages galore! Here’s a little snapshot…

    A wedding with Chill-Out tent at Fiesta Fields.

   A 12-tent village for a LOT of students at Upper Parsonage Farm.

That’s 30 tents and 124 beds in total and we are only at the start of June. By September, what we don’t know about bed making, won’t be worth knowing. I feel a youtube tutorial coming on!