Rental Management February 2009 Issue
Event: A surprise 50th birthday party.
When and where: A family home on the Allegheny River, in Oakmont, Pa.
Background: “Our client wanted to surprise her husband for his 50th birthday with a spectacular summer party ‘on the river’ at their home,” says Dan Skena, CERP, owner of PartySavvy, Monroeville, Pa.
Timeline: PartySavvy was first contacted on June 19 for the event, scheduled for Aug. 22, 2008.
Other companies involved: “We contracted with Mark Cerasi of Sur-Loc Flooring to provide the flooring for this event. We referred our client to Bob Sendall of All in Good Taste Productions for event planning, catering, flowers and décor,” Skena says.
Installation process: “This was not a large job. However, since it was a surprise party, we had somewhat limited time to do the work. The party was scheduled for Friday night. We had the flooring installed on Wednesday. We installed things like the tent, dance floor and lighting on Thursday and delivered the balance of the order on Friday. We removed the entire job, except for the flooring on Saturday,” he says.
Challenges and solutions during the installation: The biggest challenge had to do with the flooring. We needed to build a level 32-ft.-by-32-ft. floor. The first 20 ft. of it was on the shore and the last 12 ft. of it was in the river. Sur-Loc Flooring constructed special footings to support all of the legs that were in the water. The footings were secured with large rocks to keep them from moving. The other challenge was the fact that the only access to the river level, which is where the flooring and tent was installed, was by carrying everything down a set of narrow, steep stairs by hand,” he says.
How did rental contribute to this event? “We used a clear-topped tent, which created an exceptional atmosphere for this very upscale party on the river. The tent was used to cover a bar, the DJ and the dance floor. The floor that the tent was installed on top of was 32 ft. by 32 ft. and it extended from the shore into the river. The tent was 20 ft. by 30 ft. We installed the tent on the shore side of the floor, which left a 12-ft.-by-32-ft. ‘patio’ area outside of the tent, where we placed some tall cocktail tables with bar stools. We also provided a number of our propane tiki torches, which gave the party a Caribbean resort sort of a feel. The linens were custom-made for this event to provide the look of a party on the water.
RM thanks PartySavvy, Monroeville, Pa., for this information.
