When it comes to planning a wedding, hiring a portable toilet is likely to be the last thing on your mind. Even those who have spent much of their childhood and adolescence envisaging every detail of their big day are unlikely to have given much thought to where guests will relieve themselves – but failure to do so is a sure-fire recipe for disaster.
Weddings typically involve tens if not hundreds of guests, alongside plentiful courses of food and an abundance of drink (alcoholic or otherwise). Those factors, coupled with the duration for which most nuptial events last, is guaranteed to create a need for adequate onsite facilities.
Even if you plan to host your wedding in a dedicated venue, there’s a chance that they will not have sufficient capacity to meet your bathroom needs, while the increasingly popular trend of hosting an outdoor ceremony in a remote location means that wedding toilet hire is a necessity rather than an option for many people.
When it comes to selecting the right portable toilets for your marriage ceremony, there are several factors you’ll want to keep at the front of your mind. We understand how stressful it can be to arrange an event that is so pivotal in the lives of those it features, where every little detail must be just right. That’s why we’ve compiled the following list of tips to take into consideration when planning out the restroom facilities for your special day.
Table of Contents
Do your sums
First and foremost, you want to ensure you have enough toilets to hand to satisfy the needs of all of your guests. After all, you don’t want anyone to miss the celebration because they had to wait in a seemingly endless queue due to a lack of available facilities. Similarly, anything you can do to discourage certain invitees from answering the call of nature in a nearby bush will help ensure big day goes off without a hitch.
While the exact number of restrooms that are required will vary, a good rule of thumb is to provide three stalls for males and four stalls for females for a wedding of around 150 guests, especially if you plan on serving food and alcohol. You may wish to consider upgrading to luxury toilet trailers (more on those later), since they can provide all the cubicles you need in one, easy-to-manage package. It goes without saying, of course, that you should factor in more toilets the higher the attendance figure you’re expecting.
Choose a suitable location
When it comes to positioning the toilets on your site, a strategic location is everything. On the one hand, you don’t want the toilets to disrupt the décor of your wedding or be placed too close to where people will sit, eat and dance. On the other hand, you don’t want the toilets to be so remote that people have to traipse back and forth from the main venue over a significant distance to reach them. It’s all about finding that highly sought-after middle ground.
To ensure that the toilets themselves don’t provide an unwanted backdrop to any of your wedding photos and that they remain out of the eyeline of guests until they actually require them, consider placing them at a remove of at least 100 metres from the main area where you will spend most of your time. If possible, position them behind other buildings or structures or even situate them in amongst a grove of trees to camouflage their appearance from afar.
Ensure access
Having said that, you don’t want the toilets to be so remote that guests can’t find them – or that the path leading to them becomes difficult to navigate. This can be a particular concern if you’re hosting an outdoor event, since the Great British climate has a habit of not playing ball when you need it to most. If you are placing the toilets at a significant remove from the main building or marquee, ensure that the path which connects the two is covered to avoid becoming waterlogged or muddy in rainy conditions.
Access is important not just for pedestrians, but also for the toilets themselves. When arranging wedding toilet hire, you’ll need to ensure that your chosen location can be reached by the vehicle that is bringing them onsite, especially if you’re plumping for trailers as opposed to standalone cubicles. With regard to the grove of trees idea raised earlier, you’ll also need to ensure that no branches are likely to scratch or damage the exterior of the unit, since that could result in an unpleasant and entirely avoidable penalty when it comes to returning them.
Don’t skimp on luxury
If there is one thing with which weddings are synonymous, it’s luxury and extravagance. That doesn’t have to be the case to host a successful event, of course, but if you’re planning on pushing the boat out with regard to all other aspect of your nuptials, it would be a crying shame to skimp when it comes to something as unglamorous but as imperative as wedding portable toilets. Substandard facilities can reflect poorly on the event as a whole, bringing down the tone for an otherwise impeccable event.
With that in mind, it’s a good idea to upgrade to luxury toilet trailers. Not only can these solve the problem of having enough WCs to satisfy the needs of your entire party, but they can also provide guests with a place to wash their hands, freshen up and check themselves in the mirror. It’s amazing how far the addition of ceramic toilet bowls, running water, silver sinks and full-size mirrors can go in creating an impression of professionalism and quality.
Budget accordingly
When it comes to portable toilet hire for weddings, cost is always going to be a factor. Indeed, marriage ceremonies on the whole are an expensive business, with umpteen items to factor into your budget. Venue, catering, decorations, flowers, transport arrangements, accommodation – the list is virtually endless. With that in mind, it’s essential that you create a thorough itemised rundown of everything you’re going to need for your big day, alongside an approximation of how much it is going to cost.
This will ensure that you stay under budget and don’t begin your new life with your beloved mired in debt. Of course, the hiring of luxury toilet trailers is a little more expensive than standard portable cabins, but the additional elegance they will bring to your big day should not be underestimated. After all, this is a once-in-a-lifetime occasion that you will look back on fondly for the rest of your days – you wouldn’t want to compromise because of poor bookkeeping before the event itself.
Order in advance
Another aspect of portable toilet hire for weddings which relates specifically to both the budget and pre-planning is the date at which you place the order for your toilets. For one thing, renting a portable toilet at the last-minute is invariably more expensive than reserving one as far in advance as possible, so organising your schedule early and placing your order at least three months before the day takes place will keep the associated costs down to a minimum.
That timeframe is also applicable to availability. Anyone who leaves it to the last minute to order the requisite facilities for their nuptials is asking for trouble, since portable toilets are often in high demand. That’s especially true when it comes to toilet trailers, since there are generally fewer of these units and they can be highly sought-after, particularly during the peak of wedding season. To avoid disappointment and panic, order your toilets a minimum of three months before the big day – but ideally even longer before that.
Include everyone
Weddings are a time for everyone to come together and revel in the union of two people who love each other dearly. The key word there is “everyone”. It’s no good hosting an event where some attendees are not catered for. On that note, ensuring that your toilet facilities are accessible to all is crucial to ensuring that your day is one to be remembered for all the right reasons.
This applies to any guests with special needs, disabilities or other physical or mental impairments that mean they require the use of an easy access toilet. The larger dimensions of these units allow for greater manoeuvrability, while the additional features such as grabrails and height-adjusted fittings ensure that everyone is made to feel welcome and valued.
As an added bonus, all of the easy access toilets provided by LetLoos come with dropdown tables and sanitary disposal bins to aid in baby changing for the parents and guardians of young children. It’s thoughtful touches like these that will really set your event apart.
Consider connectivity
Some portable toilets are entirely self-sufficient, requiring no external hook-up to either a water supply or electric mains. However, if you’re going the extra mile by hiring a portable toilet with all of the bells and whistles that you might expect at a prestigious event like a wedding, there’s a good chance you will need to consider these kinds of connections.
If the unit in question boasts heating, lighting and air conditioning, it’s likely that will need to be hooked up to an external power source. This can take the form of a mains outlet from a nearby building or a back-up generator, but will probably need too much juice for a battery or solar-powered contraption to meet its needs.
The same goes for the water. If the unit comes with an insufficient storage tank, you’ll need to investigate how to connect it to the main supply. As always, prior planning is your friend here. Talk to the toilet rental company and find out the requirements of the unit you wish to procure, then explore your options for making it viable in the location you have chosen.
Personalise to impress
As always with events like weddings, the devil is in the details. There is a whole industry based around organising and planning every last facet of a marriage ceremony, so the toilets should not escape those attentions. Of course, no decorations should be put in place which could permanently alter the appearance of the toilet unit or damage its structure, but adorning it with flowers, bunting and other embellishments is a great way to integrate it into the rest of your setup and maintain the same theme throughout.
For inspiration, you could try adding the following thoughtful decorations, supplies and other nice touches:
- A collage of the bride and groom, their family and the wedding party in the handwashing area is a great way to make the bathrooms more festive and personalised.
- Including a wicker basket filled with soaps, lotions and fragrances gives your guests the opportunity to refresh themselves and adds another personal touch in one fell swoop.
- While most portable toilets used at weddings will come with their own lighting, you can make the space really shine and sparkle with the addition of your own hanging lanterns, globes or even a disco ball!
- The addition of flowers and foliage can enhance any space, so why not take advantage of the power of greenery in your wedding bathrooms? Whether it’s a potted plant or a floral arrangement, your guests are sure to love it.
- Thank you notes. Remind your guests that you appreciate the effort they have made in coming to your special day by placing a note by the sink or even writing your thanks on the mirror (with a substance that can be easily washed off, of course!).
Small flourishes like this can take less than an hour to prepare, but can really make all the difference with regard to how your guests remember your nuptials.
Don’t let standards slip
If you’re going to go to all the effort of throwing a lavish wedding and hiring a portable toilet to cater to the needs of your guests, it would be a crying shame for standards to slip during the day itself. Of course, it’s likely that the venue themselves or the catering company you employ will provide their own staff to ensure everyone is having a good time within the main venue, but toilet maintenance is one job that might fall outside of their remit.
With that in mind, it could be a sensible idea to procure the services of professional toilet attendants and cleaners. Our dedicated staff are experienced in maintaining levels of hygiene and cleanliness to impeccable standards, while they can conduct routine visits to ensure that all essential supplies (such as toilet roll, soap and any other cosmetic products) are kept fully topped up as the evening wears on.
Hiring a portable toilet for your wedding
When it comes to an event as important and as unique as your wedding day, you don’t want to leave any detail to chance. That’s why it’s advisable to hire a reputable company with plenty of experience in the industry, who know what they are doing and can guaranteed your event goes swimmingly from start to finish. At LetLoos, that kind of consistent customer service is what we pride ourselves on.
Our extensive range of portable toilets, luxury toilet trailers and easy access toilets is equipped to meet the needs of any situation. Additionally, we offer tank emptying services for multi-day events and toilet attendant and cleaning services to ensure the facilities remain in as pristine condition as they arrived for the duration of your big day. As well as delivering the toilets to your site and overseeing their installation to the highest standards, we’ll also pick them up when the knot is tied and the honeymoon beckons.
As mentioned above, planning ahead is the all-important ingredient in any successful wedding. Why not start the ball rolling today? You can get in touch with our experienced and approachable team, who will be more than happy to talk through your options, provide any advice you might need and supply a free, no-obligation quote. If you’ve spent your whole life dreaming of this moment, don’t wait a day longer in putting the wheels in motion. Contact us today!
