Guide to Renting Dance Floors

by Danielle Andrews, President of The Wedding Planners Institute of Canada Inc.

More and more couples are choosing non-traditional venues for their weddings, which means wedding planners need to help them convert these spaces in to functional wedding spaces.  Often this means bringing in tables, chairs, caterers, tents, heaters, fans, restrooms, and of course, a dance floor.

When renting a dance floor there are a few things to consider:

• Will the dance floor be on an existing floor, concrete slab, bricks pavers, or grass?
• How large of a dance floor will be needed?
• A standard dance floor or something special?

What will the dance floor be sitting on?

Dance floors are usually rented in 3’x3’ square sections.  Its important obvious safety reasons, that a dance floor be level, so where the dance floor is being placed, will determine how much work will be involved and therefore how expensive the installation will be.  Placing a dance floor on uneven ground such as grass, sand or dirt, will require shim and leveling each square of dance floor.

How big should the dance floor be?

As mentioned above, dance floors are usually rented in 3’x3’ square sections.  At any given time, it is estimated that only about 1/3 or 33% of the guests will be on the dance floor, so you only need to rent a space for that many people. You should allot 4.5 square feet per dancer.

Here is a guide:

Standard Dance Floor or Something Special?

A dance floor is an important element of the wedding reception if you are planning to have a dance party.  A lot of people don’t think about dressing up their dance floors, but truly a dance floor is the center piece of the entire room!  Why not dress it up?

Dance floor squares come in various colors of wood, plank or parquet, black and white checkerboard tiles, there are light up dance floors, etc.  You can create absolutely anything with a custom vinyl over top of a dance floor to make the dance floor look like marble, stained glass, flowers, or personalized with the couple’s name and wedding date. A vinyl floor cover should be thought of as wedding decor, because it can completely transform the look of a room.