Yep, now you are talking my language. I never do anything half way. If I can't be pretty much the best in the show, I wonder if it's not worth the time or expense, because, to my way of thinking, all the time, effort and expense that goes into producing a great wedding show booth ( or whatever ) MUST result in lots of buzz around town, and ensure that I get lots of bookings.
Anyhow, here is what I have come up with, to make your booth kick ass amazing.
Eleven years ago, I was asked to present at a symposium celebrating the upcoming millenium. I designed a huge "box", basically a 12foot by 12foot by 12foot structure that had a 4 foot ball suspended from the ceiling, which rotated on a small electric motor. The ball was covered in blue hydrangea blossons glued all over it to represent the oceans of the world, with moss and peat glued on, to show the continents, and countries,... it had spotlights that uplighted from the floor, and more spots that lit it from every corner... then, from those four corners I had 16 smaller aluminum tubes that extended upwards and outwards, and from the tops, I had hundreds of oncidium orchids and gloriosa lilies exploding up into space.....It was awesome!!
But sorry, I digress.
Basically what I imagine for you is an oversized chuppa frame. Mine was made from aluminum...I designed it on paper, and took it to a local welder...he worked it out. It was made so that the four outer posts all stand up independantly, or they can be attatched to a square roof frame, that is made from tubing 1/2 inch bigger that the 4 posts. The top simply slips onto the 4 posts, and holds it ridgid. Once the basic 4 legged rooftop frame is in place, it can be decorated in many different ways. It cost me about 250$ to have made, but I have rented it out many times, as different things, and with or without the top peice. Sometime it's a chuppa, (but not often, because we are closed on Sundays). A few times it has been a covered "trellis" in a garden wedding, a lot of times it has been used as flag bearers for parades, and twice it has been used to completely cover a head table in a grand banquet hall. One year, I set it up in my garden and used it to hang a bunch of pre-chopped up English Ivy planrs for the summer, to grow them back to cutting stage. So I have more than gotten my money backover the last 11 years. Because it is made of aluminum, it looks the same today as it did when it was frst made. I store it in my garage, which also gives me a tax break.
So take your frame, or in your case, you may want to make two frames, ( 2 10foot by ten foot, by 12 feet tall) And now you have something from which you can make a ceiling of night sky, stars, and lights. The posts will act as a support for vines and foliage to create walls, or just as dividers for pedestal arrangements. You can enclose it as much as you like, by weaving branches between the main structure, or leave it open, by only covering the posts themselves.
You have access to electricity for your lights, and that is very important because you will not have much other light coming into your booth. This is something that would increase you labour component by quite a bit, so you need to think about that, but......
Seems like a solution that may actually develop into a great rental item for the future, and would definitly create lots of buzz for you at the wedding show....
One last word. If you decide to go this route, make friends with your local newspaper, or city magazine, or tv station in advance, because they will definitly give you some coverage if you pitch it right. I didn't learn that at the time, but now I know that if you're willing to do something really out of the box, the press will cover it for you, because they are always looking for a good story.
Let me know what you think.
JP
Lush dark red roses, velvet...fangs (j/k!!)
