What a Chicago rooftop actually demands from a tent
Water barrels are not ballast. Here is the arithmetic we run before we quote any structure above the fourth floor.
Sixteen thousand square feet of inventory in Bridgeport, a fleet that knows every freight elevator from Salvage One to the Geraghty, and a crew that sets a room before your florist arrives.
Every line below sits on our own racks in Bridgeport. Slide through a category to see what is in stock, then add pieces straight to your quote.
Frame, pole and clear-top structures sized from a driveway to a 400-seat field.
Rounds, banquets, cocktail and farm tables — counted and wiped before they load.
Four thousand chairs on the racks, from $3 folders to gold Chiavari.
Laundered and pressed in-house, folded flat, never shipped creased.
Plates, chargers, flatware and glass — polished and racked by the ten.
Sofas, ottomans and bars that turn a corner of the room into a lounge.
Arches, backdrops, pedestals and centrepieces for the photographed corners.
String, uplight and chandelier packages, all with cable and dimming sorted.
Speakers, mics, projectors and screens tested on the bench before pickup.
Parquet, checker and LED floors plus risers, stairs and rail.
Ceremony and reception pieces, from the arch to the champagne wall.
Photo booths, lawn games and machines that keep a room busy between courses.
Chafers, urns, dispensers and back-of-house gear for any caterer.
Chicago has two seasons. We rent for both of them.
Power, barriers, umbrellas and the unglamorous kit that makes a site work.
Rates shown are per rental day and exclude delivery, setup and tax. Ask for a package rate when you are booking three categories or more.
We are not a broker. Every item on this page is racked, washed and loaded by the same people who answer your call.
All 15 categories live on our own racks in Bridgeport — so a tent, 300 chairs and the chafing dishes arrive on the same truck with one contact and one bill.
The Loop, Fulton Market, Pilsen, Hyde Park, Evanston, Oak Park, Naperville and the North Shore. We know which alleys the box truck fits down.
Linen is laundered in-house, glassware is polished, and every crate is counted against your order before it leaves the dock.
Tents, floors and staging are installed by our own crew. You are not handed a pile of poles and a diagram.
You see the line for every chair. Nothing gets padded into a bundle you cannot read.
Send a guest count and an address and you get a scaled layout back, so you know the 30 × 60 actually clears the garage.
Bundled from the same stock as everything above — booked as one line, delivered on one truck.
Up to 50 guests
Everything a driveway, garage or back garden needs for an afternoon that runs long.
$675per day
Up to 150 guests
Ceremony through last dance, with the crew who set it staying for strike.
$2,850per day
150 – 400 guests
Stage, sound and shelter for conferences, galas and street festivals.
$6,400per day
Package prices are a starting point for a single rental day in the city. Delivery, setup, strike and tax are quoted on the address — and any line can be swapped for something else on this page.
No styled shoots. Every frame is a paying client's event, photographed the night it happened.
WHAT PLANNERS SAY
They arrived at Morgan Manufacturing at 6am with the freight schedule already cleared. I have never had a rental company do that before.
Two hundred and forty gold Chiavari for my daughter's wedding in Hinsdale. Not one scuffed leg in the whole count.
Storm rolled off the lake at four. Their crew re-ballasted the tent and stayed through dinner service. Worth every dollar.
The quote came back in a day with a floor plan I could hand straight to the venue. That never happens in September.
Their farm tables are the real thing — heavy, honest, no laminate. Guests kept asking where we bought them.
THE JOURNAL
Written by the people who load the trucks — practical, occasionally opinionated, always Chicago-specific.
Water barrels are not ballast. Here is the arithmetic we run before we quote any structure above the fourth floor.
A 17-inch seat width changes your table count more than most planners expect. We ran the numbers on a 200-guest room.
Six venues, six different additional-insured requirements. Save yourself the Friday afternoon phone call.
BEFORE YOU BOOK
If yours isn't here, our warehouse line picks up between 7am and 6pm, Monday to Saturday.
Call (312) 555-0148Sixty miles from our Bridgeport warehouse, which covers the city, the North Shore up to Lake Forest, the western suburbs through Naperville and Oak Brook, and the south suburbs to Frankfort. Anything beyond that we will still quote — it just carries a mileage line.
Delivery is a separate line, and so is labour. Tents, dance floors, staging and bars always include installation because they are not safe to self-install. Chairs, tables, linen and tabletop can be dropped at the dock if your venue permits it, which is usually the cheaper route.
For a Saturday between May and October, six to nine months. Tents and dance floors go first. Weekday and winter dates are usually available inside eight weeks, and we hold a small buffer of Chiavari and rounds for late bookings.
Tented events proceed — that is the point of the tent. For open-air setups we hold a weather call with you 72 hours out and can add sidewalls, flooring or a secondary structure at that point. Deposits move to a new date once at no charge if we make the call together.
Yes. We hold general liability at two million per occurrence and can name your venue as additional insured, usually within one business day. McCormick Place, Navy Pier and the Salt Shed each have their own wording — send us the requirement and we will match it exactly.
Six hundred dollars inside the city, one thousand for suburban deliveries. Will-call pickup from the warehouse has no minimum, and we load your vehicle for you.
Give us a guest count, a venue and a rough vision. You get an itemised quote and a scaled layout within two business days — no deposit, no obligation.
Delivery, installation and strike are included within 35 miles of our Bridgeport yard. Beyond that we quote mileage as a separate line so you can see it.
If your event site sits outside our normal service area, just let us know. We deliver farther out across Illinois and special accommodations can usually be made to suit your project.
Note: Extra mileage fees vary depending on how far you are outside the service area, and are always quoted as a separate line before you sign.
Guest count, venue and a rough vision is enough to start. You get an itemised quote and a scaled layout — no deposit, no obligation.
Tell us the date, the address and roughly how many people. You get an itemised quote and a scaled floor plan back — usually the same working day, always within 24 hours.