Mrs. Hummingbird, Toronto
Age and Occupation: 25, Publishing Coordinator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Videogame Designer/Cartoonist
Engagement Date: May 4, 2007
Wedding Date: June 28, 2008
Blogging Since: September 18, 2007
Venue: A garden wedding followed by a tented reception on Mr. Hummingbird's father's property.
About Me: I’m a pop culture loving, vintage obsessed foodie living in Canada’s biggest city with my fantastic fiancé and our lovable fluffy cat Bettie. I’m stoked to marry my best friend and to throw what I hope will be
the most fun and colourful party of our lives.
The Crappy Side of Wedding Planning
March 27th, 2008 @ 8:32 am by Mrs. Hummingbird
As many of you know, we are planning to have the wedding at Mr. Hum’s father’s house out in the country. The wedding will be a tented affair in the backyard garden area and while the house will be adjacent to the tent, we are also having 80-90 guests which means more guests than their household bathroom will be able to accommodate. So, in light of this, we Humms have had to come up with alternative washroom arrangements for our large crowd which means . . . (oh yes ladies, I am going there . . .)
The portojohn!
Now we are getting ones that are prettier than this, ones with nice lighting and sinks and so forth, but I fully realize that there is still probably a bit of an ick factor associated with these suckers. After all, they are kind of mentally associated with camping, outdoor music festivals and other not-so-daisy-fresh events.
So here’s my issue - they’re a complete necessity but as ugly and unappealing as heck. How do I make them more bearable/jazz them up so my guests will feel cool about using them? Any suggestions to help shine up this . . . situation would be greatly appreciated. 
29 Responses to “The Crappy Side of Wedding Planning”
We had a similar but not quite the same problem - we got married at Hart House (UofT) which is a beautiful stone building…but it’s a student centre - and the washrooms were, well, yucky. My mom, a calligrapher, made some cute signs to hang on the bathroom stall doors that said “Thanks for roughing it with M & H” - everyone said they were very cute!
ekkkkk. I’m not going to lie - if I was at your wedding I would be afraid to drink so I wouldn’t have to use the bathroom…..
Perhaps some scented candles inside and definitly a sign like Hayley suggested above would be good.
I go camping every year and the ones with lighting and sinks are soooooo much better than the regular boxes…I would just say to maybe include nice quality paper hand towels (they sell them at target I believe), maybe some fresh flowers in vases, and have someone go through periodically to check the floor, the stalls, etc to make sure its all clean and in proper working order…Good luck!
I work an event annually that used to be held entirely in Epcot’s parking lot, and we had the nicer portajohns. The key is to keep them distracted - pictures, signs, we used to put up articles. But the most important sense to appease is the nose. Make sure you ventilate and keep it smelling nice!
Be sure to have someone checkign periodically that the bathrooms are clean and don’t need towels, tp or anything. Also if they only have the scratchy paper provide something nicer but still septic safe (Scott makes a brand like this and Charmin may as well). Provide nice towels, maybe some flowers and I like the idea of the scented candles. You could also offer the bathroom in the house as an alternative for the ladies and just make the gents use the porta johns. That’s what my aunt and uncle did for my cousins wedding.
Seriously the newer “nice” ones are ok– Cute potted plants outside– a nice little basket inside, as other mentioned nice paper products and some fresh flowers and you will be set.
Be sure they know when you rent that it is for a wedding so they send over a pretty one.
I think all these comments will be so helpful, no? Especially Hayley’s — I love those signs! Perhaps flower wreaths or something like that on the doors?
I’ve been to weddings that have used fancy loos like these:
http://www.norsic.com/royale.html
and it’s been absolutely fine! Just keep it smelling fresh and nobody will care. Also, portable loos get disgusting because disgusting people use them– but you’ll have only lovely, finely dressed people at your wedding, so they’ll probably be less inclined to do gross things in there!
Yes, there is an ick factor to portojohns. But the last outdoor tented wedding that I’ve been to had the ones with the nice lighting, porcelain sinks, 2-3 stalls, etc. I thought it was really nice.
What makes the portopotties so icky is that they are usually dirty. The seats are usually soiled, the floor is soiled, etc. As long as the one you are renting looks clean and “new”, then it’s really no problem. A nice scented bouquet of flowers by the sinks would be a nice touch (if you have the room).
I’ ve been to a garden wedding where they had a really nice one. It looked like a little hut, not like a typical one. There was a nice sink with candles on it and there was a wreath on the outside.
It would be cute to have like a bathroom attendent, kind of funny, standing outside obviously and then they would be able to check up on things like people mentioned.
I was at a trade show in February- one of the exibititors was a company that made “designer” port-a-potties. There was a white fiberglass one with pink/red hearts all over it. It was really neat and fun, and was getting tons of attention & compliments at the show. I haven’t found a photo of it yet, but I’ll try and track one down!
I went to a wedding last year with one of these. It was so cute that I took pictures. strong-smelling flowers and fresh mints really helped.
I had to go with these because the venue only had the scary port o johns (like your picture) and I couldn’t think of asking anyone in dress clothes to go there =P
I ended up renting a 2 stall trailer from a company called Royal Restrooms. All of the guests got a HUGE kick out of the name and they really were nice - framed photo and plant in both rooms, lovely running hot and cold water…
In fact, I ended up hiding in the Ladies while my husband walked through to the ceremony site so he wouldn’t see me. There’s a hilarious picture of me peeking from around the bathroom door to see if he got past.
The groom’s mother and aunts were mortified at the idea of a portapotty, but later described the one we got as “the nicest portapotty I’ve ever seen.” We happened to get it from a company that specializes in weddings and similar events, but if you’re getting it from a company that deals with construction sites—and I know you’re never supposed to say “wedding” to a vendor, but—you might just explain the situation. They might have a pristine new one they’ll earmark for you.
We had a fancy one, and people LOVED IT! Like, it was crazy, it was seriously one of the most talked about things at our wedding. Everyone kept saying how it was the best smelling BATHROOM period they’d ever been in, and the lights turned on automatically when you stepped in (weight on the floor I think?) which created hours of entertainment for the very young (or drunk) guests. I’ve been meaning to post on this, since I have a ton of pictures that people took of themselves with the portapotties because they were such a hit. So yeah, as long as you get ones with space to move around inside and running water that smell good, you should be fine! And it will up your wedding’s amusing novelty factor as well. 
Just like everyone else, I attended a wedding that had very nice and clean portapotties. The best thing about it, though, was that at night it got very dark and unless you were under the tent, it was hard to navigate your way to go pee but the couple had installed those Canadian Tire lawn lamps and made a lighted path to the toilet. It was cute.
There are already tons of great ideas here, but you could also search the archives at Offbeatbride.com; Ariel did a post on this a while back and had some great photos.
I would totally go with one of the trailer units. I actually work in demolition safety, and the company I work for has a lot of the trailer units. The nicer ones come with ventilation systems (heat and air), and with hot and cold running water in the sinks. Ours also have showers. The biggest advantage is that everything is just like in a normal public bathroom - you’re not cramped into a tiny space, and there are even mirrors over the sinks. FYI Ms. Bluebell, the automatic lights are on a motion sensor.
I think MsB is way off and perhaps is basing her comment on the picture shown. Port-o-johns were a necessity at our wedding, so we ordered up the nice wedding white ones with the running water. There was a tiny shelf, so we put a scented candle and specialty soaps and towels there. On the outside, we had a small table with additional necessities; Purell wipes, bug spray, tampons, clear nail polish, a couple of combs, etc.
No one, not even my uppity, finicky, mildly-snooty Aunt F, had any issues or qualms about the arrangements.
The nice potties are great. They don’t smell they have some with flushing toilets and running water. I went to one event and they all had airconditioning as well.
Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend. Just the idea of a port-o-potty scares me
I also didn’t realize that there were “nice” ones, but it seems that people can vouch for these newer snazzy potties which is great.
I just have a thing for clean bathrooms, and “port-o-potty” and “clean” do not go hand in hand for me. But I’ll take your word that you can find nice ones!! I’m sure it will all be wonderful - as long as you can actually get one of these newer ones!
I’m not going to say eek. But like MsB, I wouldn’t use them either.
HOWEVER, I totally blame myself and no one else for me being absolutely ridiculous. Please don’t try to cater to people like me. The vast majority of people will not care at all. I believe they are referred to as “normal”
(Seriously, I once held it for almost 2 days to avoid portajohns - My poor kidneys were ready to stage a walk-out.)
Are you having a trailer port-o ? Those aren’t that bad. I would put a bottle of Lysol (spray or wipes) in each stall, but I’m a bit of a germophobe. When I worked events, we used a small clip on fan from wal*mart to keep the air moving.
Great suggestions above, but I will just add DO NOT let guests use the bathrooms in the house! My friend had her reception at home and the plumbing just couldn’t deal with the high frequency and it clogged their entire system, even though the toilets didn’t clog up (at first!).
PLEASE, for the sake of your future relationship with FIL Hum, make the house OFF LIMITS!
Also, for you port-a-pottyphobes, the trailer style do not work like the traditional kind where the “stuff” just collects at the bottom, but more like the bathroom on a motor home, with flush toilets that send the “stuff” to a separate collection tank. So, it’s really no worse than using any other public restroom.
The comments above are helpful but I think having nice soap in there plus a basket of essentials on the sink - lotion, hairspray, bandaids and other emergency fixes or things that might be included in a bathroom basket at any venue for wedding guests to use.
I also like the sign idea and scented candles or room spray (though an automatic air freshener might be preferable). I also second the nice but septic safe toilet paper idea!
Don’t be bothered by your portojohn! I’ve seen ones at bridal shows that were super nice.
Last fall I did a wedding for a couple getting married out in a large pecan grove. I had them rent a large $1000 unit that housed 3 bathrooms. We were amazingly impressed with that fact that the rental company provided pictures, plants and several other cute little items in each individual bathroom. It was great and every single guest commented on how it was the best porta potty they had ever seen!
One word: Tulle.
Check out this site, http://www.royalrestrooms.com !!! They have really nice restrooms and don’t mess with the regular ones like your picture. My sister used one at her wedding and it was the talk of the party.
