How to make a wedding porta potty less gross and more awesome
Reception Advice
By
on January 07, 2007
32 Responses
To get away with the budget we've set our for ourselves, private property is a must for our location. This means Honey Buckets for everyone. If we go that route, how do we tactfully let guests know that's the deal? -Jennifer Ernst
Porta potties have gotten a bad rap at music festivals and campgrounds. Typically, the blue-water nightmares at crowded outdoor events are poorly maintained and abused by drunks, and you're more likely to find a turd on the toilet seat than you are a roll of toilet paper. But have you ever been in a freshly-delivered porta potty? They're actually just fine! Clean, unsmelly, and totally inoffensive. If you get porta potties for the property where you're hosting your wedding, you'll see that they aren't as bad as you thought. But porta potties are secretly hilarious to everyone, and your goal is to make the most of that.
… Porta potties are secretly hilarious to everyone, and your goal is to make the most of that.
THAT SAID! Guests could indeed be a little bit shocked upon arrival, so you're wise to let them know what to expect.
IDEA THE FIRST: HUMOR
A little humor can go a long way towards making it seem like, sure: you know this is a little uncouth, but we're all friends here and isn't this funny?! Because really: poo is always funny! Make the most of this comedic goldmine, but do it in a classy way if you can.
IDEA THE SECOND: POETRY
Might I suggest a poem? Because poetry always makes feces seem classy. Limericks, especially! Perhaps something like this could be included with your invites:
A note about the facilities:
Since our wedding is on lovely but private land,
Our restroom options are limited — but we've planned
To have porta potties for all of you,
To make use of whilst you do things like pee and poo,
And we promise the potties will be quite grand.
IDEA THE THIRD: DECORATE
Then of course you'll need to follow through on your promise — "grand" porta potties? Oh YES, darling. You really haven't done wedding decorations until you've spruced up a porta potty. You could go simple and floral, like this or this. Perhaps a fish theme? (er, then again, perhaps not.) Make sure you include at least a couple strings of battery-powered Christmas tree lights, but don't go quite this over the top. Put a few nicely scented candles inside the porta potty, and post more poetry or even the story of how the two of you met on the inside of the door where toilet-seated guests can read it and enjoy it.
But seriously: have fun with it. Go by the theory that if you make fun of yourself first, no one else seems to gripe on their own. You KNOW the porta potties aren't classy, so mock them and make the most of it. Hell, cheezy bride & groom toilet paper anyone? Why the fuck not! Find a fun way to let your guests know in advance (my poem may be way over the top, but you get the idea), and then do what you can to add a little hilarious flair to the facilities themselves.
… And if your guests give you grief for using porta potties, you just tell about MY wedding, where guests pooped into sawdust-filled buckets using a composting system my mother calls "humanure." I am not kidding.
For a great example of an offbeat bride who had porta potties at her wedding, check out Katie's wedding, and her porta potty pictures.
About Ariel Meadow Stallings
Author of Offbeat Bride: Creative Alternatives for Independent Brides, Ariel acts as the publisher of all the Offbeat Empire websites. She lives, loves, and dorks out hard in Seattle, WA.
April said
I went to a wedding that had porta potties this summer, and they were actually really nice. They were very clean and decorated with flowers, and the water was cinnamony instead of having that overpowering disinfectant smell. It was even really hot outside and they never got stinky.
maya said
Hi Ariel!
I'm a wedding planner in Santa Barbara and I would LOVE to get one of your books – my brides are, by and large, semi traditional, but I always (strongly) encourage them to make some new traditions/fun touches in their weddings. If you've got any links for Seattle based paperies, I'd love to get them – I've got a cool couple up there right now and would like to direct them to a cost-effective and cool printer.
Cheers and LOVE the flickr pool!
Julia said
I'm getting married this summer in a beautiful grove of oak trees on a farm, but…gulp…porta potties! I am so glad to hear from someone else going that route too. We looked at a number of places that were more practical, but this place felt magical to us. However, since we met and fell in love at Burning Man, our impressions of porta potties are foul! My mom ended up convincing me that it would be fine and that clean ones really aren't that bad.
We've decided, though, that we're not going to warn our guests. I don't want to hear it from anyone before the wedding, and once they are at the party they'll be having so much fun, they won't even think about it.
Ariel said
Aha! Julia, I see you're using the ol' "Don't ask/don't tell" method, an extremely effective way of minimizing pre-wedding back-talk from guests. What they don't know about, they can't gripe over! Excellent advice.
Shannon said
I went to a wedding last summer here in Phoenix. It was in the evening, but even so, the temperature was probably 100 degrees. They had something I had never seen before, a portable toilet trailer. It was air conditioned, had decorations, stalls, lights, sinks and even the radio playing. I found a site that had similar ones:
http://www.partypop.com/Vendors/4113087.htm
JenMoon said
Porta Potty trailers are the bomb! But if you can't afford that, Porta Potties are really not so bad. We have our permanent one (yeah, don't even ask; it's for our "pretend nightclub" strung up with lights and sometimes candles and make it always smell good. It's nice to know ahead of time so you a) know to bring something to wrap around you to go outside to use it if it's not an outdoor wedding and b) know not to wear heels if it's in dirt or grass.
BTW, I love invites that specifically tell you that you might want to avoid spike heels. I'd always rather know ahead of time what to wear and not to wear.
Esther said
I would think it would be helpful to rent at least one of the disability-accessible double-wide type porta potties, if it doesn't cost a ton more. It could be easier for older family members who have less mobility, and they're less claustrophobic than the normal size ones.
nani said
the port-a-potties at my sister's wedding doubled as the perfect venue for a clambake, if you know what i mean…
thekidds said
Thanks using my Christmas port-a-potty as a visual aid. I'm glad it continues to entertain past the holiday season!
Kim Long said
Much love for a well-placed port-a-pottie, here. One of my brides looked somewhat askance at me,
"You. Are. Not. Taking. A picture. Of the portalet, are you?!"
I thought it was awesome, and the mirror hanging in the tree next to it was just too fabulous.
annie said
we're have porta loos & that xmas portaloo rocks. we're going for full on cheese for the decs on em. heehee
Nikki said
At our beach wedding on 07/07/07 We created a "necessary room" with a charming sign. We used bright fabric hung from ribbon on trees – we rented handicapped porty potties – we upgraded to the flushable and sink inside hand washing units. No problem!. We added hand towels, lights and mirror fabulous and no complaints!
Tammy said
Great tips. My June wedding is scheduled now for a state park… which means no porta-potties, but *gulp* the standard state park latrine (2 seater hole in teh ground type). Thinking about carpet squares, plenty of scented candles and such. Hopefully it won't be horrible.
Tarah said
Our wedding is also in a park. I hadn't even thought about the condition of the bathrooms until this. Now, I think I'll decorate them. We're having an eco-friendly wedding, so I'll add removable decals (you can buy printer sheets to customize them)to the mirrors and stall doors, recycled toilet paper and tissues, ribbon on door handles, maybe some decorated folding chairs for those waiting, nice bottles of hand soap, definately a basket or two of useful items like deodorant and hand sanitizer, and possibly some greenery.
http://www.avery.com/avery/en_…18140aRCRD
Also, for anywone having a Vegas style wedding, check out this door decoration: http://albums.mouseplanet.com/…ichsel.jpg
For Star Wars geeks: http://www.2dayblog.com/images…throom.jpg I especially like the sign "The Force is With You"
Also, if you google "Decorated porta pottie" you'll find tons of other ideas. For odors, be sure to ask the rental company if they offer anything to reduce or mask the ordors like these tablets: http://www.eco-tabs.com/produc…oilet.html
Jennifer said
"Because poetry always makes feces seem classy".
Just brilliant!
lindsay said
Check out our porta-potties from our summer wedding!!…
Tarah said
OMG- you actually make me wish we had porta potties! This is probably the best set-up I've seen. I especially like the shaded waiting area.
Ashilleong said
Oh My God! Lindsay, that is so frikken cool!
Michelle said
My cousin did an outdoor wedding with Portapotties, and he had a small vase of flowers inside and a basket of free "helpful items" like mosquito repellant, perfume, lotion, hand sanitizer, free combs, tampons and condoms. It was nice, and the flowers went a long way toward cheaply dressing up the porta potty
intimeoflilacs said
i think shelling out for the portable sink (usually foot pedal powered) makes the difference.
Julie Matski said
Lindsay's post above with the white tent over the white portable toilets is AMAZING! What a GREAT idea! At our wedding on a farm, we rented a big white bathroom trailer (called a vip bathroom i think) from http://www.aysrentals.com and surrounded it with white painted tiki torches and a dozen or so rented trees and flower pots from the local garden center. This made it blend in (sortof) with the woods behind it. We also did the same trick of loading up the bathroom with flowers and candles to make it a 'romantic' bathroom (well, as close as you can get to romantic given that it is a public bathroom). Ours looked really nice, but I think Lindsey definitely raises the bar!
porta potty said
We hosted my sisters wedding in our backyard and found that some simple white christmas lights on a white porta potty looked surprisingly elegant. I dont think every solution to this problem needs to be expensive.
Carol Cummings said
Wow – I love porta potty's idea of white lights! I think that would be, well I hesitate to say lovely, because it is a porta potty after all, but still… When we got married last October we had white portapotties with flowers and flushing toilets – they were really nice, and all our guests were happy with them . I wish I had thought of the white lights – if we ever do a backyard vow renewal, that'll be the way we go!
Portable Restrooms said
Oh my. You did a great job Lindsay. Thanks for the idea. I think I'm copying those for my wedding.
JE$S said
this was definitely the funniest post i have seen on this site! love the idea of putting the story of you meeting on the wall!!!! hahahaha
Elly said
Yeah, properly maintained port-a-potties are fine. Just make sure you have enough for the number of guests and the duration of the reception (take into account imbibing for the number of uses).
Lane Ellen said
We are totally using port a johns. Most of our friends already use them regularly (Pennsic peeps). But I LOVE what Lindsay has done with them – keeping them cooler makes a difference in the aroma…for certain.