Quiz: Rentals and Production

Target: 70% or higher. Several questions require arithmetic.

Section 1: Multiple Choice (1 point each)

1. The three inputs to a rental order are:

  • A) Guest count, budget, and the venue's list
  • B) The floor plan, the guest count, and the caterer's exclusions list
  • C) The vision document, the budget, and the timeline
  • D) The venue contract, the guest count, and the season
Answer **B).** *Why B:* Without the floor plan you order the wrong number of tables. Without the guest count you order the wrong number of everything variable. Without the caterer's exclusions you either double-order tableware or arrive with none. *Reference:* §13.1

2. Linens should be counted:

  • A) One per guest
  • B) One per dining table
  • C) Per table — including every non-dining table — and sized to each table's size
  • D) At 15% over guest count
Answer **C).** *Why C:* Cocktail tables, buffet, cake, gift, and bar tables each need one, usually in different sizes. And a 120″ round covers a 60″ table to the floor while a 132″ covers a 72″ — **order by table size, not by table count.** *Reference:* §13.1

3. All-purpose glassware should be ordered at:

  • A) One per guest
  • B) One per guest + 10%
  • C) 2.5–3 per guest across the event
  • D) Two per guest
Answer **C).** *Why C:* Guests set glasses down and take a new one, and a bar cannot wash mid-service. **At 118 guests, ordering 130 instead of 320 produces a bar with no clean glassware at 8:40 p.m., and the only on-the-night fix is plastic.** *Reference:* §13.1

4. In the worked raw-site order, tent, flooring, and restrooms accounted for:

  • A) About 25% of the total
  • B) About 40%
  • C) About 63%
  • D) About 85%
Answer **C) 63% — $12,260 of $19,610.** *Why C:* The furniture and linens everyone thinks of as "the rental order" were $3,032. **A raw site's cost is infrastructure, not furniture** — Chapter 10's threshold concept arriving as an invoice. *Reference:* §13.1

5. A 40 × 60 tent and a 30 × 80 tent have the same area. The difference is:

  • A) Cost only
  • B) The 30-foot span forces a long thin room where the dance floor cannot be central and service must run the length
  • C) Anchoring requirements
  • D) Nothing significant
Answer **B).** *Why B:* **Square footage is necessary and not sufficient — the proportion matters as much as the area.** A 30 × 80 fits on paper and fails as a room (Chapter 11 §11.3). *Reference:* §13.2

6. Tent flooring costs roughly:

  • A) $0.25–$0.50 per sq ft
  • B) $2–$4 per sq ft installed
  • C) $8–$12 per sq ft
  • D) It is included in the tent price
Answer **B) $2–$4 per sq ft installed** — which on a 40 × 60 is $4,800–$9,600, **frequently more than the tent.** *Reference:* §13.2

7. A 20-amp circuit at 120 V provides how much usable power?

  • A) 2,400 W
  • B) 1,920 W
  • C) 2,880 W
  • D) 1,200 W
Answer **B) 1,920 W** — 2,400 W nominal, loaded to no more than 80%. *Why:* Loading a circuit to capacity trips it, and it trips when everything is running at once. **Wildrye Farm's two circuits give 3,840 W total.** *Reference:* §13.3

8. 400 feet of incandescent string lighting versus LED is a difference of roughly:

  • A) 50 W
  • B) 300 W
  • C) 2,000–3,700 W
  • D) 10,000 W
Answer **C).** LED draws 60–100 W per 100 ft; incandescent draws 600–1,000 W. Over 400 feet that is 320 W against 2,400–4,000 W. **A single aesthetic choice can add a generator size.** *Reference:* §13.3

9. A caterer's equipment list belongs in the RFP because:

  • A) It affects the menu
  • B) Electric warming and refrigeration can be 40%+ of an event's total electrical load, so it is a generator-sizing decision
  • C) It determines the load-in time
  • D) It is required by the venue
Answer **B).** *Why B:* 15 kW versus 10 kW is roughly $400–$700 of generator and fuel, decided by a line in an RFP. **Discovered in week two it is a change order; asked in the RFP it is free.** *Reference:* §13.3

10. The load-in rule about flooring is:

  • A) Flooring goes in after the tables so it is not damaged
  • B) Nothing goes on a floor that is not down
  • C) Flooring is optional on level ground
  • D) Flooring and tables can be installed in parallel
Answer **B).** *Why B:* The most common sequencing error. Tables placed before flooring must all be moved, which is the entire task done twice. *Reference:* §13.4

11. All vendor work should be complete:

  • A) When guests arrive
  • B) 15 minutes before guests arrive
  • C) 45 minutes before guests arrive
  • D) Two hours before guests arrive
Answer **C) 45 minutes.** *Why C:* That margin absorbs slippage, lets the planner walk the room (Chapter 27), and gives vendors time to clear guest areas and move vehicles. Scheduling to the moment of arrival means every delay is visible to guests. *Reference:* §13.4

12. A "flip" is:

  • A) A free alternative to a second chair set
  • B) A line item with named people and a duration, typically 4–6 people for 45–90 minutes
  • C) Something the caterer's staff handle
  • D) A rental company service
Answer **B).** *Why B:* $0 in rental and $250–$500 of somebody's labour. **The caterer's staff are not available — they are plating.** And the guests must be elsewhere and unable to see it. *Reference:* §13.4

Section 2: True/False with Justification (1 point each)

13. A tent solves the weather problem.

Answer **Partly, and it introduces new ones.** Rain: solved, **if the floor is down and sidewalls are available.** Wind: a tent makes weather *more* binding, because most suppliers have a wind speed above which they will refuse to erect or will strike — and that is in the contract. Heat: a closed tent in sun can be hotter than outside. And **ground saturation is a load-in risk** — three days of rain before a dry Saturday still means a field a truck cannot cross.

14. A four-hour delivery window is cheaper and therefore better.

Answer **Cheaper, and not necessarily better.** A load-in is a dependency chain. If flooring cannot start until the truck arrives, and the truck may come any time between 8 and noon, **the entire downstream chain must be planned from the latest possible arrival.** The window's saving is real and the schedule cost may be larger. Price the tighter window against the labour and margin it protects.

15. The damage waiver is insurance.

Answer **False.** It typically covers accidental damage and **typically excludes loss, theft, and damage from misuse.** Practically: it covers a broken glass and not a crate of glasses that never came back. Missing items are charged at replacement cost, which is several times the rental rate.

16. Client property at the end of the night is the planner's responsibility.

Answer **In practice yes, and it should be assigned to a named person who is not the planner.** Gifts, cards, cake top, guest book, personal décor. By default it is nobody's job, at 11 p.m., after sixteen hours. **Assign it before the event, in writing, to a family member, a member of the wedding party, or a paid assistant — with a physical list and a box.**

17. A rental company only needs a list of items.

Answer **False, and sending a floor plan instead is free.** A rental company given a to-scale plan will tell you that your tables do not fit at 5-foot spacing, that your bar will not come through the door, and that the flooring you have not ordered is required — **at quote stage, because it saves them a difficult morning.** They are the vendor most able to catch a layout error and the least often asked.

Section 3: Short Answer (2 points each)

18. A caterer's proposal says "china, glassware, and flatware included." How much glassware do you order, and why is the answer not zero?

Sample Answer Not zero, and probably around 180 for 100 guests. The caterer's inclusion covers **the meal** — water glasses and wine glasses at the table for dinner service, perhaps 95 pieces for 100 guests. It does not cover the bar across cocktail hour, the evening, and dancing. At 2.5–3 glasses per guest across the whole event, 100 guests need roughly 275. Subtract what the caterer supplies and the gap is around 180. **A planner who reads "glassware included" and orders none produces a bar on plastic by nine o'clock.** The question to put in writing is: *"Does your glassware provision cover bar service throughout the event, or table service at dinner only?"* *Rubric:* Must distinguish meal service from bar service; must compute a gap; full credit gives the written question that settles it.

19. Explain why the bar was built at 1 p.m., before the tables, in the resolved load-in.

Sample Answer Because the bar structure cannot come through the 32-inch doorway assembled and must be built in place — which requires floor space that the tables will occupy. Once thirteen rounds are placed, there is no room to assemble a bar, and moving tables to make room means doing the table placement twice. **It is a hard dependency created by a doorway measurement** taken at the site survey (Chapter 10 §10.4) — and it is invisible on any list of load-in tasks. It only appears when the sequence is drawn as a chain and each item is asked what it needs to have happened first. *Rubric:* Must identify the doorway as the cause and floor space as the mechanism; full credit notes that it is invisible in a list and visible in a dependency chain.

20. A tent quote is $4,400. What else must you budget, and roughly how much?

Sample Answer The tent is one of four subsystems. For a 40 × 60 (2,400 sq ft): - **Flooring**, $2–$4/sq ft installed: **$4,800–$9,600.** Frequently more than the tent. - **Sidewalls**, ideally as standby — delivered, installed only if needed: **$250–$400** - **Lighting**, since a tent at 8 p.m. is dark: **$1,000–$2,800** - **Heating or cooling** as standby: **$400–$800** - **Anchoring** — staking (needs a utility locate) or ballast, which costs more and takes perimeter floor space - **Permit and engineering drawings** for a temporary structure: **$100–$500** (Chapter 9) **Realistic all-in for a "$4,400 tent": $11,000–$18,000.** *Rubric:* Must name all four subsystems; must identify flooring as frequently exceeding the tent; full credit includes anchoring and the permit, and gives a realistic all-in range.

Section 4: Applied Scenario (5 points)

21. A wedding for 150 guests at a private estate. Venue access 1:00 p.m.; ceremony 5:00 p.m.; guests from 4:30 p.m.; all property removed by midnight.

Requirements: a 40 × 80 frame tent (5 hours to install), flooring (2 hours), 19 tables and 154 chairs (2.5 hours), a separate ceremony chair set on the lawn, lighting, a band, a caterer with a field kitchen, one bar, and a restroom trailer. The estate has a 60-amp service in an outbuilding 140 feet from the tent site.

Produce: (a) whether the load-in fits, with arithmetic; (b) your resolution, costed; (c) the power analysis; (d) the strike plan and the two things that will go wrong.

Sample Answer **(a) It does not fit, and it is not close.** Tent 5 hrs + flooring 2 hrs + tables and chairs 2.5 hrs = **9.5 hours on the critical path**, before lighting, linens, florals, catering, bar, or sound check. From 1:00 p.m. access, the critical path alone completes at **10:30 p.m.** Guests arrive at 4:30. **Shortfall on the critical path alone: six hours.** And the 45-minute margin requires everything complete by 3:45 p.m., which means **8¾ hours of work must fit in 2¾ hours.** **(b) Resolution.** **This cannot be solved by sequencing.** It requires either earlier access or a day-before install, and the second is the real answer. 1. **Tent installed the day before.** Standard practice at estates and the only realistic route. Requires the estate's agreement and a security consideration for an unattended tent overnight. **Cost: typically a modest overnight or additional-day fee, $300–$800.** *This removes 5 hours from the critical path.* 2. **Flooring also the day before**, immediately after the tent. *Removes 2 more hours.* 3. **Early access on the day, 9:00 a.m.** for furniture, lighting, linens, and vendors. Negotiate at contract stage (Chapter 8). **$0–$500.** 4. **Ceremony chairs delivered the day before** with the tent, staged and covered. **Revised critical path from 9:00 a.m.:** tables and chairs 9:00–11:30 · lighting parallel · linens 11:30–12:30 · florals 12:30–2:00 · caterer 1:00 · bar built before tables *(check the doorway)* · sound check 2:30 · **complete 3:45.** ✓ **Total cost of resolution: roughly $800–$1,300**, and it converts an impossible schedule into one with margin. **(c) Power.** **60 amps at 240 V** = 14,400 VA nominal; at 80% loading, **11,520 W usable.** *(If the service is 60 A at 120 V single-phase, it is 5,760 W usable — establish which, because it changes the answer entirely.)* Estimated load: band 3,500 · lighting 1,200 · restroom trailer 2,500 · caterer 3,000 (assumed propane cooking, electric holding) · bar refrigeration 700 = **10,900 W**, plus 25% headroom = **13,625 W.** **Against 11,520 W usable, this is over.** Options: reduce the caterer's electric load, or bring a supplementary generator (10 kW, ~$700 with distro and fuel). **And the distance is a second problem.** The service is 140 feet from the tent. That is a substantial cable run requiring correctly sized cable to avoid voltage drop, plus **cable ramps at every path crossing** — which is a specification question for a production supplier, not a guess. **(d) Strike, and the two things that will go wrong.** Removal by **midnight** with an event presumably ending around 11:00 p.m. is **the real problem in this scenario** and is easy to miss behind the load-in. One hour to strike a 40 × 80 tent, flooring, 19 tables, 154 chairs, a bar, lighting, a band's equipment, a field kitchen, and a restroom trailer. **It cannot be done**, and it will be attempted by tired people in the dark. **Resolution:** negotiate next-morning removal at contract stage — the same conversation as the early access, and the two should be asked together. If genuinely impossible, the event must end at 9:30 p.m., which is a client decision made in month three rather than a discovery in month eleven. **The two things that will go wrong:** 1. **Client property.** At 11 p.m., with a midnight deadline and everyone stripping the room, the card box and the cake top are the things that go missing. **Assign them, in writing, to a named person who leaves at 11:15.** 2. **Linens.** In a rushed strike they end up on the floor, in the dark, wet, and charged at replacement cost. **Somebody bags and counts them, and it must be assigned** — most likely the caterer, in writing, at contract stage. *Rubric:* | Criterion | 0 | 1 | 2 | |---|---|---|---| | Fit (a) | Says it does not fit | Computes the critical path | Computes it, states the shortfall against the **45-minute margin**, and notes it cannot be fixed by sequencing | | Resolution (b) | Vague | Proposes early access | **Day-before install** as the primary move, ordered, costed, with the overnight security consideration noted | | Power (c) | Sums the loads | Sums and compares | Sums, compares, **flags the 240 V/120 V ambiguity as decisive**, and identifies the 140-foot run as a separate specification problem | | Strike (d) | Lists tasks | Notes the deadline is tight | Identifies the midnight deadline as **the real problem in the scenario**, proposes negotiating it alongside early access, and names both failure modes with owners | *Scoring: (a)=1, (b)=1.5, (c)=1.5, (d)=1.*

Scoring and Next Steps

Score Assessment What to do
Under 50% Needs review Re-read §13.1, §13.3, §13.4. Redo Part A and B.2.
50–70% Partial Do B.4 and B.5 by hand. The power arithmetic and the dependency chain are the chapter.
70–85% Solid Proceed to Chapter 14. Get a real price list (C.1) first.
Over 85% Strong Proceed. Deep Dive: case-study-02.md and exercise E.1.

Regardless of score: do C.4 if you possibly can. Watching one load-in teaches what this chapter can only describe.