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Location:
Holland, Michigan, USA |
A Perfect Wedding Atmosphere Created with a Fabric Covered Special Events Building |
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In 1964, the city of Holland, Michigan decided to bring over an authentic windmill from Netherlands. A year later, the city opened the doors of the beautiful Windmill Island, which is now known worldwide for its Tulip Time Festival. Every May, over half a million people are drawn to this part of the USA for the festival.
Not long after the park's inception, Windmill Island felt the pressure of becoming a fading destination as the attraction's competition grew. "We started to look around at how we could create more revenue," explains Ad van den Akker, Manager of Windmill Island, "Because we have such beautiful manicured gardens here, we came up with the idea about going into the wedding market." The new wedding facility would need to be suitable to create a wedding with an indoor and outdoor atmosphere, as well as fit into the park's existing buildings.
"After a couple of years we eventually came up with this tension fabric structure" says van den Akker, "We are very proud." The new fabric covered wedding and event facility has increased the competitiveness of this seasonal attraction by allowing the business to extend beyond the summer months. "When people talk about the wedding facility on Windmill Island, they have no clue that the fabric covered building is a permanent structure that stays up through our bad weather here. It works in rain or shine," van den Akker continues, "We can totally open it and it gives the outdoor feeling. When it rains, we can drop the doors and still have the very nice atmosphere. It can handle winds up to 90- 95 mph, snow load, you name it."
Customer response has been positive and that has raised awareness of the special event facility. They walk in and say, "Look at the beautiful soft liners you have in here". When you go into the wedding market, you have to have that ambience. They fall in love with it at first sight, and that makes it easier for us to sell it," says van den Akker.
The fabric building is versatile with several potential applications. "This tension fabric structure, besides the cement slab, can be picked up and moved to wherever you want. You can change it from a wedding facility to a storage facility. You can do all kinds of things with it, which is why we love it so much. There are not a lot of buildings out there that give you that flexibility of uses. That is one of the biggest reasons that we ended up with a fabric covered building," explains van den Akker.
"When it rains, we can drop the doors and still have the very nice atmosphere. It can handle winds up to 90 - 95 mph, snow load, you name it. " - Ad van den Akker |
