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Dancing on the clouds and dry ice low lying fog rental in Dallas-Fort Worth

The dancing on the clouds effect, run properly. We own it in four sizes and bring the one your floor and your moment call for, with an on-site technician on every booking and the cloud timed to land on the beat your first dance starts on.

4
Sizes of the effect. We bring the one your floor and your moment call for
100%
Delivered, set up, cued and operated by our technician
2001
Serving Dallas-Fort Worth since
40 mi
Service radius across the Metroplex, fully insured
Wedding AV packages Uplighting Dance floor lighting DJ services Get a quote
Shot at real DFW events

What the cloud looks like on a dance floor

Every clip below is our own footage, shot on the night at a booking we ran in Dallas-Fort Worth. Six rooms, each a different kind of venue: a daylight greenhouse, a grand ballroom, a stone hall, an uplit chapel, a live band on a stage and a rustic barn. Watch what the fog does at floor level, how flat it stays while people move through it, and how the color in the room reads back out of the cloud.

Greenhouse
A glass-roof venue in daylight, the hardest light a low lying fog effect ever has to hold up in.
Grand ballroom
Coffered ceiling, chandeliers, and a full-length gown moving through the layer while it stays flat on the floor.
Stone hall
Hard floors and a high ceiling. The cloud sits at knee height instead of climbing the room.
Uplit room
Teal uplighting read straight back out of the fog, the color in the room becomes the color in the cloud.
Live band
Weddings are only part of it. The same effect laid under a live band on a full stage, in a room several times the size.
Barn venue
A rustic barn floor, where the layer has to hold against a great deal more open air than a ballroom.
The effect, by the name most people use

Dancing on the clouds

Dancing on the clouds is a knee-deep layer of white fog laid flat across the dance floor. It stays down at floor level, leaves the air above it clear, and holds its edge at the tables. The couple stands above it rather than inside it, which is the whole point: from the front row and from the photographer’s position, the floor disappears and the two of you appear to be standing on a cloud.

It works because the fog is chilled. Warm fog rises and fills a room; cold fog sinks and stays. All four of our sizes do that same job by a slightly different route, three chill the fog by passing it through a basket of dry ice, and the fourth chills it with an onboard ultrasonic water system and runs on fluid alone.

People search for this effect under half a dozen names, dancing on the clouds, a cloud machine, low lying fog, ground fog, dry ice fog, a low fog machine for a first dance. They are all the same look. What differs is which machine gets used, how long the cloud holds, and whether anyone is standing there running it.

A dry ice cloud lasts as long as the dry ice load lasts. The size of the ice basket is what sets that.

The one thing nobody tells you before you book
The part that decides everything

How long the cloud lasts

This is the question that matters and it is the one most rental listings leave out. A dry ice cloud machine works by dropping a basket of dry ice into heated water. Fog is produced for as long as there is ice in the basket. When the ice is gone, the cloud stops, and it stops all at once. So the honest answer to “how long does it last” is a number that belongs to your booking rather than to the machine: however long the ice load in that particular machine lasts, at the output level it is being run at.

Which means the size of the ice basket is the specification that governs your event. A machine with a small basket can carry one song beautifully. A machine with a large basket can carry a grand entrance walk, hold through the introductions, and still have ice left for the first dance. Running a small machine hard to cover a long moment is how people end up with a cloud that dies halfway through the chorus.

So it is easier to think of what we own as four sizes of the same effect rather than four machines, a ladder from one defining moment up to all night long. One of them comes to your event. These are the four rungs, smallest load to largest.

Nimbus JuniorSize 01 · 8 lb dry ice

One defining moment. Intimate floors, small chapels, tight reception rooms where a large machine has nowhere to sit.

NimbusSize 02 · 12 lb dry ice

The workhorse, and what most weddings book. Longer hold, and enough in the basket to cover back-to-back dances rather than one.

ADJ Entour IceSize 03 · 30 lb dry ice · DMX

The largest load we carry, and the one that fires on a lighting cue from the console instead of by hand. Ballrooms, long entrance walks, corporate reveals.

Chauvet CumulusSize 04 · continuous

Runs on distilled water and fluid, refillable while it is running. It runs on fluid rather than an ice load, so it holds for as long as you want it.

The second half of the answer is timing. Dry ice machines need to come up to temperature before they produce, and the ice has to go in close to the moment, because it starts sublimating the second it hits the water. So we agree the running order with your planner and your DJ or band in advance, and our technician loads and fires on the cue. The cloud peaks on the beat the song starts on. That is a coordination job as much as an equipment one, and it is why someone stands with the machine instead of leaving it switched on in a corner.

When a moment is genuinely too long for one load, or the floor is genuinely too wide for one machine, we bring two. Machines can be combined for back-to-back effects, one covering the grand entrance and a second held in reserve for the first dance, or run side by side to cover a larger floor evenly instead of pushing one unit past what it can do.

Low lying fog, running

The layer sits at knee height and stays there. That is the entire trick, and it is a question of temperature rather than of how much fog the machine can make.

Shot on a booking, columned hall, Dallas-Fort Worth
Sizing the effect

Four sizes of cloud, and why we own all four

You are booking one machine, in the size that fits your room. A rental yard owns a single box and hopes it works for your room. We own the same effect at four different sizes so we can match it to the floor and to the length of the moment, because those two things decide whether the cloud is still there when it matters.

Size 01 · 8 lb load

Nimbus Junior

The compact dry ice machine. Small enough to tuck beside a sweetheart table or at the edge of a chapel aisle where every inch counts, and quiet enough to sit inside a ceremony space.

An 8 lb basket is built for one defining moment, a first dance, a ceremony exit, a single reveal, done properly and at full output rather than stretched thin.

Best forIntimate floors, small chapels, tight reception rooms, and any venue where the machine has to disappear into the room.
Size 02 · 12 lb load

Nimbus

The workhorse, and what most of our weddings book. Half again the ice capacity of the Junior, which in practice is the difference between covering a song and covering a sequence.

The longer hold is what lets it carry back-to-back dances, a first dance straight into a father-daughter dance, with the cloud still full through the end of the second one.

Best forStandard reception dance floors, first dance into parent dances, and most Dallas-Fort Worth wedding venues.
Size 03 · 30 lb load · DMX

ADJ Entour Ice

The largest ice load we carry and the only machine in the fleet on DMX control, which means it fires from the lighting console on a programmed cue rather than from someone reaching for a switch at the back of the room.

That matters when the cue has to land inside a sequence, house lights down, spot up, cloud out, doors open. The timing is written into the show rather than reacted to.

Best forBallrooms, long grand entrance walks, and corporate reveals where the effect is part of a lighting cue stack.
Size 04 · continuous

Chauvet Cumulus

The ice-free option. It runs on distilled water and haze fluid, chilling the fog with an onboard system instead of a basket, and it can be topped up while it is running.

Refilled while it runs, it holds a low layer of atmosphere for as long as you want it there.

Best forAll-night atmosphere, photo and video shoots that need continuous takes, and venues that restrict dry ice on site.

Only one of these comes to your event. The four exist so that the one we bring is the right one. If you already know which size you want, tell us. Most people describe the room and the moment instead, and we tell them which of the four we would bring and why. That conversation is included in the booking.

Low lying fog machine rental · Dallas-Fort Worth

Low lying fog and dry ice fog machine rental

If you came here searching for a rental rather than an effect, this section is the one written in your language.

There are two very different things being sold in Dallas-Fort Worth under the words “low lying fog machine rental,” and a listing rarely says which of the two it is. It is worth knowing which one you are looking at before you compare anything.

The first is a dry box rental. A party-rental yard hands you a machine for twenty-four hours. The dry ice, the setup and the operating are all yours to arrange. You collect it, you find a supplier who will sell you the right quantity of dry ice on the right day, you transport it, you work out how much to load and when, you load it yourself at the venue, you fire it yourself, and you return the machine. Whether it produces is something you find out at the same moment your guests do.

The second is what we do. The machine is delivered, positioned, loaded, cued and operated by our technician, who stays for the event. We source and transport the dry ice. We agree the running order with your planner and your DJ or band beforehand. We place the unit where the output will lay flat across the floor instead of pooling at one edge, and away from detectors and return vents. When the moment comes, someone whose entire job is that cue is standing there watching the floor.

Both are called a rental. One of them is a service. We are the option for people who want the effect to work on the night, on the beat, and to stay someone else’s job rather than becoming theirs.

Same equipment, several names: low lying fog machine rental, dry ice fog machine rental, ground fog machine, low fog machine, cloud machine rental, dry ice smoke machine. If you searched any of those, you are in the right place, and if you are still deciding which one describes what you pictured, describe the picture and we will name it for you.

Dry ice sourced and transported by us On-site technician included Fully insured, certificates available Cued with your DJ, band or planner
Wedding fog machine rental

What it looks like at a wedding

This is the reason nearly everyone books it, and there are four moments in a wedding where it usually goes.

The effect photographs better than it describes. A knee-deep white layer under a couple, lit from the sides, gives a photographer a clean horizon where there was previously a scuffed dance floor, chair legs and a cable run. It separates the two of you from everything behind you. That is why the first dance photos from a cloud floor look like they were taken somewhere else entirely. The clip behind the headline on this page is one of ours: a ballroom hung with white drape and string lights, the groom in a white dinner jacket, and a cloud that had rolled out to the edge of the guest tables before the first chorus, with phones already up at the front tables. Our write up on fog effects for a wedding entrance and first dance covers how the cue is timed against the music.

Moment 01

Grand entrance

The cloud runs ahead of you down the walk so you arrive out of it rather than into an empty floor. This is the moment most likely to need the large machine, entrance walks are longer than people expect once introductions are added.

Moment 02

First dance

The classic. The cloud is laid down as the song starts and holds through it. Timing is everything here, which is why our technician takes the cue from your DJ or bandleader rather than guessing at the intro.

Moment 03

Parent dances

Back-to-back with the first dance, and a common place for a cloud to die early. Covering both from one load is a capacity question, and it is what the larger basket is there for.

Moment 04

Ceremony exit or last dance

A low layer under a recessional, or under the final song of the night when the floor is full. Quieter uses of the effect, and both of them photograph beautifully.

The cloud also reads color. If we are already providing uplighting or dance floor lighting, the fog picks the color up and carries it across the floor, and the color reaches all the way down to the floor. When the whole room is designed together, the effect reads as part of the room rather than as an add-on.

First dance on a low lying fog cloud in an industrial brick loft, with a cyan monogram projected on the wall behind the couple
An industrial loft floor with the monogram projected on brick. The cloud takes on whatever color is lighting the room.
Couple standing above a deep bank of low lying fog on a hotel ballroom dance floor with the head table behind them
A hotel ballroom with the head table right behind the floor. The layer stops at the edge rather than rolling into the tables.

Most couples book this alongside DJ services or as part of a wedding package, which is also the easiest way to get the cue right: when the person calling the fog and the person playing the song work for the same company, the cue lands where it should.

Beyond weddings

Where else we run the clouds

The same four sizes, matched the same way. What changes is the length of the moment and who is calling the cue. Two of ours from church stages this year: a performer in a white gown walking out of a cloud that covered the whole platform, with a countdown clock running on the back wall, and a children's dance number in cowboy hats kicking through a pink-lit layer that held for the entire song. On another stage the same effect ran under a live band for a full set, fired on the downbeat, with the congregation standing at the edge of the layer.

QuinceañeraThe waltz and the choreography, 12 lb load

A father-daughter waltz across a low cloud photographs as well as any wedding first dance does, and the surprise-choreography number that usually follows benefits from it too. Two moments, one after another, which makes this a capacity conversation more than a machine-choice one.

Birthdays and milestonesThe entrance and the cake, 8 lb load

Sweet sixteens, fiftieths, anniversaries. Usually one or two clearly defined moments, the entrance and the cake, which the compact machine handles cleanly while leaving a smaller room feeling like itself.

Corporate grand entrances and revealsThe 30 lb DMX machine, on a programmed cue

Product reveals, award walk-ons, keynote entrances. This is where the DMX machine is worth having, because the effect can be programmed into the cue stack with the lighting and the audio instead of being called by hand and landing a second late.

Photo shootsThe continuous machine, take after take

Stills work runs to an unpredictable length while a dry ice load runs to a fixed one. The continuous machine is almost always the right answer here, refillable while running, so the layer is still there on the fortieth frame as well as the fourth.

Video shoots and music videosContinuous base layer, held for the whole set-up

Same logic, higher stakes, because a video crew resets and reshoots. We will usually recommend the continuous machine for the base layer and hold a dry ice unit for the one hero shot that needs a genuinely dense cloud.

Will the effect suit your room?

Some rooms need a different plan: a heavily air-conditioned space with floor vents will pull the layer apart, and a raised or carpeted floor changes how it behaves. Tell us the venue and we will tell you honestly how it will look, and where a room calls for something else we will suggest what that is. See more of our lighting services or browse our work.

What a booking includes

Delivered, set up, cued and operated

Every one of these is included on every cloud booking, and every one of them is there in the quote from the start.

An on-site technician

Someone from our team is there with the machine for the whole event. They load it, watch the floor, fire the cue and shut it down. This is the part a box rental leaves out and the part that decides whether it works.

Dry ice sourced and transported

We buy it, we handle it, we bring the right quantity for the machine and the number of moments. The supplier, the weight and the drive with dry ice in the back are all ours.

Coordination with your planner and DJ

We agree the running order and the cue in advance with whoever is calling the room, so the machine is up to temperature and loaded at the right time rather than warming up while everyone waits.

Venue clearance in advance

We confirm the effect with the venue, and where one is involved, with the alarm monitoring company, before the date, and place the machines away from detectors and return vents.

Full insurance

We are insured and can provide a certificate naming your venue. Most Dallas-Fort Worth venues ask for one, and several require it before a fog effect comes through the door.

Since 2001, across the Metroplex

We are based in ZIP 76053 and work roughly forty miles out across Dallas-Fort Worth. We have run this effect in most of the ballrooms and barns you are likely to be looking at.

What that adds up to on the day is this: our technician is there to handle the machine, track the timing and manage the ice, and everyone in your party is free to watch the dance floor. That is the whole service.

Questions we get every week

Dry ice and low lying fog, answered

How long does a dancing on the clouds effect last?
For as long as the dry ice load lasts, and no longer. A dry ice machine makes fog by dropping ice into heated water, so output continues while there is ice in the basket and stops when there is not. That is why basket size is the specification that matters, and why we own the effect in four sizes rather than one machine: the 8 lb size is built for one defining moment, the 12 lb size covers back-to-back dances, and the 30 lb size carries a long entrance and still has ice left. The fourth size runs on fluid rather than dry ice, so it holds for as long as you want it. Rather than quote you a number that depends entirely on how hard the machine is run, we ask what moments you want covered and bring the machine that covers them.
What is the difference between dry ice fog and a regular fog machine?
Temperature, and therefore where the fog goes. A standard fog or haze machine produces warm fog, which rises and fills the room, useful for making light beams visible, useless for a cloud effect. Dry ice fog is chilled, so it sinks and stays flat at ankle-to-knee height, holds a defined edge, and dissipates without hazing the room or drifting over the tables. If you want the floor to disappear, you need the cold kind. If you want the air to glow around a lighting rig, you want the warm kind, and those are two different machines.
Do you deliver, set up and run the machine, or is this a pickup rental?
We deliver, set up and run it. A technician brings the machine, positions it for the room, sources and loads the dry ice, takes the cue from your DJ or bandleader, operates the effect and packs it down afterwards. Everything from the ice to the strike is on us. Most low lying fog listings in Dallas-Fort Worth are twenty-four-hour box rentals with the ice and the setup left to you; that is a genuinely different product, and it is worth checking which one you are comparing us against.
Do I need to buy the dry ice?
We handle it. We source it, transport it and load it, and we bring the right quantity for the machine and for the number of moments you want covered. Dry ice needs the right supplier, the right quantity, safe handling and correct timing, and it sublimates away whether you are using it or not, so ordering it the morning of your wedding is a job worth keeping off your own list. Handling all of that is part of the booking.
Is low lying fog safe for guests, the dance floor and the photographer?
It is a widely used effect and we run it with a technician present for that reason. The fog is water vapor chilled by carbon dioxide, it stays low, and it clears on its own. Our technician places the machine so the output lays flat across the floor rather than pooling at one edge, keeps the floor in view for the whole effect, and manages output if the room is behaving differently than expected. Floors can become slightly damp with heavy use, so we place and run it with that in mind, and we will always talk through anything specific to your venue or your guests beforehand.
Will the fog set off the venue's smoke detectors?
We will not tell you it cannot happen, because any airborne effect can interact with a detector. What we do is clear the effect with the venue in advance and, where the venue uses one, with their alarm monitoring company, and then place the machines away from detectors and return air vents. Many venues have a defined process for fog effects and need advance notice; some restrict dry ice entirely, which is one of the reasons we own a machine that does not use it. Tell us the venue early and we will handle that conversation before the date rather than on it.
Can we use the cloud effect for the grand entrance and the first dance?
Yes, and this is the situation that decides which machine we bring. Two separated moments need either one large load or two machines. We can combine machines for back-to-back effects, with one covering the grand entrance and a second held in reserve for the first dance, or run two side by side to cover a larger floor evenly rather than pushing a single unit past what it can do. Tell us every moment you want the cloud on and we will build the plan around all of them instead of hoping one load stretches.
Do you rent low lying fog machines outside of weddings?
Regularly. Quinceanera waltzes, milestone birthdays, corporate grand entrances and product reveals, photo shoots and video shoots. The corporate reveals usually run on our DMX machine so the effect fires inside a programmed lighting cue, and shoots usually run on the continuous machine because a camera crew resets more often than a dry ice load allows. Same fleet, same technician, same approach. We ask what the moment is and bring the machine that fits it.
Request a fog quote

Tell us the venue and the moment. We’ll tell you which size.

Which size we bring comes down to the date, the room, which moments you want the cloud on and how long they run. Here is what to have ready before you send it over.

What to have ready

Five things decide which size machine we bring, and they fit in one message: the date, the venue or the city, what kind of event it is, roughly how big the dance floor is, and which moments you want the cloud on.

The moments matter most. How many there are, and how far apart they sit in the night, is what sets the size more than anything else. Grand entrance, first dance, parent dances, a ceremony exit or last dance, a cake or reveal, all night atmosphere, photo or video takes: tell us which ones and we will size it around them.

If anything is running alongside it, a DJ, uplighting, dance floor lighting or sound, say so in the same message. When the same crew runs the fog and the music the cue is far easier to land.

Answer what you know and leave the rest. Working the rest out is our job.

Get a quote Tell us about your event and you'll hear back from us today, with a straightforward quote within 24 hours.

What you get back

Included on every fog booking

✓ Dry ice sourced and transported by us
✓ Delivered, positioned, loaded and cued by our technician
✓ The technician stays for the whole event, from setup to strike
✓ Running order agreed with your planner and your DJ or band
✓ Fully insured, with certificates sent to your venue in advance

Rather just talk it through?

Call or text 817-210-7957. We are reachable at night and on weekends, which is when events happen. If you would rather send everything about the whole event at once, the full contact form covers every service we run.

Next Step

One machine, the right size, run by someone whose whole job is that cue.

Tell us the date, the venue and the moments you want the cloud on, and we’ll send you a straightforward quote within 24 hours, with the size we would bring and why.

Get a fog machine quote Call 817-210-7957