The optical transmission of resonant guided-mode gratings patterned on suspended silicon nitride thin films and illuminated at normal incidence with a Gaussian beam is investigated both experimentally and theoretically. Effects due to the beam focusing and its finite size are accounted for by a phenomenological coupled-mode model whose predictions are found to be in very good agreement with the experimentally measured spectra for various grating structures and beam sizes, and which allow for a detailed analysis of the respective magnitude of these effects. These results are highly relevant for the design and optimization of such suspended structured films that are widely used for photonics, sensing, and optomechanics applications.