A marquee reception? Advice!

Our marquee is £3500 plus £650 ground rent so about the same.

Were going the day before to set up tables etc but the owner will be there on the day co ordinating everything else.

Do they not have a wedding co ordinator on site that will help on the day?

Xx

I had a marquee wedding in 2011 and was worth every penny!

For £4,500 the price includes the erection and disassembling of the marquee, a catering tent with trestle tables, 8 Round tables/Top Table and 75 chairs, chandelier lighting, glossy white dance floor with a star light ceiling over it, new carpet through out.

Everything else has to be brought seperatly.
The bar has cost us an extra £650 but they also supplied us with the glasses for the wedding breakfast and welcoming drinks.

The linen, cutlery and crockery hire is costing us an extra £650.
The catering for a wedding breakfast for 70 and a hog roast for 120 people of the evening is around £3,500.
We have brought all the table wines and toasting drinks.
Luckily our venue has toilets already so we can use those but you may need to consider hiring those?!?

We set up a couple of days before hand, making sure everything was perfect the day before.

Jen x

Its not at a venue as such, it's on family owned land x

Thank you!! I hadn't thought of cutlery etc having to be purchased separately. I do like that we have flexibility with purchasing our own drinks at a much better price.

We will also need to consider toilets, good point!

Thanks! Lots to think about! X

Never be afraid to haggleand always get three quotes without mentioning the word wedding. Say party.. Haggling with the marquee company doesnt make you Bridezilla, it just shows you understand how much you are prepared to pay.

If you want a bar, you can ask local bars and breweries if they would provide a bar free in exchange for advertising, for example on tee shirts of staff. The takings from a large reception will more than cover their costs. We managed to wangle this for one of our reception options.

Eee your wedding is the day after ours

We are having tipis, as opposed to marquees but either way, they definitely aren't cheap.

As well as the actual marquee there are lots of additional costs to consider (as already mentioned) such as flooring, heating (or cooling), lighting, seating & tables, toilets if there are not any on site, a bar, fridges/coolers to keep drinks cold etc, catering tents. And for all of that, there can be extra delivery and insurance charges, you'll also need a generator for power if there's none available on site. The list feels like lie it goes on and on sometimes.

We have pretty standard 1+1 loos (1 female cubicle, 1 male, with wash basin etc) and they come in at £400ish

Our generator is a 30KVA silenced, which is another £400, + collection, delivery, fuel and VAT

I'd say that if your quote includes some of the things above, then it's fairly reasonable- but all of the little things (such as crockery/cutlery) really do add up.

Having said that, the added flexibility is (IMO) totally worth it and I could never imagine doing it any other way.

If you have any specific questions, I'll do my best to help ?

Oh gosh wrote my reply and its lost so here goes again.

Were having a marque wedding in the paddock that adjoins our home. Heres any bits im thinking at the moment

Marque - mine is costing £5,000 plus vat - which includes full wood & new carpet floor. lighting, starlight sky over dance floor, dancefloor, 17 tables plus top table, wooden plush seat chairs and the electric boards, plus one side is all wood/glass windows with 2 sets of doors. (it will hold 300). will be erected on Thursday, we will set up Friday, ready for Saturday.

Toilets - ive got posh loos with 3 ladies and 2+1 gents and they deal with everything we just plug in.

Parking ..... don't forget you need space to park everyone and possibly some lighting over the carpark and lighting out near your marque for when it goes dark. Were gonna use some solar stick in lights in the carpark just to light a path and the marque company have floodlights that they can attach to the marque to floodlight outside.

Catering - we are doing our own catering plus drinks for the tables & Pimms on arrival. I have hired a bar company in to do the main bar - they are doing it free and applying for the events licence..... they see there money from the sale of lots of drink hence no charge. We are lucky enough that we can get together enough crockery etc but I had looked into hiring it (you can get it on a return dirty basis)

Marque decoration - Im making my own bunting as its quite cheap to do and on the tables I have go just plain glass vases (cheap) and are going to fill with flowers very rustic looking.

There are loads of ideas on 'pintrest' if you go on there I have found it brilliant.

There is then all the silly things to remember that an event would usually have something to offer e.g boards to put your table plan on, boxes to put your cards in, high chairs if any children etc etc

I think for us its going to be fab because we are having a big family do and are lucky enough that we know quite a few people in the catering trade so this makes it a very cheap way of doing it, making up for the cost of the marque.

Lots of good luck x

It's what we are doing. A marquee in the garden of the family farm house.

Our marquee is about £3500 all in with florr tables, chairs, lighting and catering tent.

Our caterers are providing everything on top the table (cutlery, table clothes, plates, glasses etc.) and they are doing all the staff. We are doing drinks.

Most marquee companies we spoke to wanted to come on the Thursday to set up, which gives us Friday to sort everything ready for Saturday wedding, then they would come and take it down on Monday which gives you Sunday to have an event/ kick out the people that slept in it!

We have tried to use a few people as possible as don't want too many companies involved as we'd be confused over who is doing what!!

For us it is the right idea- I grew up on the farm, we have the space, can choose own food- not made to use certain caterers, don't have to be out by a certain time, nobody else will be there.

I have found it quite hard as you have to organise everything as it's not set up for you but if it's what you want go for it!

Feel free to ask any questions