Anyone having a marquee reception??

Our initial plan was to have a marquee reception as we thought it would be cheaper, but based on the quotes we received it was just too expensive and for us it worked out cheaper to hire a venue! We received quotes ranging between £4k and £6k which included posh loos, generator, all tables and chairs, all lighting and dancefloor etc so basically everything. and that was for 120 day and another 120 in the evening. By the time you add time and stress to decorate the place (and clear everything up the next day!) yourselves, with catering costs we decided that its not a cheap way of doing it.

Yes, we're having a marquee reception. It is definitely not a cheap option but it was the only way we could have the venue we wanted (otherwise it was too small for our numbers). We were quoted from £3000 through to £10000. The one we went for was somewhere in the region of £8000 but includes hiring of everything we needed (chairs, tables, glasses, dancefloor, generator, a brand new carpet on the floor etc) and it is half glass which sold it for us (will let us take advantage of the lake district views where we are having our wedding). We have saved a lot of money on the food and drink though because we could get in our own caterers and provide drink with no corkage charges. Be careful about clearing up as well- our marquee charge includes them clearing up for us the next day but many don't. There are pros and cons to a marquee- it is a completely blank canvas and there is no limit on numbers (they just erect a larger tent or add another module if you are having a modular marquee) but the down side is that you have to think about and source things that you don't even have to think about at a venue wedding (for example, toilets, generators etc).

Hi, Our wedding venue have there own marquee & we are using it for the reception. The marquee hire for us was £2000

HTH

Hi lozzy, we are having a marquee reception, and have been chasing quotes for a couple of months now, tbh I am finding a lot of companies customer service to be rubbish, with a fair few companies not even bothering to get back to me, I know it's a busy time of year - perhaps they all ready have tons of bookings for next year!!, good luck to them if they have! The rough quotes I have so far range from around £1800 - £3500, I have budgeted a max of £2500, this is for 100 guests and no extra guests in the evening. We are in Kent.

We had a marquee for our wedding in May.

Again, as with some of the other, this was the only option for us in order to have the venue we wanted. I grew up on a National Trust Property all my life and this was the only place I have ever wanted to get married.

We paid £4,500 for our marquee and that was for the marquee itself with a Tri-cone entrance, dance floor, tables, chairs, star light ceiling, carpet, a few sofas/chairs/coffee tables, catering tent and a few other bits and bobs. However, in my case, they marquee was up for a whole 7 days. So when you look at it like that, the price wasn't just for one day.

We had 60 days guests and around 120 evening guests all together.

They are a lot of hard work and effort, however, I enjoyed every minute of all the preparation work. Seeing everything come together how I'd imagine it, everything was laid out as I wanted, and if it didn't look right, I changed it. I was very lucky that my marquee was on site to my parents house and that I could get them to nip down and check things over (in fact Dad was actually at work all week, but didn't get anything work related done!! ) or I would pop over myself and deal with it.

We were also very lucky that out venue had on site toilets so that was one less thing to worry over.

I enjoyed the challenge of finding everything for our day and I would do it all over again. All that hard work and effort, attention to detail paid off in every sense for us and our guests.

Here are a few piccies of our marquee and how everything looked set up.

You then have to factor in things like outside catering. We were very lucky that out caterer in fact new my husband and he gave us fantastic discount. We paid around £2000 for out canapes and 3 course sit down meal, and 6 staff hire. As well as catering equiptment hire like ovens and hot plates.

We then paid £650 for out in the round bar with 3 staff with glass hire for all our tables, reception and toasting drinks.

Crockery, cutlery and condiments. That cost us £200.

Table Linen and Napkin hire was around £300.