Help!! Wedding reception in the garden?? Good idea or not?

I thought about doing this as my parents have a farm so lots of nice land and thought about a marque, but then I decided it was probably more suited to a smaller wedding. I thought my parents might be on edge with 150plus people trampling round there land, altough there would be a marque can you always keep the p*ssed people and smokers in it, and I didnt want my parents to have to worry or think about the clean up job the next day! Plus, I wanted accomodation for some of my guests so they didnt have to worry about taxis and so forth and could party as long as they like.

However, I have seen some lovely ideas in wedding mags with garden style/country living weddings and they look beautiful...but the weather is always nice in the pictures! lol!

HTH

I dont know if this will help much but a friend of mine did that and managed to just spend £1000 and you wouldnt have guessed it was that cheap at all! Good luck! :-) x

I dont know if this will help much but a friend of mine did that and managed to just spend £1000 and you wouldnt have guessed it was that cheap at all! Good luck! :-) x

Wow 1000 is cheap- well done her!!!

I have been panicking a bit as the marquee hire places have been quoting between 3 and 5 thousand pounds (depending on tables chairs etc), then I also have to think about decorations, flowers, food, bar etc etc as 180 people is a hell of a lot !!

Also you are so right about the clean up, and I guess I am also stressing about the weather and just how dirty it would all get if you have got people trampling mud in and getting the (rented!!) wedding dress ruined.................

All the stress HA HA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Believe it or not, I am at a wedding in Lincolnshire in a couple of weeks...marquee in garden....it is do-able. I have seen this done many times. It does though, naturally depend on the layout of the property and garden as to whether this will work or not. You will need exterior lighting...

My cousin had her reception in the garden and I believe it didnt cost very much - however they didnt have a marquee. We were going to go down the marquee route on the vineyard, but couldnt get anything under 3k - 3 to 5k sounds about right as far as your quotes are concerned. I certainly dont think its the cheap option, although it may enable you to save a bit on catering costs. In the end we decided to do a bit of modification to our barn and although its restricted numbers a bit, was bar far the most cost effective option. I appreciate not everyone has a spare barn lying around at home though!

I did a wedding in June in the car park of a Village Hall! We used Party Tents and hired in all the chairs, the tables were the Village Hall's own, the elctric was connected up to the Village Hall, had a Cocktail Bar & Hog roast & it was a fab wedding, we erven had a Morrocan themed Chill out area for the adults. Here are some pics I took while we were setting up:

I have been to a few - when there is space for guests to get outside (e.g the marquee is not taking up all of the garden its fine) A lot of people also hire portable toilets with marquees to stop endless people going in and out of the house.

Other people have borrowed a local field / meadow for a large marquee

Tim

Our best mates got married last yera and had their reception in her parent's garden (yes - very large!). They had 3 marquee tents - 1 for the kids plus disco and 2 for the rest. There was a smaller tent for the bar too. The tente were arranged around the edge so there was an open space in the middle and one side of the tent was open. They had outdoor lights strung up everywhere and some large spotlights lights around to make it light. The food was buffet style.

Excuse any typos, am typing one handed as have a broken arm-we had a tipi in in laws` front garden. it was fab, but took a huge amount of organisation and was definately not a cheap option, everything from making sure the power supply was adequate to hiring a bar and everything in between that you wouldnt have to think about if going to a venue. you re have to hire toilets, caterers, crockery, speakers/mics, heating etc etc. dont want to put you off but be prepared for a lot of organising and hidden charges.

I've been to 2 garden weddings this summer and they were both great, they were so personal to the couple because they got to pick every detail. one of the weddings was in a marquee that filled the garden. they made it so that the garden features and flower beds were in the marquee. it was a two tierd garden so the friends sat at the bottom and family at the top. It was a bbq and then country dancing, i think it was for 120 people. ladies used the downstairs loo, which you walked round the back of the house to get to and the blokes erm well added to the compost heap (number 1's only obviously), they had even set a tap up for them to was their hands. its the best wedding i've ever been to and every detail was personal to them.

Thanks all for the advice - I think it is the organisation and the hidden costs that I am scared of the most! So at least I am prepared......................................... The personal aspect to it is what is being aimed for though so hopefully that will compensate for the stress!

They can be great, but there are a few things that you need to consider..

1.) Weather. If it's really windy a wedding in a marquee can be lousy... Make sure you get a really good one, if you want to be on the safe side.

2.) Parking. Where on earth are those 50 odd cars going to park???

3.) Toilets. Make sure you've got adequate toilet facilities and just accept that there will be a contingency of guys who just have to pee in the garden...

I have been to several really succesful marquee in the garden weddings, so it can be done!

Pete