Marquee weddings...

I cant recommend anywhere, but when I looked into it, to hire a marquee big enough for 120-150 people it was going to be about £1000. Plus when you think about hiring somewhere to put it, electricity, toilets, chairs, tables etc etc - I just hired a barn/hall instead!

If you can find the right company that will sort everything for you - they can look amazing!

Dont let me put you off - it just might give you something to think about!

xxx

Do you mean having the actual ceremony in the Marquee? Cos you have to get married in an authorised place, I don't think you could do it in a marquee because it has to be in a fixed structure; like a building or gazebo, not sure marquees would come under gazebo as they aren't always permanent.

If you meant for your wedding breakfast/reception then ignore the above.. But they can work out more expensive. The hire of the marquee can be in the Thousands, then you have to obviously factor in where guests will go to the toilet? Heating, a bar, caterers, dance floor, lighting, furniture etc etc

We planned to have a marquee wedding for the same reason as you - thinking that it would be more cost effective. We got several quotes for sizes appropriate for 120 seated guests and 200 evening and the prices ranged from 6-9k exc VAT and catering. So for us, it was double the price of the venue that we've actually gone with! This may be to do with the size that we would have needed though. Do you have a rough idea of numbers at all?

ETA - The prices for the marquees we were quoted were inclusive of posh loos, generator and fuel, all chairs & tables, dancefloor and lighting.

We looked into this but once we had costed up the marquee hire, flooring, lights, heating, toilets, catering and bar hire, hire of tables and chairs etc it ended up being more to do this than to just hire the place we liked in the first place! Plus once I realised we would need portaloos it totally put me off the idea.

If you do go down that line though we found several bar hire companies who would give you the bar/staff/refrigerators etc for free provided they made enough money on the night. We are having over 100 guests to the evening do so worked out that it would easily cover their costs and so be free for us.

Ah thanks ladies! Yeah to clarify it's just the breakfast / evening reception I'm thinking of - church for the ceremony. That was my worry about all the added costs! I was just hoping that the extra cost of those bits would be outweighed by the savings by having catering / drinks etc done at a more reasonable price per head than at a venue. Maybe I just need to find a less expensive venue! The place I love is Eshott Hall but you have to hire it for exclusive use including the 10 bedrooms etc which is about 4k before meals and drinks etc. It works out at nearly £10k with catering included. Even if we charge guests for the rooms we'll only make a small amount of that back. Oh what a dilemma! And i've looked at literally everywhere within about 40 mins of our church and can't find anywhere else (hense the thought of a marquee!)

Thanks again x

Do you definitely want a country house/stately home type setting? Have you considered restaurants/museums etc?

As the others have said by the time you add on all the extras & the logistics of planning a Marquee wedding it would be cheaper & less stressful to pay the extra for a venue. Have you thought about local Village Halls, Golf clubs etc? They are cheaper than some of the big Hotel/Venue chains.

Http://www.macdonaldhotels.co.uk/lindenhall/

Oh yeah numbers... well originally I wanted about 110 day time and 140 evening but then I fell in love with Eshott and decided I could reduce day numbers to absolute minimum of 80 and evening to 120 (their max capacity). So really 80-110 day and 120-140 evening

Thanks! x

Oh I liked the look of linden hall from the website but wasn't sure about the conference centre bit when I got there - wasn't really what I had in mind so I think I was a bit disappointed for me personally, and the same with Longhirst Hall. I looked at Beamish Hall but they couldn't guarantee i'd be the only bride on the day (in fact they said they'd probably have at least 2 other weddings otherwise they would miss out on too much money!) and I've not seen anything else I really liked - I feel like I'm being soooo fussy! Sorry!

Thanks Sherrie - good idea - i'm going to have a look this afternoon see if I can come up with any of those!

Hmm, I guess exclusivity might be a problem with a big place. I've been to weddings where there were a few brides hanging around and it didn't really interefere (although admittedly, I wasn't the bride at the time)

You're allowed to be fussy! Just as long as it's within the bounds of reality!

It took me a couple of months to find a decent venue with a good price, so I would suggest keep looking. Even think of buildings in your area that aren't necessarily the usual weddingy venues. We've ended up with an Old St Trinity Church to host our meal/evening do for about £1500 inc drinks, meal for upto 160, hired from 6pm until midnight. Think we did pretty well with our ceremony place too.. A Castle for under £1000.

Wow! You should be a wedding planner! Inspiration to keep looking if ever there was any!

I think that's my problem! I need to rein myself in! haha