Outdoor / Marquee Wedding Ideas ! Help Please :)

We're doing something very similar, next June. We started off speaking to a few people locally who'd rent out a field to us for £500-1000, & then we were going to add everything else on top (marquee/tipis, toilets, furniture, PA system, lighting etc) but the costs escalated massively & logistically to hire every element from different companies became a bit of a headache, so we found a beautiful old country house instead that has a marquee erected in the gardens for 3 months through the summer & everything is included in one cost.

We're a little bit restricted in terms of catering as you have to use one of four recommended by them, but they charge no corkage, & there's a guy who runs a very reasonably priced bar, & there's enough room for us to do loads of outdoor games & hopefully some hay bales & raised fire pits etc for the evening, so we can have the relaxed day we were really hoping for as it's up to us what time people arrive, what time we eat etc, & there's no big schedule to stick to for the day.

Good luck with all the researching & planning!

Hello.

We're planning an outdoor wedding in York for next year. Our venue is ace and for what we get, very good value for money (proper toilet / shower block), electricity feeds, whiskey hut, hobbit hole, a bar, copious amounts of help and advise from the owners.

You need to decide if you want a marquee or tipis or suchlike - big differences in costs. We went for 3 tipis which have cost around £7.5k (including catering tent, decorations, other auxiliary items) and also a smaller kung (which we're thinking of ditching as it adds £1500 to the costs.) We then need to hire tables, chairs, table clothes etc and whilst we could have got these from the company offering the tipis, we found it much cheaper to source these ourselves.

Catering - do you need a catering tent to add to your outdoor structure (we did)? Does your caterer provide things like the crockery and cutlery? Are they able to cater for outdoor events (we're just going through this process now!) or would you require the hire of cooking equipment etc?

For food, we're going heavy on canapés, cuts out the need for starters. Two course main and then hot sandwiches late in the evening.

Have a plan for if it rains. Is there any restrictions on music? What about a bar? Is it a licensed venue or will you need to get married off-site?

There is lots to think about if you go with a green field site - if you have the time (and energy!) then go for it!

You should hire a giant tipi! They are very boho/festival.

We're hiring Tipi's, our wedding is June this year

It most certainly isn't the easiest or cheapest route but I 100% believe it will be worth it. We're very lucky to have some land we are able to pitch the tents on but we have had to arrange a water source (something we only recently thought of) and book the following:

- 3x tipis with flooring and lighting,

- 1x catering tent with flooring, lighting, trestle tables etc.

- toilets

- generator

- tables, chairs, table cloths etc.

- dance floor and lighting package

- sourced caterers (we're very luck and have found a fantastic supplier)

- ordered wine, prosecco, soft drinks etc. for the welcome/meal drinks (caterers will be running a bar)

- fire pit for inside the tipi

We're doing a lot of DIY for decorations, flowers around the outside etc. and it really has been a labour of love

If you're wanting to keep it cheap I wouldn't say this is the way to do it, you have to really really want it... But from what I have seen it is totally worth it!

There are quite a lot of things that go into a marquee wedding and they can quickly add up. We looked into doing this because in our area there are a lot of historic homesmuseums that you can rent for a small fee for a day and you can do whatever you want on the grounds. Make sure to factor the cost of power (generators), dance floor, tent sides in cause of bad weather, and any temperature control you might need (heating/cooling). Bathrooms were one of the big things that deterred us from having a marquee wedding. You may want a festival vibe, but most people won't want to use port-a-loos at a wedding, especially older relatives. There are restroom trailers you can rent but they can cost in the thousands.

I'm a big advocate for having your wedding reflect your personality (I'm getting married at a summer camp!) but when you look at venues keep in mind the needs of your guests. I have one aunt who is in a wheelchair so accessibililty was very important to us, even though it really only affects one person. I also have a grandmother who is in her 90s, and OH's step-mother just had knee surgery so they needed certain comforts.

The other thing to consider is bad weather - I had this amazing picture in my head of our festival themed wedding day, sitting round a big fire in the evening, sides of the tipi up listening to the band, but if it rains all day then most of what I dreamed of would have been a wash out. Another reason we decided against a more DIY festival themed wedding & we've compromised a bit on our vision to try & keep our guests a bit happier (we're happy sloshing around in Glastonbury mud every year but there's a lot of our guests who wouldn't be!)

FloLo - are you possibly getting your tipis from papakata?! We've hired from there and your various add-ons (catering tent and dance floor packages) sound very similar to what we have purchased too!

Did you hire tables and chairs through the tipi company? I thought PK were expensive (they sub-hire!) so went and found our own supplier.

MR_P we've hired through All About Me Marquees & Events, we found them to be the most reasonably priced and got along great with them

The fantastic ladies on Hitched have given you some great practical advice.

Shame its a farm outdoor wedding venue in Leicester and as such out of your area but I think this one would of been a good fit for you, as they have the water,loos, and electricity, but here are a few shots from one of my weddings there last year for you . Tipi wedding

I almost did a wedding like this!! We ended up booking a wedding marquee venue at a beach in Wales (where OH is from) but I did look at this sort of thing in and around Surrey!

Those weddings look SO FUN! Can be expensive though, as I discovered!

A lot comes up on google when you search either 'woodland wedding' or 'glamping wedding', with your location obviously.

Have you looked at:

http://festivalbrides.co.uk/a-beautiful-licensed-woodland-wedding-venue-in-kent-with-2015-availability

Or

http://www.thesoulcamp.com/#!weddings/c1o3m

Since you are looking at a marquee wedding I'm assuming you're not averse to doing a lot of coordinating on your own. If that is the case, you might want to research glamping/camping venues that don't advertise themselves as wedding venues. You can approach them and see if they would be interested in letting you host an event there.

I'm getting married at a campground and a lot of places were very hard to find because they may have never done a wedding before, or only a few. But many of them will have a nice lodge or events area for you to get married in. Rural retreat/conference centers are also a great option. They are usually out in the woods because the purpose is to get back to nature. Many will have onsite lodging and a dining area, especially if they do corporate retreats. Because they're not traditional wedding venues you may have to do a little more coordinating on your own, but you won't have to worry about bathrooms, heating, a catering kitchen, etc.