Factors To Consider
Aside from the obvious factors with wedding marquees such as cost and look of marquee, consider elements such as how versatile is the marquee? Does it require going into ground? Can it go on concrete? Is the access to the groundside suitable? Is the ground level or will it need levelling first? Have you considered other related costs i.e portable toilets, parking area, marquee lining costs and possibly the largest one flooring? With flooring, for example if the ground is marshy it may require full SDS marquee flooring to line level before carpeting. All factors your wedding planner will consider before speaking to vendors in regard to your wedding marquee.
Your Wedding Marquee Guide
Let’s immerse ourselves in the top 3 most common wedding tent structures and their advantages: –
Classic Marquees:-
There are two types of classic marquees: clear span and tentpole tents. These are the most common style of marquees and probably the one you are most familiar with.
Tentpole marquees are basically marquees with load bearing poles, canvas sides and roof. The tents tend to have a more rustic feel and work perfectly for themed weddings such as boho weddings or vintage style weddings. The marquees are anchored by pegs in ground making them only suitable for grassland areas. Advantages of tentpole marquees include:
• Work well with hessian flooring to match boho wedding theme
• Tentpoles provide great opportunity for wedding dressers
• Work well with rustic furnishings ie haybales, festoon lighting, wooden furniture etc
Clear span marquees, dare I say it are the most common wedding marquee due to them being the ultimate blank canvas for us to design your dream wedding day. The clear span marquees are an aluminium modular frame usually in 3m sections. The frame structure means that no poles are required in the middle of the marquee, providing a complete blank space inside the marquee for wedding stylist to design as they see fit.
Advantages of the clear span marquees include: –
• Perfect for adding your personal touch on the space
• Great additional options such as glass roofs, clear gable entrances and starlit cloth ceilings
• Perfect for large, formal weddings
Wedding Tipi’s
Based on Scandinavian heritage, the nomadic tribes of the Great Plains of America have been using tipis for hundreds of years to provide them with warmth and comfort in the winter and dryness during the rainy months. History lesson over, what weddings do tipi tents suit? Well they create intimate dining areas and are modular so tipis can be joined together to increase/decrease space needed. Their structure gives them durability to handle strong weather conditions and heavy winds, making them a great option for winter weddings. Advantages of wedding tipis include: –
• Best suited to winter
• Work well with wood fire pits and creating a warm feel
• Create a great entrance aesthetically for guests
Stretch Tents
The key advantage of stretch tents are their amazing flexibility. Stretch tents can be configured in many ways and offer the option of joining to buildings to maximise coverage. Stretch tents have a faster setup and breakup time, usually taking approximately 6 hours for a large tent to be constructed and 2 hours breakdown time. I always feel stretch tents work great with modern, sleek style weddings. Another option is using stretch tents to provide a canvass over an area if you are looking for an open style summer wedding that you don’t want or need a full structure. Advantages of stretch tents include: –
• They can be connected to other tents making them suitable for bigger events
• Provide great atmosphere and creativity outlet – as mentioned suit clean, minimalistic feel wedding marquee requirements
• Suite summer weddings to let breeze through
With your new found knowledge in wedding marquees, weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of each style and ask yourself these questions: –
• What theme is your wedding? Your wedding theme will determine which structure suits you best and will narrow your search for the perfect wedding tent.
• How practical is a wedding tent? As mentioned before, think about your access to the marquee site for suppliers and their vehicles, will you need generators, toilets, floor levelling, skips for waste, do you mind damage to the grounds by vehicles and digging into ground. There’s a lot of factors and this is why wedding planners tend to be brough in to project manage marquee weddings. Don’t undervalue experience in delivering the perfect wedding tent.
• How do I find the right marquee supplier? We recommend organising site visits with suppliers to create a comprehensive quote that includes everything you may need for the structure you want. Look at their previous work and see who has delivered your requirements before, don’t necessarily go with the cheapest marquee supplier, marquees aren’t cheap and paying an extra couple of hundred may be the difference between having the exact marquee look you want and having a nightmare marquee situation.
When we plan marquee weddings, our wedding planning team are well versed to the complex logistics and operations needed in executing the perfect marquee setup as well as delivering the huge range of components needed for your day to run seamlessly such as liasing with your caterers, entertainment, adjusting your furniture, styling your marquee and making sure your day timelines run smoothly!
If you are looking into planning your marquee wedding yourself, we recommend planning as early as you can, try and sign everything off 1 month prior to your day and remember it’s your wedding day so give yourself time to enjoy it! Happy planning and if you need any advice we are just a phone call or email away!
