Gary
Wedding marquee tips
Your wedding day should be special. It should be unique, personal and all about you and your husband or wife to be. The venue that you choose should be the blank canvas upon which you showcase your personalities as a married couple.
What better blank canvas than a wedding marquee? These versatile structures come in many different forms; each perfect for painting the picture of your future lives together. Plan your perfect marquee wedding day with our marquee wedding tips.
Wedding Floristry
What shouts wedding louder than a beautiful floral display? Marquees offer plenty of space for floristry. Traditional pole marquees have a rustic, classic look and feel and their central support poles are perfect for wrapping with flowers. The roof space in a marquee is ideal for large floral displays. Hanging trellises or flower balls are very popular at the moment; bringing stunning floral scents as well as offering beautiful visual interest.
Table centres are very important, but take care to consider the types of tables you are using. The last thing you’ll want to do is hide guests from one another behind a huge floral display. Small, colourful table centres are very popular at the moment. They offer subtle elegance without taking up large amounts of space and guests can take them home as a memento of the day.
Your wedding marquee
There are lots of different types of marquee and there’s bound to be a particular style that appeals to you. But the appeal of a marquee venue extends well beyond the look and feel of the structure itself; marquees are all about the styling and decoration that’s applied once the framework has been built.
Each style of marquee lends itself to a different type of styling. A traditional pole marquee has internal poles and is held in place with guy ropes. ‘Trads’ offer themselves perfectly to rustic, country fayre type weddings; they can be used unlined as they have attractive canvas walls. And unless you’re concerned about high heels sinking into the ground, a trad doesn’t even require flooring.
Unlike trads with their internal poles, frame tent marquees offer an uninterrupted internal space; they also lend themselves well to creating a modern and contemporary entertaining space, although they can be decorated in a traditional manner.
Stretch tents are unique. Each stretch tents is created by stretching the marquee cover over a series of internal poles. This creates a quirky looking structure and a great look and feel for a festival style wedding.
Wedding catering
Traditional brick and mortar venues often limit your choice of caterer to those on their own shortlist. Check this out when you view potential venues. If you are using a marquee then the choice of caterer is yours alone.
Some caterers are used to working in marquee catering tents, while others are not. Talk to potential caterers about their ‘field catering’ experience before signing on the dotted line.
Marquee catering tents are excellent. They can be built with in and out doors leading into the marquees dining space; just like you’d see at a professional kitchen. At Lifestyle marquees we use non slip flooring in our catering tents and we liaise with the caterer pre event in order to ensure that they have the right number of power points and that they are installed in the right places.
Caterers, like marquees, are varied in what they offer. Some caterers simply produce fantastic food, whereas others offer full event planning, styling and management services. If you have the vision but neither the time, or inclination to do all of the ground work involved in pulling a wedding together then it may well be worth finding a caterer that will take on, or share the load.
When we think of weddings, we probably think of a sit down three course wedding breakfast. However, the less formal bowl food option has seen a recent surge in popularity. Bowl food is extremely sociable with guests able to mingle and socialise, whilst sampling a variety of different dishes across several courses.
We would recommend that you speak to a variety of caterers to find the perfect option for you.
Wedding Entertainment
We’re not just talking bands and DJ’s, we’re talking roaming bands, singing waiters, silhouette artists and magicians too.
There are lots of different and interesting acts available. If you really want to make your wedding stand out from the crowd, why not hire a cocktail bar and flair bar tenders? Think Tom Cruise in Cocktail. You’ll have a busy bar all night long and your guests will be thoroughly entertained.
Most people think DJ or band, but why not have both? DJs can warm up the crowd before the live band hits the stage. The DJ can then fill in between the bands sets and will round the evening off with a high octane set of their own. Add a live saxophonist to play along side the DJ and your guests will be in for a treat.
Speak to us about your wedding marquee
We’ve been helping our clients to create magical weddings and events for almost 40 years! We’d love to help you create yours too. Contact our team on 01372 459 485 to discuss your big day. We’re more than happy to offer helpful hints, friendly advice and no obligation quotations.
