Marquees create some of the best wedding venues ever – they are easy on the eye, simple to decorate and, if your prudent, extremely cost-effective. But they come with a different selection of problems that you don’t usually face with other wedding venues such as weather, seating and noise. How can you tackle these problems to ensure a perfect day? Don’t worry, we’re here to help.
Space
If you’ve decided to have a marquee wedding, you’re probably already aware of the spatial logistics. Setting up a marquee in your garden is fine if you’ve got a garden big enough, but you also have to consider how many guests you’ve got coming – where will they sit, stand, sing drunkenly into the night? It goes without saying that the bigger your garden, the bigger the marquee you can put up, and the bigger the marquee the more guests you have, but each of these factors have their cost.
In order to make the most of your room you’ll have to be efficient with space, this requires being organised and playing around with the seating arrangements prior to the big day.
Weather
There isn’t a lot you can do about the weather, especially in blessed Blighty, but you can make decisions based on probability. Marquee season tends to peak in Spring and Autumn, but Spring is intrinsically wetter than Autumn. You could have it in Summer, but that can get hot unless you splash out on air-con.
Noise
If you’re holding a wedding in your garden, we suspect that you’re going to create some noise. Perhaps your garden is big enough and your neighbourhood sparse enough for it not to be a problem, but if you’re packing people in to a garden that immediately borders other gardens, you may consider forewarning your neighbours out of etiquette.
If you get on particularly well with your neighbours and you have the space, why not invite them over, that’s one way to solve the problem.
Energy
Avoid oversights such as electricity. During the day the marquee might glow in the sunlight, but once night falls you’ll be very conscious of the fact that you haven’t rigged any lights for your reception, and the DJ is wondering where the closest socket it.
There are various services available that allow you to hire a generator on a temporary basis and rig your electronics safely.
Safety
Even if you don’t have kids running around at your wedding, there is a chance that some distant relative will turn up, drink all the booze and then trip over a wire and then sue you for all your worth, and that doesn’t make for good memories. We advise that all wires are laid carefully beneath mats or even better – wire coverings.
Toilets
Like the generator, you may consider the idea of hiring in some temporary Portaloos, that is unless you want everybody walking into your house and using your lovely bathroom. Just like the electricians who specialise in rigging your marquee with electricity there are professionals who will deal with your toilet logistics so that you don’t have to (nobody should spend their honeymoon period scrubbing toilets).
Rehearse
This is a tradition that is slowly being phased out, but when you haven’t got a wedding planner and you’re doing it all yourself it is wise to go through the procedures step by step with a checklist to make sure that you’ve got everything you need. Of course, you’ll likely be half way down the aisle before you stop worrying, but we’re sure it’ll all be okay on the day.
Chris Allen is the Operations Director at Templant Group, which provides generators to provide power for weddings events all across the UK.
