Has anyone used a marquee for their reception?

ljbnotts

Like the title says really!

Getting married on 6th November this year in our local church in Nottinghamshire. Having the reception at home in a marquee. I know this isn't the cheapest way to do it but its what we want to do and luckily have the budget to be able to do this. (Plus we have no venues near by under £20,000)

Just wondered if anyone had any advice? We are hoping to book some site visits next week and hopefully book it soon!

What did you do for catering? What kind of menus etc? cost?

There will be about 120 day guests and 200 in the evening.

Any thoughts or advice would be most welcome as i'm struggling quite a bit to find examples of other brides who have used a marquee and are still trying to be moneysaving in other areas!

Thanks,

Lisa.

bigmomma051204

Hi - i can't really help but there are ladies on here who are having caterers for their wedding....and am SURE there must be someone on here having a marquee! So help will arrive soon....... I always thought it would be cold having a autumn/winter wedding in a marquee....but i guess they MUST have some kind of heating system that wafts warm air around etc!! Marquees can look totally beautiful and i had thought about them cos my mum and dad have a beautiful 14th century cottage with massive grounds to put marquee in, but the thought of organising lots of different agencies like caterers and marquee people and mobile bar etc put me off lol....what a wimp i am!! Oh - what i did like which ifound was the INCREDIBLY snazzy posh loo's you can have! Like portaloos but sooooo mega posh and luxurious! What a thing to like 'eh?!

welshgirl78

I'm having a marquee- and it is not at all a cheap option!! The hire is £4000 - that includes tables, chairs, solid floor with new carpeting throughout, very posh loos!, dance floor amd fancy lights. As it is a July wedding there is the option to roll up the sides OR heating if needed! Plus they are having to bring a generator as there is no nearby electricity source.

We have having caterers who are doing "picnic hampers" on each table at £20 per head. However we have to pay for the staff, fridge, oven, linen etc which bumps things up. We are looking at 130 people all day and night.

Bar we are not sure, buying our own wine, welcome drinks and champagne for toasts. Obviously no corkage and the caterers are arranging staff to serve. However not sure if we will buy in all the booze (which I would like to do) or having a mobile bar later.

My current main concern is how does it run - who tells people what to do when? Am going to ask the caterer what other people have done in similar weddings - whether I need to hire someone (at more expense!) or whether a trusted friend can boss people about (but not sure I want someone to be under that sort of pressure!)

Am trying to be MSE in other areas but it is def an expensive wedding in MSE terms. I am making the favours - Sock Monkeys! - and have done about 25 out of 130 so far... However despite the cost is what we both want and have contributions from our parents and MBetting!!!

Any questions - please ask And if anyone has extra advice I'd also love to hear it

frannyann

Welshgirl, how about a toastmaster? They are not too expensive (especially with haggling ) They sort of 'run' everything and trouble shoot. I don't need one as our wedding is small and we have a wedding planner included at the venue who does that all, but the Toast masters we've met at wedding fairs impressed us!

Jo_R_2

Whereabouts are you in Nottinghamshire? I ask because my sister lives that way and got married in September, after looking round loads of potential venues, they got lucky and found a gorgeous place which ended up being quite a bargain to hire as it was a council-owned place.

Not what you asked but my sis keeps raving about how much less it cost than the other places they looked at - just in case it was something you were still thinking about!

Bit O/T there, sorry:o

welshgirl78

frannyann wrote: »

Welshgirl, how about a toastmaster? They are not too expensive (especially with haggling ) They sort of 'run' everything and trouble shoot. I don't need one as our wedding is small and we have a wedding planner included at the venue who does that all, but the Toast masters we've met at wedding fairs impressed us!

Cool idea, thanks! Have thought about it but was worried it would be expensive... will investigate further

ljbnotts

Thanks for the replys,

It is loads to organise and i'm finding it a bit daunting! We should be ok with a marquee in November, we will have heating which is more expense but def needed!

We are gettig married in St Marys church, Orston. Which is NG13 postcode. Any venues nearby would be good! (We looked at the village hall but its not big enough and we would need a marquee on the side, which defeats the point really!)

Just looking into catering now and have no idea how we are going to pull it all together! But i guess it will work eventually!

Any more Marquee stories/costs/outside catering/bars/portaloos welcome!

Lisa


Welshgirl - are you getting married in Nottingham as well?

welshgirl78

Sorry - bit slow! Nope, getting married in South Wales but organising from Nottingham which adds in another dimension! Our photographer is from Northampton but paying his own travel / accomodation so that was good!

Next concern is a florist which is a bit harder as I want to seeeeeeeeeee!

One story I read people put a little pamper hamper in the toilets - with suncream, hairspray, face blotting paper, deodarent, safety pins in etc - I thought that was an ace idea which I am stealing and can be done pretty cheap!

Another issue is invites, am getting married at the Chapel there, then the marquee is in the same grounds - any tips on what to say about and afterwards... seems a bit weird to have the same address twice!

Sorry I seem to have more questions than answers!

ljbnotts

hmm what about the chapels address and then reception in grounds?

Love the idea of a pamper hamper! Will def have to do that!

Met with our 1st marquee company today and they were lovely! So that has eased my mind a bit! Hopefully they will work out at a good price! 3 more to go tomorrow!