Usual wedding faction adding a Zero to everything, but the cost of marquee hire for a weekend is beyond me! We were avoiding the traditional facility/ hotel to try and keep costs down and make it a bit more personal but this seems a lot to me.

its not just the cost of the actual marquee, but the added ‘extras’ that you can’t do without that seem to add the real cost. it gets to the point where i reckon for not much more money I could buy the tables and chairs myself and set up my own business. Rent them out once more and I’d be in profit!

the worst is some of the sales team seemed to be doing us a ‘favour’ by reducing themselves to asking basic questions about what’s included, or can we can any picture of what I’m going to lose a kidney for!

Sorry, rant over (doubt it’ll be the last)

Failing that anybody got some spare tents?

Yeah we held our wedding reception in the in-laws garden (in 2006). We reasoned that we could keep the costs down and spend more on food / drink / entertainment for our guests than by having the reception in a hotel but the marquee cost was huge.

I notice you are in Yorkshire – who are you using out of interest?

I notice you are in Yorkshire – who are you using out of interest?

We’re in Sheffield, and we’ve not decided. Its between the cheapest we can get (with associated service quality) and a company Leeds based which are much nicer and have a proper high pole marquee but want an EXTRA £1400 on an already large sum of money.
Suggestions of suppliers very welcome as i’m scared the traditional google searches are getting us the pricier end.

I even started finding the marquees on AliExpress and contemplating buying one as it woudln’t be much more but then got talked down as we don’t have the cash

Ahh okay, so it won’t be the company we (well the in-laws as they paid for it) were screwed over by (they paid the deposit then the prices were increased – unfortunately, because of how my father-in-law dealt with it, he lost the deposit as he was deemed to be in breach of contract. It left a long-term bitter taste for them and us.

FWIW, we paid around £6k (IIRC) for a marquee to fit 120 people, stage, starlight ceiling, interior decoration, lighting, carpet (new), and furniture hire.

Food and all associated food related stuff was supplied by another supplier.

Ohh, and (depending on your circumstances) don’t forget to budget for a portaloo!

All in all, the whole shebang cost about the same as a hotel venue but we did get to hold it at my wife’s lifelong family home which gave us many more happy memories.

Ahh weddings…

I try to not think about the lovely boat I could own, right now & fully paid off if my wife and I eloped.

Sigh…

A friend of mine works for a circus company and they do a lot of festival stuff but also hire out big top style tents for events. No idea how it compares to normal marquee hire but you get a more fun tent and they are a nice bunch. https://www.bigtopmania.co.uk/

When I used to put events on we used these guys a lot – https://www.evansmarqueehire.co.uk

Not cheap but good – bit further away though.

I think the frame ones are cheaper than traditional style ones but the trad ones do look nicer for a wedding IMO.

These are popular these days for weddings – https://www.fjelleventtipis.co.uk but I don’t think they are cheap either

(my photo on the home page BTW :P)

Suggestions of suppliers very welcome

Try your local scout groups or find/ask your local scout District Commissioner if any of his groups own one. They may even have tables and chairs to fill it, but obviously wouldn’t have all the wedding appropriate trimmings and shite, you’d still have to get that from somewhere.

Don’t arrange anything for the day after the weeding as you’ll be busy clearing up the marquee before it’s taken down!
(whilst wondering why you didn’t use a ‘venue’!!)

With 3 daughters I may as well end it now buy a marquee!!

This is why the guys who organised the Euro Singlespeed Champs in Evanton bought a second hand marqueee from a highland games for next to nothing. Wonder if they still have it…

Suggestions of suppliers very welcome

Local village halls, church halls or any schools that you have links to might be able to help with tables, chairs and benches

Local village halls, church halls or any schools that you have links to might be able to help with tables, chairs and benches

I would suggest they would be reasonably well equipped to help with walls, floors, doors, electricity and plumbing too for a non-too excessive cost…!

£6k for a tent? Tell them it’s for a funeral.

Price up non-wedding venues as well?

I got married at Leeds Registry Office and had the reception at a golf club on the edge of town for a very reasonable price.

I’m not from Yorkshire, but I probably have a bit of the blood in me as there was no way I was paying wedding industry prices.

Some friends of mine got married this summer. They bought a second hand marquee for about £600 (IIRC) that took up pretty much their entire garden, which is where they had their wedding reception. It was one of the best weddings I’ve been to.

I used to be in marquee trade until about 15 years ago. If you have to hire everything (venue, power, toilets, kitchen) then there aren’t many more expensive alternatives.

The firm I worked for started from the owner being shocked at rental prices in the 80’s and was one of the top end companies in the SW whilst I was foreman there, loads of magazine featured tents and the company chosen by those in the industry for their own events.

Helped a mate buy a marquee last year as at least 3 events needing one over next 2 years. He used to work for me, so had a good idea of what was needed, got him a 70×30 foot traditional with window walls and carpet for about £1500 as he has the dry storage. Roughly half cost of hire per event.

Lot of variation in kit and companies. If you want weather tight get a frame or a traditional for height and quiet. If the kit is kept refreshed and clean you may not need lining. Standard of electrics varies between companies. A specialist outdoor caterer is more likely to have their own kit or good hire deals in place.

It all depends on how you want it to look and what you want. One of my most expensive jobs was a small tent at 9x15m with every option for a Red Bull marketing manager.

If you want to see second hand kit and costs look at curlew.co.uk but bear in mind that a lot of the textiles will have expired fire certificates so would need retreating if you were to hire them out afterwards.

We had our reception in one. We used a rugby club who put a marquee up every summer for their ball – we extended the hire for a week to cover our date, and as it was next to the club everyone could go for a pee in the club’s changing rooms 😁

Try your local scout groups or find/ask your local scout District Commissioner if any of his groups own one. They may even have tables and chairs to fill it, but obviously wouldn’t have all the wedding appropriate trimmings and shite, you’d still have to get that from somewhere.

eaxctly what my mate did for his austerity wedding. cost a couple of hundred to scout funds IIRC but not sure

he did his whole wedding including hiring a house for a large family for £6000. I did the catering – roadkill stew! ( actually venison and pheasant from a mate for free)

My wedding cost £1000 (1986) registary office, disco, buffet…. we paid for it as neither parents offered, but they ****ing turned up.

Was going to say… Yorkshire folk we like a good time but not at these prices…

My sister got married about 8 years ago and started looking at putting a marquee in a field. She ended up renting a whole fort for a weekend that slept 20 (I can’t actually remember if it was cheaper or not but it was infinitely better value).

We ran away to Portavadie a couple of years ago, under £1k for the registrar, a couple of nights away in a cottage, food & drink for us. 2 of the staff were our witnesses. 🙂

We were avoiding the traditional facility/ hotel to try and keep costs down and make it a bit more personal but this seems a lot to me

The thing about venues is that they already have all the facilities there and ready.

Marquees are never a cheap option. We looked at them briefly for an ‘in the in-laws-garden’ option and fairly quickly moved on to looking at proper venues.

She ended up renting a whole fort for a weekend that slept 20

nice.

we had a castle.