Booking a marquee can be one of the tougher parts of organsing your event. There can be quite a lot of logistics involved and the rest of your suppliers will most likely need to know the details before they can provide accurate quotes.

However booking a marquee doesn't need to be difficult, and if you'd like to find a bit more about the types in marquees on offer you can check out our Ultimate Guide here. In this piece though, we speak to Gareth Dean, founder of Project Marquee, about a few points that those looking to book a marquee should know up front to make the process even smoother. You can check his points out below, and if you like the look of Project Marqee you can enquire about getting them along to your event here.

Try and measure the space you need the marquee to fit into

If the event is taking place in your garden or a nearby venue, we'd recommend measuring it yourself so you can pass that information to get a more accurate quote. Often people will not have asked their venue about the size of the area the marquee will fit into, and likewise people will overestimate the size of their gardens.

It's also very helpful for us to know the surface that the marquee will be sitting on. If it's concrete we'll most likely need to weigh it down and if it's on grass, we need to know if there's any piping underneath. We can make it work on any suface, even if there's a slope, we just need to know about it up front!

We'll build it and take it down

This may come as a surprise but a question that I get asked all the time is whether we build and take down the marquee ourselves.

As a short answer, of course we do! Marquees are big constructs and very tough to put together so it's something that's definitely best left to the professionals, for safety as much as anything. On numerous occasions people have asked whether it'll reduce the cost if they put it up and take it down themselves, and the answer is always the same, don't do it!

There are lots of linings available

There are some great options when it comes to the linings and dressing of your marquee. For example for a wedding, we will normally dress the marquee with a white pleated lining that suits an elegant occasion, whereas for a Christmas event we can dress the marquee with a more festive, mysterious starlight lining. A particularly popular option for a wedding is to have three sides of the marquee in an elegant white, and then a dramatic black lining behind the dancefoor to make it stand out.

As well as the linings, drapes can come in a sorts of colours, so if you're hosting a party with a particular theme, or your wedding has a colour scheme these are absolutely perfect for that.

Budgets

The reality is that marquees are one of the more expensive items when it comes to hiring suppliers for your event, but if you get it right I assure you they're worth every penny.

If you're looking to get a larger marquee for an event of over a hundred guests, you're most likely looking at a minimum of around £1500, but if it's a small garden party with less than fifty guests, it's possible to get a good quality marquee along for around £600-£700.

They're often set up a few days before the event

It's very common that a marquee company will be providing structures at multiple events over the course of a weekend, so don't be surprised if they ask to set it up a few days before your even and potentially take it down a few days after. This is totally normal when it comes to marquees and if you're using a wedding venue, they will likely be absolutely fine provided it doesn't clash with other events they have going on.