8 Alternatives to a Marquee for your Wedding

So You’re Getting Married, but Where?!

You’ve got engaged, what next? 

Hmm, well I guess the first big deci­sions that you have to make are where and when. It’s pret­ty tricky to move on to all the oth­er ‘wedding‑y’ stuff until you do!

You’ve per­haps looked at hotels, barns, coun­try hous­es and oth­er tra­di­tion­al wed­ding venues and decid­ed, “Nah, that’s not for us. We want to hear the birds sing, smell the flow­ers and feel the breeze” (very poet­ic, hey!) Per­haps an out­door wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny?

Now it might be that you’re lucky enough to own some land, have a real­ly big gar­den, or have a friend with a field.

What are you going to use for all your guests? A mar­quee I guess.

Or.….… maybe not

Because I am here to tell you that there are LOADS of alter­na­tives to a mar­quee for your wedding!!

Alternatives to a Marquee for a Wedding — the Choices

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It’s prob­a­bly worth men­tion­ing there is a fab blog called The Out­side Bride, who are ALL about help­ing cou­ples that are plan­ning an out­door wed­ding (whether you’re a bride or not)

I also want to say that I have NOTHING against mar­quees for wed­dings!! Lots of amaz­ing wed­dings that I’ve done have had a mar­quee, like this one in Claver­ley, Shrop­shire or this farm wed­ding near Kidderminster.

But, peo­ple like vari­ety and to find some­thing a bit dif­fer­ent, so here goes.

Now let’s great straight into some of those alter­na­tives to a mar­quee for a wed­ding, start­ing with the 4 which are prob­a­bly the most adaptable.

• Tipi
• Yurt
• Sail­cloth tent
• Geodome

There are some oth­er options that might suit a small­er day, could form part of your out­door plans plus a bit of a curve ball!

• Stretch Tent
• Wig­wam
• Bell Tent
• Bus with Cir­cus Tent!

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Wedding Tipis

Tip­is seem to have grown and grown in pop­u­lar­i­ty for wed­dings over the last few years. If you want the fes­ti­val vibe for your wed­ding then they’re prob­a­bly the num­ber one choice. 

What’s not to love about them, they epit­o­mise the feel­ing of being at a fes­ti­val, bring­ing all the par­ty feel. 

The Scan­di­na­vian design, the icon­ic ‘hats’, the wood­en frame, the can­vas walls. You guar­an­tee that if you have a tipi at your wed­ding, every­one will notice it!

Reasons to have a Tipi for your Wedding

• Real­ly eye-catch­ing, they’re a bril­liant cen­tre­piece for your wed­ding day with their rus­tic, bohemi­an vibe
• Ver­sa­tile to get the size you want depend­ing upon how many ‘hats’ you go for.
• A num­ber of venues around these days that have per­ma­nent tip­is, with facil­i­ties. like Enchant­i­ng Wood­land Wed­dings, Over­grown Acres and The Hid­den Hive.

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Wedding Yurt

Anoth­er option as an alter­na­tive to a mar­quee at your wed­ding, to give you a fes­ti­val vibe, is to hire a yurt.

Orig­i­nat­ing in cen­tral Asia, a tra­di­tion­al Yurt is round with a wood­en frame and ani­mal skins stretched over it to give shel­ter. They were used by nomadic peo­ple as a quick way to pro­vide some cov­er but more sub­stan­tial than a tent. 

Mod­ern wed­ding yurts retain the cir­cu­lar shape and wood­en frame but usu­al­ly can­vas rather than an ani­mal skin!

They tend to have a dis­tinc­tive dome in the cen­tre and are lighter inside than a yurt.

There’s also the option to add on a mini yurt to give a bar area or chill out space. 

Reasons to have a Yurt as an alternative to a marquee for your Wedding

• Dis­tinc­tive dome shape with large open space inside
• Light and airy dur­ing the day but also giv­ing lots of shelter
• Less com­mon that a mar­quee or tipi so a great way to stand out from the crowd!

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Sailcloth Tent Wedding Reception

Ok, so you might be think­ing how is a sail­cloth tent an alter­na­tive to a mar­quee for your wed­ding, isn’t it a marquee??!

I say not!

They cer­tain­ly have sim­i­lar­i­ties using the same mate­ri­als and con­struc­tion. But a mar­quee is usu­al­ly rec­tan­gu­lar, often white walls, a tra­di­tion­al offering.

A sail­cloth tent usu­al­ly has round­ed ends, giv­ing it a more ele­gant look. They tend to have a point­ed roof giv­ing more of a sense of space inside and typ­i­cal­ly have clear sides.

So, if your sail­cloth is some­where with great views you can look through the clear sides to appre­ci­ate the scenery if the weath­er isn’t so good. Or, if the sun is out then the sides can be removed so you can be at one with nature!

Reasons to have a Sailcloth Tent for your Wedding

• A very ele­gant alter­na­tive to a mar­quee with curved ends
• 360° views of the coun­try­side through the clear walls
• Easy to open up for fresh air on a hot sun­ny day

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Geodome as an Alternative to a Marquee for your Wedding

Geo what I hear you say??

Geodome [ jee-uh-dohm ]

A struc­ture hav­ing the shape of a dome or par­tial sphere but made of flat tri­an­gu­lar pieces that fit rigid­ly together.

That’s the dic­tio­nary definition! 

Think a mahooosive snow globe… with­out the snow 😆

No inter­nal pil­lars (that’s because of the strength of those clever tri­an­gles!) and huge open space inside

Plus, at night time, they look like you’ve got a giant space­ship — cool as f#*k!!!

Reasons to choose a Geodome for your Wedding

• Mod­ern and styl­ish. Did I men­tion how cool there are?!
• Com­plete­ly open inside, no pil­lars to wor­ry about
• Close Encoun­ters of the Wed­ding Kind!!!

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Stretch Tent at a Wedding

This sec­ond half of the blog is more about things that you might want to add to your tipi, yurt, mar­quee or stretch tent wed­ding . Rather than being the main event

So, start­ing with a stretch tent, this is some­thing I’ve seen used for out­door cer­e­monies where some cov­er was deemed sensible!

There are plen­ty of per­ma­nent wed­ding venues that have out­door options for the cer­e­mo­ny, but they also have a great indoor option should it look like rain.

If you’re plan­ning a fes­ti­val type wed­ding, in a field, then the chances are that it’s not a licenced venue. So your choic­es are either, church wed­ding, civ­il cer­e­mo­ny some­where else before head­ing to the recep­tion, or you have a bless­ing (hav­ing done the offi­cial legal bit beforehand)

I’ve done a few out­door bless­ings that were entire­ly in the open, and were fab! But, should the heav­ens open you might be more lim­it­ed with where you could have the bless­ing inside. That’s where a stretch tent could help.

You’re out­side in nature, you can see the view and feel the breeze, but you’re also under cov­er. Just in case!

They can also be handy to use for a shad­ed area if you’re in the mid­dle of a field and it’s a hot sun­ny day.

Reasons to use a Stretch Tent at your Wedding

• To pro­vide shel­ter in case of rain
• Pro­vides shade in a field
• Get a real­ly large one and it can be used as an alter­na­tive to a mar­quee for your wed­ding breakfast

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Wedding Wigwam

Some peo­ple might say that a tipi and a wig­wam are dif­fer­ent words for the same thing. 

They well be right!

To me, a wig­wam is a sin­gle struc­ture, a sin­gle point and could be a small child-sized one all the way up to a giant wigwam.

They could be a great addi­tion to a fes­ti­val vibe wed­ding, per­haps some cov­er in case of rain or as a place for the kids to play

Reasons to have a Wigwam at your Wedding

• A sim­ple struc­ture, not too much space needed
• Vari­ety of sizes to suit
• Some­where for the kids to play

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Bell Tents at Weddings

I’ve seen bell tents a few times at wed­dings, used as sleep­ing accom­mo­da­tion for either the hap­py cou­ple of the guests.

There are com­pa­nies who hire them out as a glamp­ing option for the wed­ding night. I’ve also seen them set up en masse as fes­ti­val style sleep­ing quar­ters for wed­dings guests

Reasons to use Bell Tents at your Wedding

• Glamp­ing Vil­lage for your guests
• Sleep­ing quar­ters for the newleyweds
• To cre­ate a play zone for kids at the wedding

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Double-Decker Bus Instead of a Marquee at your Wedding!

Ok, so in a blog about out­door wed­dings, in a field, when you’re think­ing about alter­na­tives to a mar­quee, you prob­a­bly don’t think ‘dou­ble-deck­er bus’.

Well, let me intro­duce to you the awe­some con­cept that is Deck­er­dence.

It’s a vin­tage bus which they will set up for you wher­ev­er you want. They then erect around it some­thing which is a bit like a cir­cus tent, with the bus serv­ing as your bar. You even have an a view­ing gallery from the upper deck!

I’ve nev­er seen any­thing like it!

Reasons to Choose Deckerdence for your Wedding

• It’s a vin­tage bus, with a mar­quee tent around it, say no more!
• You get your pop up venue and a bar too!
• Flex­i­ble space with seat­ing on one side and dance­floor on the other

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Alternatives to a Marquee for your Wedding — Summary

I’ve tried to give a few ideas to check out if you’re plan­ning a fes­ti­val style wed­ding and want ideas. Mar­quees are great, but maybe you want some­thing a bit dif­fer­ent, some­thing that your guests won’t have seen before.

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OTHER BLOGS TO CHECK OUT

• 70 Ideas for Wed­ding Entertainment
• How to have Awe­some Wed­ding Confetti
• Worces­ter­shire Wed­ding Venues
• 33 Cool Birm­ing­ham and West Mid­lands Wed­ding Venues
• Inti­mate and Micro Weddings

If you’re look­ing for a Doc­u­men­tary Wed­ding Pho­tog­ra­ph­er, then please get in touch. I’d love to have a chat!