Forgotten things at marquee weddings

You’ve put the wedding marquee up, it is perfectly finished and decorated and all of the furniture is laid out as per the flooring plan which gives a nice cosy but spacious feel to the marquee.

Then the customer comes out and says “Can we just fit this in somewhere” and life in the marquee gets a bit more cramped and complicated.

From experience there can be a wide variety of things that have to be fitted in somewhere but as usual it’s better to be prepared before the event (at the planning stage ideally though you cannot always allow for a bride’s last minute inspiration). The following are mainly from experience with wedding marquees but can also occur in other marquee events too:

Additional tables for hats and/or presents. Asking the question of where will they put ladies hats and any presents on the day can be done at the site visit and also show’s you’re being thorough with the planning.
Coat rails. During the summer any jackets would normally go on the backs of chairs but during winter months this should be allowed for (near the entrance if possible).
Cake table. Sounds obvious but I was on site once and asked “so where are we putting the cake” and hadn’t allowed for it anywhere. Easily corrected but still not a nice feeling.
Chocolate fountain. We had to fit one of these in last minute once and keep in mind that you need a fair amount of ‘splashing’ room around it that caused a few problems. A good tip – don’t put a chocolate fountain close to marquee linings, chocolate is a pain to get out afterwards.
DJ. Generally if a customer is having a dance floor you will allow space for a band or DJ automatically. But sometimes if a customer is having a band (which you’ve allowed for) they will also have a DJ (not originally mentioned or allowed for) to fill in between sets. If a customer is having a band just make sure they’re not having a DJ too.
PA system though this doesn’t take up too much space
Bar – a few times we had customers who had built their own bars and needed to fit them in to the marquee somewhere. Invariably this takes up a lot more room than a simple trestle table style bar.

That’s all I can think of though this post might be edited as more occur to me!

Thanks for reading

Spencer