We often get enquires to Design, Plan and Produce Marquee Events – which we just love doing.
We also get last minute panic enquires where a couple have organised everything themselves and have underestimated just how much work is required when planning a marquee event.
Here are our pearls of wisdom for event designers and individuals that are planning a marquee.
- Prepare your client a Marquee is the most expensive option for your party, wedding or event – but also the most fabulous!
- A marquee will typically require a week to build. This is why it’s a great idea for a client to use an Events Planner to oversee. They can be responsible for meeting the marquee builders each day. Typically for a Saturday wedding event we would start the build on a Monday, the lighting and power would go in on the Wednesday, the décor on the Thursday, the kitchen build on the Friday and then the flowers first thing on the Saturday. Then typically the marquee will come down Monday and Tuesday – it’s a big job!
- When choosing your marquee company we would always suggest10ft high tent legs.
- Ensure gutters are attached to any existing facades / tent to tent / gutter to house away from house.
- Ensure the ground is inspected for sprinklers / gas lines and water lines.
- You will need a generator for power, we recommend a whisper quiet generator that make little or (relatively) no noise. Also we recommend having 2 with 1 as a back up. Why not ask your provider if you can have the second one half price, and you will pay full price if it’s not used.
- Always insist on a ring beam cassette floor, this will make it feel like you are in a room – and eliminate the bounce!
- I would recommend having heaters and also air conditioning units on stand by – the weather is so unpredictable.
- Make sure your marquee provider gives you a cad drawing so you can visual the space.
- What will you do with all the rubbish? Make sure you order a skip.
- Manage your client’s neighbours, it’s a good idea to tell them as soon as they have decided to go ahead so that they can plan to be out, if they aren’t invited!
- Before the event make sure the grass has been cut short.
- Where is everyone going to park? It’s not just guests you need to think about it’s all your suppliers too and they will have lorries and vans.
- Designate smoking area away from the marquee for guests and suppliers.
- Toilets – you can get some fantastic posh toilets now – and it’s nice to pop some toiletries in for the ladies. To avoid queues you could have unisex toilets so that they all get used, rather than the ladies with a queue and the men’s empty.
- If your client isn’t using a party planner on the night they should provide a house attendant on the day of the event just to instruct bands, singers, caterers as they arrive.
- Ensure you have signage for parking particularly if it is limited at the house itself.
- You will need to have a storage room for event crew for their empty cases and also somewhere for them to “chill out”.
- With all your suppliers on the day (caterers, lighting and sound technicians, bands, musicians, bar staff) look after them and they will do a better job for you. Make sure there is plenty of cold drinks, a hot drinks station and hot meals. Muscians tend to like a beer it makes them more creative…so I am told!
- Make sure there is lighting in your car park at the end – you can use clever LED lighting or simple storm or night lanterns
- Ensure there is signage for when guests arrive, remember it’s not a venue so they won’t know where to go.
- Make sure you get insurance for the day.
- Always have a Plan B
This is a guest post by Holly Moore. Holly worked at a luxury venue both in an Operational and Events Sales Manager role; followed by a role as Events Manager within the employee engagement sector of AstraZeneca (global Pharmacutical firm) followed by Business Development role at an Events Management Company. During this time she even had time to set up, run and sell a wedding planning business – Brides & Bows! Holly set up Make Events in July 2012 with the mind of creating an Events Design and Planning Company that created each event from scratch with no one event being the same. This ethos has afforded Make Events to design events for clients such as Kelloggs, Misguided, LateRooms, AO Group, Toshiba Medical, Pizza Express to name a few.
“Image source – Flickr , usage under Creative Commons license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)”
