Marquee weddings - Have you been to one? I need your help, please.

Right, as you may know OH an I are desperate to get a marquee like this -

and have it on my parent's land -

(minus the snow!)

in either July or August 2012, maybe!?!

But the thing is, I'm petrified that it will rain bucket loads and ruin the reception...rain is a logistical nightmare in this kind of wedding - cars get stuck, guests can't walk to the marquee, once guests are in marquee they can't leave...blahh, de-blahh.

So, do we chance it, in the vain hope that we have a lovely, idilic sunny day. Or do we do the safer option of finding a venue, where we can get married and have most of the celebrations outside, but come indoors if it rains? (somewhere like Kelly29's venue?)

At the moment, in our heads, our wedding looks like this.........

.............but these ideas certainly wouldn't be suited to most venues....

You're ideas are just amazing!  I love it all!

Can you not get some sort of decking type stuff to put down leading up to the marquee?  I haven't been to a wedding recetion like this, but a work event & i'm sure there was stuff laid to ensure no one sank!xx

That's a fab idea, and solves the stilettos-stuck-in-mud crisis. Only thing is, that the only access to the field where the marquee would be is about 800 yards from the car parking field (it's a track to and from) so people would get wet, (if it did rain), walking to the marquee.

Argggg! Why does our dream wedding seem so unobtainable? Do we chance it?!?!

Awesome ideas OLL! If you spoke to marquee companies they will probably have wet weather combatting plans?

Yeah. That's a good idea, Am. OH will have to get the Yellow Pages out and have a phone around!

Is there any way at all, to map weather or estimate when are the best months / weeks of the year?

Am I correct in thinking we are minimising our chances of rain by choosing the months of July or August?

Also as it is just farm land, there are no barns or big farm houses that guests can take refuge in if the weather does become unbearable.

ETA - There is a barn, but it's shite!

I'm loving your ideas Ooh la la.  I'm sure you're not the first person (people)to come across such a problem, why don;t you call round a few marquee companies to see what they suggest.  I'm sure there's some kind of plates/matting they can put down that'll do the trick.  It's not even if it rains on the day you need to consider, it's the week(s) leading up to it which is leaving a lot to chance.

Carparking my be a bit more of an issue but I'm sure you can work a way round it.  Getting married on your parents' land will mean more to you than an anonymous venue.

Sarah-Kay:

 It's not even if it rains on the day you need to consider, it's the week(s) leading up to it which is leaving a lot to chance.

Haaa, this is what I was trying to explain earlier to OH, who couldn't quite grasp the concept of, what if it rains, non-stop, two weeks prior to the wedding?!

Having been involved in the organising/running of some horse events, it is more than possible! 

Do you use the land for anything? you say it's farm land but wandered if you actually grow or graze anything on it?  Just wandering how much scope you have to put anything on it for carparking?  (I've no idea what mind, and I assume they want the land back after regardless of what it's normally used for?)

Also, I think this is the kind of thing you were looking for to help with weather planning.

we're doing a wedding very similar to your photos in Market Harborough in August - although they have a barn but believe me it's in no fit state at the moment and it's being worked on.

Unfortunately the weather is the only thing we can't rely on in this country.

Is the barn a wreck or could the marquee company put a marquee inside for you?

The weather was what put us off marquee's as we can't guarantee it. I would to do what you're desciribing, under a starry sky with lots of lanterns and candles and lots of bunting and what not but we're not sure how much of a risk we want to take with it which is why we've gone for the manor house with the big gardens. I can do all my lanterns and candles there and hopefully we'll get a starry night, but if not we have the option of indoors.

I think if you spoke to the marquee people they would be able to tell you better how to deal with it.

We had a marquee for our reception, and it chucked it down!  It was fine inside the marquee though, and we put down sort of hessian carpets as a pathway which weren't effected by the wet and stopped everyone getting stuck in the mud.  We hired portaloos and no-one seemed too bothered about going outside to use them.  Saying that, it was August and the sun came out eventually so the sides came down and it was a balmy night.  I wouldn't have changed it, despite the rain!

oi that's my wedding lol!

Seriously you have some fab ideas and they're not that far away from my own.   I second what someone else said about decking.  A suggestion re the rain, perhaps you could start collecting small, cheap umbrellas in the months before hand.  Pass them on to your ushers who can then hand them out at your ceremony (sorry if i'm missing something and your having your ceremony at the marquee too).  Or you could just have a basket with the umbrellas in at your marquee for everyone to help themselves to.

sorry for enormous pics, couldn't get the umbrella/basket shot on its own!

Just to say again, I love your ideas and you should go for it (but that's because i'm a bit biased!)

Sorry all, I went to bed!

SK - Thanks for that link, I have Bookmarked it and will have a proper look in a bit.

         We graze sheep on the fields, but as we have three fenced, acre, fields, we were going to have the sheep on the "marquee field" for four weeks before the wedding, then movethem onto another field a few days before the wedding...(save grass cutting!)

         Just to give an idea,  there is a small county lane, which runs perpendicular to our track. Our track is lined with poplar trees and off this track are three fenced fields. The one closest to the lane would be the parking field, then we will decided whether we want the marquee on the middle on or the the furthest field. Past the furthest field in an orchard, big pond, large vegetable plot and the barn.

Joannanicko - Thanks for the reply.

            There is no chance of cleaning up the barn, as it is used daily and crammed full of old tractors, agricultural machinery... Even if we could get everything out and spruce it up, there would be no where to house all of the junk inside it! Although I also like the idea of getting hitched in a barn!

            Maybe we should also go to viewings at barn venues, so that we have some comparisons.

ByGeorge - Thanks for the reply, too.

             It's good to hear advice like yours as you have actually had a marquee and it rained! We too were planning on getting portaloos, but not the ones you get at festivals! More like this.....

Penny Farthing - I like the idea of collecting brollies!

               People would park on our land, we would bus everyone to the church. We would get married in the church, then bus everyone back to the land, where they would walk down the 800 yard track and into the marquee.

Thanks all. xxx

http://www.cleanheels.co.uk/

kelly29:

http://www.cleanheels.co.uk/

Lol Kelly, do they solve all my problems?!?! lol!