Tipi and Marquee Weddings: What to Know

A field, a tent and your favourite people. It sounds simple, and that's the appeal: a tipi or marquee wedding gives you a blank space to fill however you like, with no house style to work around. But "blank canvas" really means "you bring everything", and that catches people out. So before you fall for the fairy lights, here's what actually goes into pulling one off.

Tipi or marquee: what's the difference

People use the words loosely, but they're not the same animal.

A traditional frame marquee is a rectangular structure with solid walls, a flat roof and a clear interior (no poles in the middle). It's the workhorse of garden weddings: clean lines, easy to line in ivory pleated fabric, simple to fit with a dance floor and round tables.

Tipis (usually Nordic-style "kata" tents from a hire company like a regional supplier) are tall conical canvas tents that link together into a cluster. They have a wonderful open, woody feel, the central poles are part of the look, and you can throw the sides up on a warm evening. They suit a relaxed, festival-ish day.

There's also the sailcloth or stretch tent, billowy and modern, which works beautifully over a patio or an awkward shape of ground but offers less weather protection in a proper downpour.

None is "better". It comes down to the look you want and how exposed your site is.

The site is the real decision

A tent is only as good as the ground under it. Before you book anything, walk the actual spot with the hire company and ask hard questions.

• Is it level and well-drained? A slight slope is fixable; a boggy corner in October is not.
• How will vans and a generator get in? A narrow gate or soft verge can stop a delivery lorry dead.
• Is there a water supply and a loo block, or do you bring both?
• Are the neighbours close? Noise and a midnight finish matter more in a village than in the middle of a farm.

If you're using your own garden, lovely, but factor in the lawn recovery afterwards (heavy footfall plus a marquee floor for three days leaves a mark). Many couples hire a field from a local farmer for a few hundred pounds instead and keep their own grass intact.

Counting the hidden costs

This is where the "cheaper than a venue" myth quietly falls apart. The tent is often the smallest line on the list. Here's a rough guide for around 100 guests in the UK; treat it as a starting point, not a quote.

Add a wedding planner or on-site coordinator and you're easily matching a mid-range venue. According to Hitched's 2024 National Wedding Survey, the average UK wedding came in around £20,700, and a well-kitted marquee day sits comfortably in that bracket once you've totted up the extras. The trade-off is that you control every penny of it and can pour money into the bits you care about.

Plan for weather like it will rain

Because in Britain, on any given Saturday, it might. The marquee itself keeps the rain off, but the gaps trip people up: the muddy walk from the car park, the catering tent that floods, the guests in heels on soft grass.

A few things that genuinely help:

• A solid floor and a covered walkway from drop-off to the tent.
• Heaters on standby even in July. British evenings turn cold fast, and a chilly guest leaves early.
• A box of cheap wellies and umbrellas by the entrance.
• Sides that can be dropped down if the wind picks up.

Talk to your supplier about heating and wind ratings specifically. A good tipi company will have a view on what their kit handles.

The logistics nobody mentions

A field has no kitchen, no fridge, no toilets and no electrician on call. You're building a small venue from scratch, so the running order on the day takes more thought.

Catering needs a prep area, power and water, so loop your caterer in early about what the site offers. Power is the big one: a generator must be sized for the catering load, the bar fridges, the band's PA and all that lighting at once, or it'll trip mid-first-dance. Get a single supplier to spec the whole electrical setup rather than guessing.

Then there's the timeline. The tent usually goes up two or three days before and comes down one or two after, so you may be paying for the field across a long weekend. Build that into the hire dates and the budget.

With this many moving parts and a guest list arriving at a spot with no postcode signage, clear directions matter. A wedding website is genuinely useful here: pop the what3words location, parking notes, shuttle times and a "bring flat shoes" line on one page, and collect RSVPs and meal choices in the same place so your caterer gets accurate numbers. Build The Day lets you do exactly that.

A tipi or marquee day takes more organising than a packaged venue, no question. But you get a wedding that looks like nowhere else, in a spot you chose, lit the way you wanted. For a lot of couples, that's worth every extra spreadsheet.