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Wedding Marquees


Marquee Weddings are fabulous (ok, we may be a little biased, but hey!) in so many ways.  They allow you the freedom to choose your location, views, suppliers, layout, style of chairs – everything, and it’s all just for you and your guests.  With a background in events and having worked in venues from Castles to Hotels, stately homes to tents, for us, there really is something quite special about having your own space, personalised to you, for the whole day.

Where to begin! There are so many advantages of having a marquee wedding, it’s hard to know where to start.  There are plenty of different styles of marquee to choose from, venues with views, and furniture/interior décor and finishing – if you want to do things ‘your way’, then a marquee is a great option.  Yes, it can take a little more organising, but it does allow you a lot more control of your budget – whether you’re planning a simple, relaxed day, or going all out with wooden flooring, carpet, lighting packages and more.

Your own space, no constraints, you can even choose your loos!

Wedding styles

Marquees are a perfect blank canvas to take on any wedding theme, whether that be a colour scheme or overall feel to the day. Here are just a few of our favourites – naturally the list is beautifully endless.

The Festival Wedding

Think hay bales, outdoor games, plenty of music and a huge party! These weddings are all about everyone having fun, relaxing and really enjoying every moment of the day.

The Party Wedding

With our circular bar as a central focal point, co-ordinated food stations, a nightclub area and awesome lighting, this wedding is all about the party! Just add a backdrop of blue skies & sunshine and you’ll have your guests talking about the ultimate party wedding for years to come!

The Rustic Wedding

Long wooden tables, gorgeous crossback chairs, lots of greenery and vases with candles running down the centre of each table.  This wedding is just perfect – not overstated, but providing a beautiful co-ordinated backdrop to the celebrations.

The Chic Wedding

White or cream table linen, gorgeous tall blooms in the centre of each table, wooden flooring that’s carpeted really lifts the entire feel of this marquee –  creating a huge ‘wow factor’ as guests enter.  Our sailcloth tents adapt well to this style, as the crisp white lines of the roof really complement the interior décor.

Case Studies


Coastal Marquee Wedding

This stunning sailcloth marquee wedding featured so many beautiful details. Take a look at the images to see more..

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Cheshire Marquee Wedding at Home

We loved this beautiful Sailcloth Tent Wedding at Eleanor’s Parents’ Home in Cheshire. Our 10m x 22m Aurora fitted perfectly on their Terrace. All images by Nomad Love Stories Crockery – Whitehouse Crockery Venue – Parents’ Home Flowers – Simply Weddings and Events Catering – Thyme Outside Wedding Dress – 7th Heaven Bridal Groom’s Suit […]

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Beautiful Summer Marquee Wedding

Here are a few highlights from Paula & Mike’s Wedding in Appletreewick. All images by Georgie Beck Photography “Thank you to the team at Shades for providing us with a wonderful reception venue. The marquee looked absolutely stunning and the team were a delight to deal with from start to finish. Everything went smoothly and […]

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Shades Wedding – Kate & Andrew at Loseley Park

The Wedding I had been to several marquee events and weddings in the past and I thought I had a fairly good handle on things. However, it was not until June 2018 when I was at my best friend Char’s wedding in Hook Heath. She had been telling me about the marquee she had lined […]

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Wedding Marquee FAQ's


If you’d like to chat all things marquee with us, do get in touch! We’re always happy to talk through options and see what will work best for you.  Our aim is to ensure you have the most perfect backdrop for your special day.

This usually depends on the style of marquee you are choosing, and what you’d like to fit into it in terms of reception space, dining area and dancefloor. We usually find that a 14m x 20m Sailcloth Tent is perfect for up to 100 guests. For similar numbers, you’d look to have a 20m2 octagon Nomad Hybrid marquee (the equivalent of 4 tipis).

As with any wedding, this is the $50 million dollar question! Obviously our marquees aren’t $50 million dollars, but essentially, it very much depends on what you’d like your wedding to cost.

Whereas initially a marquee can seem like a more expensive option when comparing it with hiring a fixed venue, in the long run (after corkage savings, the ability to choose your own suppliers in most cases etc), there is often very little difference between the options.

When we look at marquee sites, we’re looking to check how flat the ground is and what the access is like for large vehicles. The flatter the ground the better for obvious reasons, but it is possible to build a marquee on a slope – we’d just use scaffolding to create a flat area.

If you take a look at our Venues page (https://shades-canvas.com/locations/yorkshire/), we’ve listed some of our favourite marquee wedding venues across Yorkshire and the UK. It’s a great starting point for inspiration and if you have your own back garden or can borrow a friend’s field all the better!

It doesn’t have to be that hard! Often people are put off by the thought of having to pull together a few different suppliers to create the right location, but actually, many companies can supply more than one element (we can usually supply generators, loos, furniture, lighting etc, so more than just the tent). We also keep a member of the team on site during your event, simply to make sure that you’re comfortable in the marquee – we can roll the sides up, take them off, switch the lights on in the evening.. it ensures there’s one less thing to worry about on the day.

If you’re a little daunted by the thought of it, a Wedding planner can be a really worthwhile investment, even if just to oversee and co-ordinate suppliers and timings on the day itself. We have worked with some really brilliant planners over the last few years, and would gladly point you in the right direction of someone who could help.

Marquees are such a blank canvas, they really do lend themselves to any colour scheme, any style and it doesn’t have to be expensive. Our Aurora Sailcloth Tents for example look amazing when lit up with a pattern on the ceiling. Tall arrangements do however look fabulous in the sailcloth tents, and smaller arrangements in the Nomad Hybrid.

Wedges! That’s one of the most asked questions – what do we recommend guests wear on their feet to cope with the flooring and walking over grass! Sunglasses are also extremely useful as the sailcloth tents in particular allow a lot of natural daylight. We do often recommend a jacket or something a little warmer for later at night, as marquees can cool down post 10pm (if heating isn’t required).

That is usually dictated by what your kitchen and band requirements are – we’ll always gladly help you work out anything like this.

If it rains, your day becomes cosier instantly! There’s something quite lovely about the sound of rain when you’re in a tent – but even if you’ve planned your day to include the outdoor space, it’s very rare that it rains all day. For events in either spring or autumn we sometimes recommend allowing for trackway within your budget just in case, which we then make a call on usually 1 week out.

You certainly can – we would already recommend taking out a general wedding insurance policy wherever you choose to get married as it’s not expensive and is most certainly worth it ‘just in case’! Most insurance companies offer a marquee element to their policies, so check the small print.

Here's what some of our customers say


Amazing service from start to finish

11th October 2021

Shades were the perfect Marquee partner for our wedding day. From the initial enquiry all the way through Dave and Paul were unbelievably helpful with the endless questions and queries I had. They offered great advice and helped make the whole process really enjoyable. The team was brilliant over the wedding weekend to helping us with everything we needed.

The tent itself was of a very high standard and quality and all the guests remarked on how beautiful it was. I would not hesitate to use Shades for another event or to reccommend them to anyone look for a marquee.

holly waylen

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