My Wedding Notebook Blog

The possibilities are endless with a marquee wedding. You can pick the perfect structure, complete with the dream interior and style your day exactly as you please. We’ve spoken to House of Hud for a rundown of the many options and special features available for you to consider for your own, unique wedding.

FRAME TENTS

These versatile tents are cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Step inside the champagne-coloured material exterior and you discover a party environment… delicate block prints, embroidered mirrors and plush velvet. These structures are endlessly customisable. Choose from ten individual interior designed rooms, each weaving a different narrative and backdrop, allowing you to create the mise-en-scène from the classical garden party to modern party palaces.

Frame Tents can be put up anywhere – from gardens to hard standing – and can be interconnected to create interesting ‘rooms’ and spaces. This flexibility with arrangement makes it much easier to be creative with layout, fitting more marquees into a tight space and creating a completely unique venue. Secret rooms between tents make a magical, enticing addition to your party and add intrigue and fun for your guests.

Frame Tents are excellent for making the most of quirkily shaped gardens which may not usually be suitable for a standard marquee or Oyster Pearl. The downside: you lose height when they are connected but this does create intimate spaces.

PEARL TENTS

Classic, beautiful, statuesque. The symmetry and clean lines of The Pearl Tent Collection is reminiscent of the great palaces of the Mughal Dynasty, and indeed there is an air of royalty to these iconic tents; with their luxurious vaulted ceilings.

As architecturally beautiful as they are robust, these structures can accommodate up to 250 guests for a seated wedding reception with a dance floor, reception and bar areas. They are one of the largest structures in the collection. That does mean they need a great deal of space to be built.

The Pearl collection comes in varying sizes, with graceful verandas around their perimeter. For bigger events, the Lulu and Dana can feature additional add-ons: two different sized extensions can be connected to the sides to create an extra stunning space.

The Pearl collection are lined with flat white interiors to highlight the simplicity of their stunning architectural form. This creates a graceful atmosphere full of light and space. As with the rest of the selection, the interior is customisable. Additional fairy lighting, draping and interesting hanging décor such as pompoms and Chinese lanterns can be added according to the occasion.

These structures are the only ones of their kind in the country. The unique and palatial vibe does come at a price. They take two days to put up and require special equipment – making them expensive. The Pearl Tents are best suited to flat ground – preferably grass – which can be limiting. These impressive structures work best in wide-open spaces where they can create a truly stunning grand entrance to ‘wow’ and delight you and your guests.

OYSTER PEARL

This quintessentially British tent made in the UK evokes an air of elegant beauty and romanticism. The capacious peaked roof is a silhouette against the skyline, and the crisp white interior offers a blank canvas on which you can create your vision. The biggest of the series, Oyster Pearl tents have a traditional charm and are supported with wooden poles around the perimeter with carved wooden finials atop them.

As with the rest of the structures, they can be used in conjunction with clear walls around the edge to maximise the setting and views and have the most rustic styling of all the tents in the collection. The centre-poles provide a towering 6 metre of height to the apex in the roof. Beautiful AND practical. As with the other Pearl series, they need a lot of space surrounding them so may not be the best choice if space is an issue. They require flat ground and are best suited to grass.

CLEARSPAN MARQUEES

Clearspan Marquees, although looking like a white corporate marquee, are versatile and useful for maximising tight spaces. The interior creates a very light, open space with decent height. With the ability to be set up on almost any surface and with a wide span of up to a 15 metre width – to an almost infinite length, extendable in 3m increments – these clearspan structures are large and practical and can be lined, draped, decorated and furnished to transform them from ordinary to extraordinary. They are useful in winter as they can be put up beside a building and are also relatively cheap and quick to set up.

STRETCH TENTS

These marquees can quite literally stretch over any space, creating unique party areas where normal marquees wouldn’t be possible to put up. These free-form structures are ideal if you think that a marquee wouldn’t be possible in a space – they are incredibly versatile and can handle undulating ground and different levels. They are the most organic of structures aesthetically and are given form by different length poles to create the height and walls. Once staked, pegged and put up, they are extremely strong structures capable of withstanding the most extreme conditions.

On the downside, they are not hugely weatherproof so best suited to fair weather events. They are useful as an extra sunshade or rain-cover for a reception, bar or lounge. It is also possible to inter-connect them to create a multitude of different shapes and options. To bring colour and texture to the blank canvas by adding swags of jewel-coloured silks or soft white voile to the interiors. Patterned lighting projections and hanging decorations can completely transform the final effect. Stretch tents are very quick to put up and take down making them quite an economical choice.

Thank you so much to House of Hud for sharing their expertise in wedding marquees with us! They have a decade of experience creating and styling wedding venues and boast the largest collection of themed marquees in the UK. You are in extremely safe and creative hands. If you want to know more just email info@houseofhud.com.