How Much is a Marquee Wedding at Home?
Last edited 6th November 2025
If you’re planning your big day in your garden or on family land, a home-marquee wedding can be wonderfully flexible and personal — and often more cost-effective than a traditional venue. At Abacus we generally suggest budgeting £30-£35 per guest for a wedding-style marquee (including basic flooring, lining) — but when you add extras (furniture, dance-floor, bar setup, lighting) that figure can move to £30–£40 per head, and luxury finishes might bring you to £60+ per guest.
Holding a marquee wedding at home brings huge freedom: you pick the location, set the style, and invite the guests you want in the place that means something to you. But that freedom also means you’re building your own “venue” — so the cost isn’t just the marquee itself. At Abacus, we’ve installed hundreds of home weddings, and we know the real budget breakdown, what drives costs, how to spot hidden extras, and how to keep things under control while still making it special. Let’s walk through what you should expect, what affects the budget, and how you can plan smartly.
How Much is a Marquee Wedding at Home?
According to our experience and industry benchmarks:
Starting point: £30-£35 per person for a home-wedding marquee that includes structure, basic flooring, carpet, lining, tables and chairs.
Mid level: With dance-floor, basic bar infrastructure and lighting you could expect around £40-£50 per head.
High end: If you want luxury finishes (premium flooring, designer furniture, full décor, high-quality lighting) you might be looking at £60-£80+ per guest.
What Drives the Cost Up or Down
Guest Numbers & Marquee Size
More guests means a bigger marquee, more materials, more chairs/tables — and more cost. Getting your guest list right early is one of the best ways to control this.
Site Conditions, Access & Groundworks
If the lawn is level, dry, accessible for vans and machinery — cost stays lower. If you’ve got sloping ground, poor access, muddy turf or need levelling/grading — that adds significant cost.
Specification: Flooring, Linings, Furniture & Décor
The shell is just the beginning. Flooring (hard flooring & carpet), carpet, linings on the walls/ceiling, chairs/tables, décor pieces — these all add up.
Extras: Bar, Dance-Floor, Lighting, Heating/Cooling
These extras often push the budget up sharply. Bar infrastructure, power generators, lighting systems, dance floors — each introduces extra cost lines.
Time of Year & Duration
Peak wedding season (spring/summer Saturdays) costs more. For example end of June/early July is the real peak season for any marquee hire Company, and some companies charge a premium for these dates, so if your date is flexible avoid these dates!
These figures cover the marquee and basic interior kit — you’ll still need to budget separately for things like catering, guest transport, décor and any land-hire if you don’t own the site.
Having your marquee wedding at home has so many benefits. You won’t be paying any land hire fees and more importantly the experience for you will be so much more personal in comparison to hiring a venue.
You may be using your parents’ home and to have your wedding where you grew up with something really special. You’ll also have more time to do any setting up for the wedding at home, rather than feeling rather than having the feeling a bit like on the wedding venues conveyor belt, being thrown in with little time to set up and out the other side before you know that the experience could be quite rushed.
Your home will likely not have all the infrastructure that’s required for a wedding. So here’s my quick guide on budgeting for your wedding at home. You may have the space the required to install a large marquee in your garden. However, you’ll need to start budgeting for around £850-£1000 for external toilets and perhaps another £850-£1000 for a generator. For small weddings, you may be able to get away with using your own house toilets and power. If you’re a guest number’s are higher than 60 you’ll more than likely need the extra toilet and power infrastructure in place.
It goes without saying, there’s a big price difference between a 50 seated wedding and a 250 seated wedding. As the marquee size of infrastructure would increase with higher guest numbers.
I always say buying a hiring the marquee is a little like buying a car. By the time we add all the extras, the cost will increase in how lavish you’d like the interior of your marquee will often impact pricing. To help give you a rough ballpark cost when starting prices of marquees I would suggest a starting cost of £25 – £30 per head for a wedding based specification marquee.
For example, a hundred person wedding marquee would cost around £3000 including the marquee itself fitting with flooring, carpet, linings and tables and chairs.
A typical wedding spec marquee with hard floor, carpet, lining, chairs & tables.
How Much is a Marquee Wedding at Home?
Adding in items such as dance floors, bar infrastructure and lighting systems may push your starting prices to around £40 – £50 per head. If you wanted a more luxury finish then prices will start from round about £70-£100 per head.
Cost of Catering
There are obviously other supplies involved to help make your wedding day a huge success.And your second largest cost of your wedding will be your caterer. If you’re considering formal seated catering the cost of this catering tends to be very similar to the cost of the marquee which should hopefully give you a good indication of your overall wedding expenses.
If you’re looking to something a little bit more informal such as a food van or a barbecue catering then budget for another £20 – £30 per head. Traditional 2/3 course catering is now typically sitting between £80-£120 per head.
You may also want to consider budgeting for bar staff DJs and bands, event photographers, florists and perhaps evening catering for the guests the evening part too. If you’re providing the alcohol for your guests all day I would budget an additional £20 – £40 per head. You may want to consider a pay bar during your wedding to help reduce overall costs. If done correctly, a pay bar can provide a small profit to contribute towards your wedding budget.
And at the same time guests will be paying considerably cheaper prices. We amongst other marquee high companies can provide all the infrastructure required to do this without the help of an external bar high company who’d usually make the profit.
Going back to my car analogy from earlier you can buy a £10,000 car – you can also buy a £100,000 car. It would all depend on your taste and experience that you’d like to gift your guests. The two largest factors in the success of your big day is the marquee and the catering.
You do certainly get what you pay for with both marquee hire and catering. To do your research looking at prices other as there are event companies positions at various ends of the market.
When doing your research, take a look at reviews and case studies, as well as images of their previous work. You’ll be leaning on your marquee high supplier and cater a lot more than you think!
How to Get a Transparent Quote & Compare Fairly
- Ensure the quote includes what is and what isn’t included (structure, flooring, lining, chairs, tables, lighting, power, toilets).
- Visit the site with your marquee company so they understand access, ground, logistics.
- Ask: what happens if guest numbers go up? Is there a cost per extra guest?
- Ask for build & clear-down day details — how many days are included, crew, etc.
- Check for extras that could be charged later (power, toilets, transport surcharges).
- Compare like-with-like quotes — same guest number, same spec, same site conditions.
Using this approach helps you avoid being surprised and keeps you in control.
Smart Ways to Control Your Budget (While Keeping the Style)
- Choose a site you already own (or one with minimal site-hire cost).
- Book early and go for off-peak date or weekday if possible.
- Keep your marquee size small, pack away tables/chairs after dining to provide the standing room for the evening part of your wedding
- Match your marquee size carefully — avoid oversizing “just in case”.
- Use your existing infrastructure where possible (power, toilets, etc).
- Prioritise what matters: e.g., spend more on flooring and comfort, less on fussy décor.
- Keep the guest list tight — fewer guests often means fewer costs.
- Invite more guests to the evening part of your day to reduce catering costs
- Do some décor yourself or source second-hand styling pieces.
- Build in a contingency fund (10-15% of budget) for unexpected extras.
How Much is a Marquee Wedding at Home?
So it’s important to get these two suppliers right. Hopefully I’ve given you more of an idea of overall wedding costs. And if you’d like a quote from the UK highest reviewed event company, and start this on your perfect day with our interactive quote below or call us on 014 62 262 012.
If you are looking for micro wedding sized marquees head over to our sister brand – Party in your Garden Marquee Hire
Key Takeaways
- A home-marquee wedding gives you incredible flexibility, but the cost depends on many factors — don’t assume the shell is the whole cost.
- A good ballpark for structure+basic interior is £30-£35 per guest; mid-spec £40-£50; luxury £60+ per guest.
- The biggest cost drivers are guest numbers, site conditions, interior specification and extras.
- Hidden costs like power, toilets, transport and clear-down days often push budgets higher if not planned for.
- Use transparent quotes, plan early, match your site and guest list, and you’ll get a beautiful event without budget surprises.
How Much is a Marquee Wedding at Home?
Ready to Start Planning Your Home Wedding?
If you’re thinking of saying your vows at home — and setting up a marquee that truly reflects you — our team at Abacus is here to help. We’ll visit your site, give you a full breakdown, help align your guest list and budget, and make sure you’re set up for an amazing day. Contact us today on 01462 262012 or email [email protected] for a friendly chat and no-obligation quote.
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