opinions on a wedding company

boohooramblers

Hi,

I am arranging a wedding in Meath for this August. I currently am living in the US so I am doing my planning via email. I think I have found the company that I would like to hire for the wedding reception, but I am wondering if anyone has any opinions / feedback (positive or negative) about it. I have done a search on this forum; however I haven't found any specific information on this particular company.
The company is Marquee Weddings in Ireland and they are based out of Drogheda. Their prices are really competitive and since I can't actually see the tents, linens, etc. I am wondering if anyone else has experience with this company. The website is: marqueeweddingsinireland.com.

Any feedback you may have would be greatly appreciated!

Leslie

ecaf

Ok a bit off your original point, I'm sorry I don't have any experience with this company.
But... marquees are very expensive. On their website it says from €105 pp + 10% service. So that would be around €17500 for 150 guests.
The other thing to consider is the weather here in August. For the last two years it has rained for most of the summer so you wouldn't really want your guests stepping out onto soggy grass.
Obviously you have somewhere to put this marquee?

If you still decide to go for it then best of luck, sorry I don't know anyone who has used this company.

bstar

u should try weddingsonline.ie they have anything u need to know about irish weddings and suppliers and if u ask in their forums u'll get feedback on the company

boohooramblers

ecaf wrote: »

.....But... marquees are very expensive. On their website it says from €105 pp + 10% service. So that would be around €17500 for 150 guests.
The other thing to consider is the weather here in August. For the last two years it has rained for most of the summer so you wouldn't really want your guests stepping out onto soggy grass.
Obviously you have somewhere to put this marquee?.....

ecaf - thankyou for your input!
Yes - it's a little pricey; however, the reception is our only real expense as we are having a civil ceremony.
Agreed - the weather in Ireland at ANY time of the year can be unpredictable: the marquee company assured us that they would have carpeting laid down to alleviate this potential problem. Excellent point on your part though! I am planning on putting the Marquee in the garden at the side of my house - there will be plenty of room for a marquee to hold less than 100 people.

bstar wrote: »

u should try weddingsonline.ie they have anything u need to know about irish weddings and suppliers and if u ask in their forums u'll get feedback on the company

bstar - thankyou also for your suggestion. I went over to the forum you suggested and found some great feedback on this company! Great suggestion!

Part of the reason we are seriously considering going the Marquee route is that every hotel we have tried to deal with in the Navan / surrounding area has a prerequisite that we reserve many rooms. 99% of our guests will be local and there just isn't any need for them to stay at a hotel when their houses are a few miles away.

smelltheglove

I was recently at an engagement party with a marquee. Its a nice idea but even though there was something laid on the floor it still got quite soggy and there were heaters in the marquee yet it was still freezing, it was august of last year. The couple lived in a ground floor apartment and it ended up all the guests were in the apartement which was quite cramped and people were getting on each others nerves. I have been to events in marquees before that were great but the last few summers have been very very cold and each of the anjoyable ones were on hard ground, i.e. charity affairs in marquee in car park.

I hope it goes well for you if you decide to go with it but I would be much more inclined to look at the local hotels who can arrange it for you. All you need to do is choose the menu most hotels put flowers on the tables so there is nothing else for you to stress about really. Your guests wont be put off by the need for getting taxis as they can stay in the hotel and you dont have to worry about what happens if it rains.

boohooramblers

smelltheglove wrote: »

I was recently at an engagement party with a marquee. Its a nice idea but even though there was something laid on the floor it still got quite soggy and there were heaters in the marquee yet it was still freezing, it was august of last year. The couple lived in a ground floor apartment and it ended up all the guests were in the apartement which was quite cramped and people were getting on each others nerves. I have been to events in marquees before that were great but the last few summers have been very very cold and each of the anjoyable ones were on hard ground, i.e. charity affairs in marquee in car park.

I hope it goes well for you if you decide to go with it but I would be much more inclined to look at the local hotels who can arrange it for you. All you need to do is choose the menu most hotels put flowers on the tables so there is nothing else for you to stress about really. Your guests wont be put off by the need for getting taxis as they can stay in the hotel and you dont have to worry about what happens if it rains.

Thanks for the input - your experience is definitely food for thought. One of my reasons for the interest in a marquee reception is the fact that all the local hotels are demanding we reserve and use a large minimum number of rooms in addition to having the reception, etc. If we don't reserve the rooms, we incur a surcharge -- seems silly!
However, 99% of my guests are local so we simply don't need to stay at the location of the reception (especially when your house is 1-2 miles away!).
In addition, we only going to have about 80-90 people and most hotels are unwilling to accommodate that few guests (i.e. they usually want a minimum of 100) or again, incur a surcharge.

ilovecars

if 99% of your wedding party live locally ask somebody to look at the tents etc. for you..

ecaf

Hi boohooramblers
I was just thinking about the hotel issue in Navan. I think you should try and phone The Headfort Arms in Kells, it isn't too far from Navan, and we have booked there - although we have 20 rooms reserved in our name, we can release these / some of these if they are not needed.

I'm not sure about not booking any rooms / surcharges, etc because we do need a good few of the rooms, so the question didn't arise.

Their menu's are reasonably priced also and they have a buffet option if you wanted to go down this route either.

Their website is http://www.headfortarms.ie, best of luck anyway. Glad you got some good responses on weddingsonline. I find them helpful also.

fruitandnut

hi, just to let you know i am having a marquee wedding this august! i know the weather is unpredictable but we are hoping for the best! we just have to plan the day for all weather types, just in case! we are hiring the marquee from cavan marquees, then we will get the food from a catering company, probably from navan! its a much cheaper option than going with the marquee company for all! there are so many ideas and ways to do a marquee wedding, not like a hotel where you are restricted to the way they do it! hope this helps you