huge flower arch entrance to luxury countryside marquee wedding

Planning your marquee flowers wedding is one of the most exciting parts of your wedding journey, but it can also feel like a big blank canvas to fill and knowing where to start with florals can feel daunting.

From our many years of exsperience in the industry, we have combined some of the most common questions we get asked by couples planning a marquee wedding and created this wedding flower checklist. This will help you confidently start planning your marquee florals, from budgets and design priorities, to logistics and working with your suppliers.

We hope this help you start planning your big day and if you want to find out more about our marquee weddings, please explore our dedicated Marquee Weddings page.

1. How To Work Out Your Marquee Wedding Flower Budget

Before you dive into colour palettes or floral designs, start by setting a realistic floral budget. As a general rule, wedding flowers account for around 10% of your total wedding spend. If florals are a big design priority for you, this will be higher.

Larger statement pieces such as floral arches or installations typically start from £2,500, depending on scale, stem count, and flower variety.

Pro Tip: Think about the atmosphere you want to create, if your wedding vision is one thats highly floral and abundant, investing more here will have a huge impact on the overall look and feel of your day.

2. Deciding Which Wedding Areas to Prioritise

Every marquee wedding is unique, so think carefully about which areas will have the most visual impact and where you’ll spend the most time. Instead of spreading your budget across every area, invest in key statement pieces for maximum impact, such as:

A statement entrance arch or meadow aisle walkway
Interior Floral Marquee Poles
A greenery canopy and lush table centrepieces

To make your flowers go further, repurpose designs from your ceremony to your marquee reception. For example, your aisle meadows could later frame the ends of your dining tables or your ceremony designs could elevate your top table.

Pro Tip: Ask your florist for ideas on how to reuse florals, it’s one of the best ways to maximise your investment while keeping your days style cohesive.

3. Where To Have Flowers In Your Marquee

Luxury Marquees are such beautiful structures, but they truly come alive with floral styling. They’re a blank canvas, so flowers add soul, colour, and texture that make the space feel alive with atmosphere.

Here are some of the key floral areas when you need to have florals in your marquee:

Guest Tables: From minimalistic contemporary bud vases, to full, luxurious centrepieces
Entrances: Statement floral entrances give that instant wow factor to your celebration

Bars & Dance Floors: Hanging installations, floral chandeliers, or large bar top urns elevate these key social areas
Ceilings: Greenery canopies and floral poles transform the space bringing the outside in with scale and natural style.

Different marquees (sailcloth, stretch tents, glass marquess) have varying weight limits, so elevated designs should always be discussed with an experienced florist and marquee company.

Pro Tip: Bring your florist into conversations with your marquee supplier early, they’ll ensure your dream installation is structurally and safely achievable.

4. Understanding Who Provides What

One of the most common questions couples ask is, “Who supplies what for the flowers?”

The answer: your florist provides everything needed for your floral designs from flowers, vases, urns, stands, and mechanics.

Luxury marquee companies such as Wills Marquees, provide decorative structures such as chandeliers, hanging globes, or swags that you or your florist can hire. Let your florist coordinate this element directly with the marquee supplier. This keeps communication simple and ensures the logistics are handled smoothly.

Pro Tip: Let your florist manage the floral conversations needed with other suppliers, it keeps your planning organised and stress free.

5. Floral Set Up, Take Down & Logistics

Timing is everything when planning a marquee wedding. Your florist will need to know when your marquee is being built and taken down to schedule setup and takedown times correctly.

For larger floral designs, setup typically begins the day before the wedding, with a full team working on-site. For multi-day celebrations, your floral team will need to return to refresh arrangements.

After the wedding, floral takedown might happen late at night or in the early hours, depending on marquee schedules. Making sure you have the basic logisitics for suppliers over these days, such as onsight toilets, a water source to keep those flowers fresh, access for large vans and parking for all weather conditions is so important.

After your wedding: Pre plan with your florist what you’d like to do with your flowers, they can be:

Gifted to guests, hand tied by your florist for guests to take home.
Kept by family to enjoy and if potted plants have been within installations, these can also be gifted and planted on within your garden.
Donated to a local charity your florist can help arrange this depending on which hospice’s are close to your event.

6. Expert Tip: Hire a Wedding Planner!

Marquee weddings are magical, but they’re also complex, you’re building your venue from scratch and coordinating multiple suppliers (while hoping for perfect British weather!).

Hiring an experienced marquee planner is one of the best investments you can make. They’ll coordinate your suppliers, manage setup and contingency plans, and keep everything on schedule, allowing you to relax and enjoy every moment. Head to our industry friends page for our recommendations.

Pro Tip: Your planner, florist, and marquee team will work closely together, bringing a planner onboard early ensures everyone is aligned from the start.

Ready to start planning your marquee wedding?
Get in touch today to start your floral journey with us.

CLICK HERE to head to our enquiry page and tell us about your wedding vision.