Real Wedding Cost Comparison

Hosting your wedding reception in a marquee can be a practical solution for a wedding in a rural area, and, at first, may seem like a cost-effective option. After all the venue hire fee with nothing but the land included is of course much less than inclusive pricing that includes, well, everything! However, you may find that costs you hadn’t even considered start adding up. Afterall, organising a large event in a marquee isn’t something most people do every day!

The costs involved in a marquee or DIY wedding aren’t readily available, until you’ve actually committed to planning one. So, we’ve prepared a summary of the additional costs we incurred in planning our own marquee wedding for 100 guests in 2019, to give newly engaged couples a real-life example (and a true representation of market rates today in South East Queensland) as a comparison.

Additional Costs

The additional $25,259 we spent in having a marquee wedding is equivalent to over $250 per guest. As we held it on our own property, that doesn’t include the cost of hiring a venue to put the marquee on (budget from $3,000 to $10,000 for that).

We haven’t included costs such as for the celebrant, flowers, catering and wait staff, alcohol supply, band/DJ, photographer/videographer, etc, because those are required (and sometimes included) for weddings at established venues too – we’ve focused on only the additional costs associated with a marquee or dry hire wedding.

Other Considerations

It’s fair to say that after planning a marquee wedding ourselves, we’re advocates of convenient, cost effective alternatives that allow you to focus on the most important part of your day - actually getting married! So much so, we’re creating what we wish existed for our wedding, for you to enjoy.