Marquees epitomise everything an English summer wedding stands for. They are timeless, elegant and can offer complete flexibility when creating a bespoke space for your wedding day. 

Marquees are a blank canvas and you need to be bold in your decisions when designing their internal decor. What most people forget is the power of flowers and how they literally can turn a simple marquee into something magical and completely unique to you and your wedding.

As a florist I have learnt that there are a few key factors when creating floral designs for a marquee. So here are my top five for your consideration. 

1) High and low
One way to create interest and intrigue is to mix up the height of focal points. To achieve this you need to vary the heights of your table centres throughout from low candle arrangements to high pomander balls. This will create a range of heights and therefore focal points which will force your guests eyes to travel around the room.

2) Swing from the ceiling
Combining the height of your marquee and beautiful floral design can create spectacular focal points. Consider giant flower bombs suspended above your guests or a ceiling covered in suspended blooms. Don't forget you can decorate the tops of traditional marquee poles, create floral chandeliers and set up hanging flower beams perfect for decorations over the top table. 

​3) Bring in the garden
One easy and immediate way to link the inside of the marquee to its outdoor location is to install potted living trees, shrubs and plants. Placing these planted pots around entrances, the bar or even the dance floor will add a level of interest and help distinguish different areas within the marquee. 

4) Budget vs impact
People automatically imagine that creating a visual spectacle with flowers will be costly and I will admit that it can be. But, this is where it is so important to work with your florist and discuss where your budget is best spent. For me this is vital and careful consideration on where you are going to spend your budget will make or break the look of your marquee. For example; do you put a standard and average table decoration on each of your fifteen tables? Or would you be better spending that money on just seven breathtaking table arrangements, which are just so beautiful people can't take their eyes off them? This is where you should work with your florist and let them come up with a number of suggestions for you. 

5) Other than roses
Don't believe that floral design has to be just flowers, you can work with your florist to create alternative designs, which most of the time can spread the budget further. Flower bombs of Autumn foliage can look just as beautiful as one filled with roses! You can create height with vases of bare winter twigs or seasonal table centres with forced bulbs. 

Finally, I truly believe that flowers turn a marquee into something truly magical if used properly. It is always important to coordinate your entire look with lighting, linen, chairs, carpet and draping. This is why I would always suggest that whichever florist you choose, make sure that they work closely with your marquee company so together they can create a final look that is better than you could have ever imagined. 

Thanks to Emma Whicher of Martha and the Meadow, Dorset wedding and event florist for this helpful and inspiring article. ​

We love a new wedding venue and this one is right up our street quite literally in terms of both appeal and location! Haddon Copse Farm occupies a breathtaking setting in the rolling valleys of the Blackmore Vale framed by beautiful unspoilt views that stretch for miles towards Bulbarrow Hill. It's the perfect spot for a festival theme or country wedding experience.

But it's not just the location that Haddon Copse Farm has going for it. Camping is permitted and a complete bell tent glamping village can be installed at your request which enables wedding celebrations to take place all weekend. Haddon Copse Farm also offers its own organic Dorset hog and lamb roasts, welcome meals on Friday evening, hearty breakfasts, use of a shepherd's hut and an area called the 'Magic Circle' which is ideal for natural blessings. ​

If you're looking for a classic romantic English wedding we can think of no better venue in Dorset. The croquet lawn is perfectly flat for marquees and we've provided all styles of structure there in the past: traditional pole marquees for country style, clearspan frame marquees for elegant chic and tipis for a warm and cosy ambience.

Photo opportunities are vast with views everywhere you look plus topiary, archways tangled with flowers, water features, mature trees and secret grottoes. 

Civil marriages can take place either in the Garden Pavilion overlooking the croquet lawn (for which we can supply canopies and chairs) or in the nearby Sawmill. The medieval All Saints Church is within the grounds and suited to intimate blessings for up to 90. Marquees on the croquet lawn can accommodate up to 400 seated guest and there is ample parking available. 

Mapperton is located 15 minutes from Crewkerne and 20 minutes from Dorchester Stations, with direct links to London. There is tasteful accommodation nearby too with the Acorn Inn and Summer Lodge in Evershot and The Bridge House Hotel at Prout Bridge. 

Recommended caterers are Jo Killin of Oxbridge Farm and Victoria Blashford-Snell. The recommended florist is The Real Cut Flower Garden and photographers Allister Freeman and Helen Lisk. 

For more information on weddings at Mapperton click here or to get in touch call the Wedding Office on 01308 800114 or email [email protected]

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There seem to be more and more wedding awards popping up both regionally and nationally of late. In fact the organisers that promote them seem to have established a new industry for themselves (as I’ve been writing this I’ve just seen a new one appear that covers Bristol and Somerset).  
 
Never say never but it’s highly unlikely that Oakleaf will be entering for an award any time soon. The reason? I feel they are more aimed at those seeking PR and networking opportunities plus the kudos of introducing their business as ‘the award-winning….’. But the main reason is that they’re not representative of the whole marquee industry.
 
If a national and impartial body decided to launch a ‘National Wedding Marquee Awards’ and entered every marquee firm in the country automatically, that would be more credible to my mind. This is the way it’s done in other industries. The trouble is there’s no money in doing this (bear in mind that to enter the awards process in the first place a supplier has to pay a fee and then, if selected for the final stage, buy tickets for the awards dinner too). Nobody does it for the love.
 
I’ve seen competitors plaster the ‘finalist’ and ‘winner’ logos everywhere and ram them down throats via social media at every opportunity. I’ve even seen one refer to themselves as being the ‘best in the UK’ which is neither fair nor true. They won an award for being the best supplier among the other suppliers that chose to enter based on certain criteria. Therefore, in my opinion the accolades are misleading. At the very least the awarding bodies should publish a list of entrants so the scale and importance of the awards can be assessed. As far as I’ve seen, they do not.
 
I’d be interested to know what customers think about this. Should we enter awards? If so, would it be purely so we can be seen as entering? Would the logo of an award on our homepage impress you? Based on some of the customers I’ve spoken to recently perhaps not. One such customer made a booking with us and when she informed a competitor they had not been chosen to supply her wedding marquee their retort was ‘but we’ve won awards’!
 
Why am I writing this post you may ask. Sour grapes? Jealousy? Inferiority complex? No, I guess I’m just irritated that these awards appear to be increasing in number and customers can easily get the wrong idea. Until someone convinces me that we must enter and that it's totally fair and fully representative of the industry and all its facets (service, range, value for money, safety record, financial performance etc) I’ll ensure we keep winning the award that matters most – customer satisfaction and recommendations.
 
Thanks for reading!            ​

​I'm pleased to announce an association between Oakleaf Marquees and the award-winning event management and wedding planning company Blue Bay Events, two of Dorset's leading wedding suppliers. Both companies are reputable, dynamic, forward-thinking and share a passion for customer service and outstanding events so I'm convinced this partnership will become a force to be reckoned with over the coming years. 
   
Based in the Isle of Purbeck, Blue Bay Events offer not only decorating and 'on the day' options but a highly acclaimed 'fully planned' service from start to finish too. They have an impressive list of prestigious venues such as Holme for Gardens near Wareham, Durlston Country Park in Swanage, Lulworth Castle and The Grand Hotel in Swanage to name just a few and we will be launching various exciting initiatives together in the near future. 

We are proud to join Blue Bay Events' list of preferred suppliers and hope you will give them the opportunity to impress you with their service. 

How about making a weekend of it and hiring some bell tents or small tipis for your guests to stay in? Festival themes are all the rage with marquee weddings at the moment and it's not difficult to see why. Organising hotels for everyone is a tiresome business, particularly out in the sticks where accommodation is scarce. Even the celebrities are at it - Guy Ritchie had a glamping village built for his wedding last year!

But the main attraction is that you can keep the party going all weekend and enjoy meals together, fires in the evening and some serious quality time with your nearest and dearest. Weddings are generally over in a flash (particularly when you're the bride or groom) and I often leave feeling I should have partied harder or talked to great aunt Mary for longer or not disgraced myself on the dance floor without apologising the next day. It's nice for as many guests as possible to enjoy a few drinkies and not worry about driving, taxis, travelling, finding their hotel in the dark etc.

We've partnered with Acorn Marquees who are based in Bournemouth but supply groovy tents throughout Dorset and further afield. They offer stunning bell tents in various sizes and a wide range of furnishings which allow your guests to choose from authentic camping spec to seriously plush. Jon and Julie offer an outstanding service and we cannot recommend them highly enough.

So book your marquee with Oakleaf, assemble your glamping village with Acorn, order your festival flags and make your wedding weekend one to remember!

Over the last five or so years hog roasts have become extremely popular for evening fodder at marquee weddings. Now don't get me wrong, I love a good hog roast as my waist measurement will testify. The question is: have hog roasts been done too much and become a bit passé and, if so, what are the alternatives?

The first thing to say is that there are hog roasts and hog roasts, and I hope your event experiences the latter! Thankfully we can recommend Else Family Butchers of Stalbridge, Dorset Porkers of Dorchester and Oaktop Hog Roast of Tiverton. If you're a hog roaster and reading this thinking 'I've served him a hog roast before and he guzzled it down like a glutton' then I'm sorry, email your details and I'll add you to this list!

Here are the alternatives I've seen and enjoyed:

Lamb roast: a bit more expensive but delicious and less common than pork (I once saw a cow roast at a large wedding and the machine was enormous, I think there are only two in the country and this particular machine came from Wales!). Again, Else Family Butchers can do this for you (link above).

Pizza: this is becoming popular and I'm not talking about sending an usher out to Pizza Hut or Dominos, I'm talking about amazing stone-baked pizza made in a proper oven right outside your marquee! My main man from Pizzarova is highly recommended as he serves from an oven on the back of a Land Rover. There's also Dorset-based Jalopy Pizza which uses an old Peugeot van. But my personal favourite is The Wood Fired Piadizza - in my opinion the best pizza I've had; bar none. 

Crepes: I love a good crêpe and there's a guy from Brittany based in Bristol who is god of la bonne crêpe, so much so that he started La Bonne Crêpe. Crêpes aren't just sweet they can be savoury too: ham and cheese, Somerset brie and chilli jam, now we're talking!

Bacon and sausage baps: is anything better than quality bacon or sausages in fluffy baps with all the sauces to go with them? I had these at my wedding - amazing! Your caterer could supply these.

Cheese selection: augmented with artisan breads and cured meats you have an evening buffet fit for royalty. Again, your caterer could supply this. 

I'd really like to see a Mexican option with some tasty burritos or chimichangas but I'll have to wait as I haven't seen those on the wedding circuit yet!