Summer is officially here and it is time to get out and enjoy the warm weather that this glorious season usually brings. One of the great joys of summer is the ability to hold outdoor barbeques and garden parties where one can entertain their family and friends while enjoying great food and the summer sun – sounds like total bliss, right?

As the warm weather reigns in, you’ll notice an influx of people rushing to stores to purchase BBQ foods, portable barbeques and garden furniture, seeking to make the most of the warm weather for as long as it sticks around. Arranging a summer BBQ is a great idea for a get together for family or friends which is why we’ve developed a quick guide of top tips to help you arrange an enjoyable and memorable summer BBQ party.

1. Hire a Marquee

Most people will agree that hiring a marquee is a great idea when arranging a summer BBQ garden party. A marquee provides a place of shade for people who want to avoid spending too much time in the sun and it is also perfect for setting up a presentation of all the foods on offer and protecting your foods from melting in the sunshine. In the unlikely event that the weather takes a turn for a worse, your marquee can also provide temporary cover from the elements.

2. Make a Cocktail List

A really fun idea for serving drinks at a summer BBQ is to create a couple of cocktail bowls. After all, nothing quite screams summer like a delicious cocktail that’s served with ice cubes. It can be difficult to select beers and wines that everyone will like so a mix of cocktails is always a better rounded and indeed a less expensive alcoholic option to serve. You could even ask guests to bring along their favourite spirits or mixers.

3. Buy BBQ Foods in Bulk

If you’re going to be feeding 10 or more people, it is more feasible for you to buy your BBQ foods in bulk. Ask your local meat wholesaler or butchers for their best prices on buying a combination of BBQ meats together. You’ll find some great deals when buying BBQ foods in bulk and anything you don’t use can always be frozen and eaten at a later date.

4. Invest in a Good Barbeque

When hosting a summer BBQ for several people, you’ll need a decent sized, reliable gas or coal barbeque. Don’t be tempted to buy a couple of temporary BBQ’s as you will not be able to facilitate cooking so much food for so many people – at least not without them having to wait for ages to get fed! Buy or borrow a dependable barbeque system and ensure that you have plenty of gas or coals on hand to keep the system going throughout the day.

5. Set up a Music System Outdoors

With your drinks, food and seating areas sorted, all you need now to complete the perfect summer BBQ is some great summer tunes. For the best effect, try extending power lines outside and hook up an outdoor music system. If you hire a marquee, you may be able to power the music system from there.

Organise a great gathering for family and friends by following our 5 top tips and enjoy a summer BBQ garden party that everyone will be talking about!

When you think of hiring a marquee, you may do so in the context of hosting a garden party or even a wedding. However, did you know that marquees are also available for hire and extremely popular when it comes to corporate events? When organising a corporate event, you want to ensure that your business is the talk of the town afterwards…and for all the right reasons!

A marquee party can prove a great idea for housing a corporate event – think of a marquee like a portable corporate venue! Discover our top 4 reasons why you should consider hiring a marquee for your next corporate event.

Highly Adaptable Space

A marquee is a highly adaptable space that can be used for several different types of corporate events be it a product launch, a tasting, a tradeshow event, a business exhibition or even just for business storage. Throughout the day, your company might use the marquee for a product launch while in the evening; it can be closed up and used for product storage. Marquees come in all shapes and sizes so the possibilities for using a marquee to host any type of corporate event are endless. You can have enough space to set up a podium for speeches or a stage for demonstrations or talks as well as seating areas for attendees.

Furnish the Marquee However you want

When you hire a marquee, you can choose from a wide variety of interior furnishings and fittings. Whether you want to create the appearance of a simple, practical space for product demonstrations or a high-class space with marquee linings, real wood floors and chandelier lighting, the options are endless. You can enhance the image and reputation of your company by organising a professional corporate event and a marquee can be furnished to reflect the professional business image that your company has.

Cost Effective Solution

A marquee can serve as a very cost effective “venue” for your corporate event, helping your business to really stand out among the crowd of your competitors. Why hire a hotel when you could set up a marquee outside your business premises or in an exhibition hall to conduct your product launch or demonstration? By hiring a marquee, your stand or presence at a corporate event can stand out above the rest.

Weather-proof Your Event

Unfortunately, no matter what time of year it is, we can never really depend on the weather to provide the perfect setting for a corporate event. By hiring a marquee, you can essentially “weather-proof” your corporate event, ensuring that it can go ahead and that all attendees/spectators are comfortable despite the hail, rain, wind or snow outside! Planning a corporate event can be a difficult task and the last thing you want is for the weather to ruin the planned activities or prevent people from attending your important company event.

Planning a corporate event? If so, you may want to reconsider your plans and hire a marquee. After all, you could save money and enhance the success rate of your event – it’s a win, win!

When one thinks of a winter wedding, the first thing that will probably come to mind is a perfect winter wonderland scene that’s comprised of a bright blue sky and a blanket of soft snow. However perfect that sounds – and it really does sound perfect – many winter weddings fall short and only achieve in creating anxiety and discomfort for their cold, cold guests. Having said this, not all winter weddings do fall short and when planned correctly with all factors taken into consideration, your wedding can be that blissful wonderland that you’ve always dreamed of.

With an Irish winter wedding, the number one concern when it comes to the comfort of your guests is keeping them warm. We’re not going to lie; it can be difficult – but that’s only if you choose the wrong venue. Marquees have literally transformed winter weddings as they bring wedding celebrations to the great outdoors but they ensure the comfort and warmth of all guests – regardless of the outside temperature.

Let’s look at some more reasons why a marquee suits a winter wedding:

It maximises the natural beauty of the great outdoors

The primary reason why brides choose to have their weddings in winter is because they want to encompass the natural beauty of winter into their big day in some way or another. A function room in a hotel cannot give that, but choosing a marquee can. With the installation of heaters, heat lamps and fire pits, your guests can unwind in the great outdoors and appreciate the wintery surroundings without the risk of getting wet or frostbite. In addition, making sure to have plenty of clear windows to the outside winter wonderland will be essential to creating a snow globe ambience.

It’s weather-proof

A lot of couples are naturally concerned about the weather playing havoc and interfering with their perfect day. Marquees have come a long way in terms of design and functionality, and what was once a glorified tent, is now a sturdy structure that’s designed and built to an impeccable standard – so much so that it can weather-proof an event. So, even if wet or blustery weather adorns your big day, your guests will remain warm and cosy within the safe confines of a solid structure and they’ll surely appreciate their comfort when the wind is howling outside.

It allows for complete customisation

If you’re going for a winter theme and would like to customise your venue to suit it, there is no better option than a marquee. It’s virtually a blank canvas that allows for the personalisation of everything from the entrance area and the bar to the dance floor and the colour and lighting scheme of the entire area. You can be as creative as you like in terms of its design so if you’d like to have snowflake fairy lights draping across the top table or fake snow falling from the ceiling, it’s all possible.

Marquees make the perfect wedding venue all year round but there’s something special about winter that makes this venue option so much more fitting, and so much more unique and memorable.

You’ve set the date and now you’re excitedly planning the big day. When it comes to the wedding reception, no doubt you already have a vision in your mind about how you want it to be. Whether you want a casual, fun affair or something far more formal, getting the venue right is vitally important. You need to ensure that you can accommodate all your guests, that your venue is somewhere that is easily accessible for you and your wedding party, that it can cope with whatever the weather throws at you, and that it fits within your budget.

If you’re still debating whether you should hold your reception in a hotel or a marquee, here’s our rundown of why a marquee should be your first choice.

You can adapt a marquee to your personal specifications

Perhaps the main reason for choosing to hire a marquee rather than a hotel for your wedding reception is that you can adapt it to fit your own specifications. Marquees offer total flexibility when it comes to size and design, and it’s also possible to group several marquees together to create the perfect venue. Whether you want to add a cocktail bar, a dance floor or you’d like to have a separate marquee for the catering staff, it’s possible to custom build your design.

You can locate a marquee wherever you like (with permission of course)

Whether you’ve decided to have a small intimate wedding celebration in your garden, you want a fun and informal party in a local farmer’s field, or you want to go the whole hog and locate your marquee in the stunning grounds of a stately home, there will be a marquee to suit every size of party and location.

Your decor can be as simple or as elaborate as you like

Far from being just a tent, wedding marquees can become a magical wonderland, with lighting, heating, decorations, dressed tables and chairs, dance floors and well, just about anything you’d like to include to create your dream wedding reception venue. Most marquee companies offer a design service where they’ll take your ideas and turn them into reality; from carpets, flooring and furniture to lighting, floral arrangements, balloons, and even ice sculptures or chocolate fountains.

Ensures that all your guests are comfortable

While you may think that marquees are only suitable for summer weddings – think again. If you’ve got your heart set on a winter wedding or you want to ensure that your guests don’t feel the chill of a less than perfect summer evening, you’ll find that heavy duty marquees and indoor heaters are the perfect option to keep out intemperate weather and ensure your guests stay snug and warm.

Add atmosphere with lighting

Whether you want to light up your marquee with hundreds of twinkling fairy lights or romantic chandeliers, or you want coloured spotlights to bring life to the party, getting the lighting right will go a long way to creating the perfect atmosphere for your wedding celebration.

Nothing is forgotten

Even if you’re planning to put your marquee in the local farmer’s field, there’ll always be enough luxury loos to ensure that your guests don’t get caught out.

So, as you can see, a marquee is the perfect option for all kinds of wedding receptions, whether big or small, formal or informal, romantic or fun, all year round.

Thinking of throwing a private party? If so, you’ll need to pull out all the stops to make sure you give your guests a night they won’t forget. Private party has a certain connotation to it and your guests expect nothing but the best.

That’s why you should go with a marquee hire for the venue. It promises to add an element of sophistication and fun. Here are the other benefits that make it worthwhile:

Outdoor
Who doesn’t love an outdoor party? Most people do but often refrain from hosting them outside due to weather worries. What if it rains? What if it’s too windy? These are all valid concerns, but not ones you have to worry about if you go with a marquee.

Going this route allows you the best of both worlds. You get to host the party you wanted outdoors while still having coverage and protection from the elements.

Location
We’ve already established that a marquee allows you to have your party outdoors, but where exactly outdoors? The answer is pretty much anywhere actually!

The beauty of it is that you’re not limited to your backyard. So long as you secure a venue that allows outdoor parties, you could have your party at an exclusive location.

Blank canvas
A marquee also allows you the flexibility of any theme your heart desires. It’s like having a blank canvas. In a home or rented space, the tone of the event is often limited due to the décor that already exists. It’s hard to set a mood when what’s already there conflicts with your theme.

However, the sky’s the limit with a marquee. Your blank white canvas can be transformed into anything your mind can dream up. There are no limits. You can make your guests feel like they are in some other world.

Size
Another advantage is that your marquee can be adjusted to the size of your guest list. There’s no party too big or small that can’t be accommodated. By knowing the number of guests attending you’ll be able to customise your marquee to your specific requirements and get a visual of the interior layout.

Professional crew
A marquee hire comes with a team of professionals that do everything from set-up to take down, leaving you to focus on your primary duty of host. By knowing that your event set-up is in the hands of professionals, you can enjoy yourself along with all your guests. You won’t be afraid to let loose, mingle, dance, have a few drinks and enjoy the food.

At the end of the night, your guests won’t want to leave. This is no coincidence. Marquees are the ultimate when it comes to private parties because you get exactly what you want. Your marquee can be transformed into just about anything.
Essentially, you’re creating the exact environment you want for your guests. That element of personal touch is exactly what will have your guests raving about your private party for years to come. If you’re ready for some fun, a marquee hire is the way to go.

Outdoor weddings have become massively popular in recent years. Many years ago, outdoor weddings were only seen in movies and on TV but that’s all changed now. Despite our very changeable weather, couples from all corners of Ireland are choosing to exchange rings and celebrate their union in the great outdoors.

Beach, garden and private residential weddings are just some of the popular options as couples look to divert away from the norm of hotel wedding receptions. We love this shift in trends as an outdoor wedding offers a totally different and truly unique experience for couples and their guests on their special day.

The key to making your outdoor wedding a success, especially if you’re getting married in Ireland, is to ensure that you choose the right size and style of wedding marquee for your big day.

Marquees are the perfect choice for outdoor weddings for 3 undeniable reasons:

1. Whatever the weather

As mentioned, the weather in Ireland can be changeable to say the least. That said; you can choose to have an outdoor wedding at any time of the year by hiring a wedding marquee. The ceremony can be facilitated inside the marquee if the weather isn’t favourable on the day while the marquee will serve as the perfect all-weather venue for your wedding reception too.

Wedding marquees can provide a much-needed warm shelter from rain or windy conditions while the panels can remain open on sunnier days to allow for a cool breeze to travel through the structure. Marquees can be fitted with heating and air conditioning systems as well as wooden flooring systems to ensure the weather outside does not cause any issues.

2. Any venue will do

Always had your eye on a particular country house or scenic area for your wedding day? Perhaps you’d like to get married in your parent’s back garden? By hiring a wedding marquee, you can have the wedding of your dreams on the grounds of the area you always had in my mind for your big day.

Whether it’s by the sea, in the middle of the country or smack in the centre of a city, your wedding marquee will give you the flexibility to celebrate wherever your heart desires.

3. Your wedding, your way

Choosing a marquee does not mean that you’ll have to compromise on luxury and elegance. In fact, it can mean quite the opposite. Marquees allow for the ultimate opportunity for complete customisation. In hiring a wedding marquee, you’ll essentially have a huge blank canvas to work from.

When it comes to the flooring, lighting, styling, placement of fixtures and fittings, types of seating, walkways, linings, flowers, chair covers and types of furniture, you can design and style exactly as you please.

Your marquee hire team will work with you to create the ideal space for your wedding. You have much greater flexibility and control than you would if you chose to hire a hotel venue so don’t think that you’ll have to make compromises.

Try something a little different on your special day

Plan the perfect outdoor wedding of your dreams by hiring a wedding marquee. Treat your guests to a whole new wedding experience and enjoy complete control over the décor, location and much more. Call us today for more info.

If you found the ideal romantic spot for hosting a wedding, marquee hire will make it possible for you to make your wedding dream come true. As with any major project, however, there are plenty of things that could go wrong if you don’t prepare properly.

So with the following tips we hope you’ll be able to happily report the successful completion of a dream wedding and not a wedding nightmare!

1. Find a great location
This is the most fun part of the process. Really all you need to do is find some place where you almost can’t believe how beautiful and romantic it looks, and take it from there. But before you completely set your heart on one specific location, do make sure to check the following points:

• Ensure there’s enough space for the wedding party. If you’re expecting 500 guests to show up and your chosen spot only has enough room for 100, you’ll have a problem.
• Ensure there’s some place for people to park. Unless all your guests are going to be pedestrians, cyclists, bikers or equestrians, parking is going to be a major issue.
• Check if you’ll need official permission to host your wedding at the site. The last thing you want is the police or council authorities crashing your wedding party, so find out if you need to have a permit and comply with all the requirements.

2. Find a good marquee supplier
Thanks to the wonders of the Internet; it’s a lot easier to shop around than it used to be.  Don’t make the mistake of basing your decision on price alone. There are other factors to consider that may be just as important:

• Styles and colours available. Try to get the best quality and most gorgeous design of marquee that you can afford, because you’re only going to do this once (hopefully!), so it’s important to get it right.
• Check for any negative reports or complaints about the hiring company. Many people post reviews online when they’ve experienced bad service. Doing a simple search for “[company name] complaints” could save you a lot of trouble later.
• Make sure they can deliver to your chosen location. Here’s a complete no-brainer. You can’t work with them if they’re not able to get to you.
• Insist on assembly. What’s your wedding day going to be like if you have to do everything for yourself? Of course we’re talking about getting the provider to set up the marquees for you and pack them up.

3. Plan ahead for any potential disasters
Rain, force nine gales, and little mistakes are always a possibility, so you should be prepared for anything that can happen. Just simple little touches like putting down some concrete pavers can make all the difference between a successful wedding and wallowing in the mud like a herd of swine.

A good wedding shouldn’t be difficult to create, but it’s surprisingly common for people to have problems. Usually these problems stem from a lack of planning, so plan it all thoroughly and you should have a great day.

Marquees have become hugely popular in Ireland in recent years. Being portable and resistant to the Irish weather means they can be used for literally any type of event.

Pubs were once the only option in which to hold functions but people are now seeing the many benefits of marquees and refraining from going ‘down to the local’ to celebrate a special event.

If you’re planning a celebration and you’re still undecided about whether to hire a marquee or a pub for the day/night, the following should help you to quickly make up your mind:

• Your location is not restricted with a marquee

Choose a marquee for your next event and you’ll have a lot more scope when it comes to picking the perfect location. If you’re hosting a corporate event or a special life event such as a christening or an anniversary, you might want a more idyllic setting than what your local pub will give you.

From rural gardens in the countryside to your own back garden and the beautiful beach front, you’ll have a lot more options of which setting to choose when hiring a marquee.

• You won’t be limited to numbers

Have you ever booked a pub for a party? If you have, you will most likely have been told that a certain amount of people can attend, which means that your guest list must be curtailed if you want to invite more than the pub can hold.

The joy of hiring a marquee is that you can invite as many people as you want. Marquees come in a wide variety of different sizes and styles, allowing you to choose one/some according to the amount of people you plan to invite to you function.

• More privacy

The majority of pubs won’t allow you to hire the whole premises for your party. This is because they may have other functions on at the same time or unhappy regulars and business will have to run as normal. Having other people there will make your party a lot less personal.

Hiring a marquee will give you the privacy that your local pub lacks. You and your guests can relax for the day and/or night knowing that you won’t have outsiders prying on your every move.

• You can enjoy the outdoors whilst being in indoors

Do you really want to celebrate your event in a gloomy back room in a pub? If not, you can enjoy the best of both worlds by hiring a marquee. Marquees can come with open or transparent sides meaning your guests can enjoy the comforts of being indoors whilst also having the feeling of being outdoors.

If there are children on your guest list, you’ll know that having outdoor space is especially important so don’t overlook this benefit.

• Lots of design options

Marquees come in many different shapes and sizes, and they will virtually give you a blank canvas from which to work with. Choosing to have a soft sided or solid sided marquee and picking between a round top or a pointed top are just two of the many options you’ll have when it comes to designing and styling.

• The interior is your choice too!

Your design options don’t just stop with the exterior. Make your marquee venue more personal to you by choosing what kind of tables you want, how much dancing space you need, the wall décor, the lighting… the options are endless.

Holding your special event in a pub will not give you the opportunity to make your special event more personal and themed. Instead, you’ll have to make do with whatever interior design the pub owner likes and a few balloons strung from the tables. It doesn’t sound very appealing, does it?

The above are just a small number of reasons why hiring a marquee over a pub is a great idea. The sheer fact that they are more personal to you should be more than enough to convince you to join the masses of marquee lovers that are in Ireland today.

Marquees have become hugely popular in Ireland in the past 10 years. Without consciously thinking it, you’ve most likely seen these tent-like structures that are used to house circuses, exhibitions and large gatherings of people in lots of different places.

It kind of feels like they’ve been around forever which begs the question; how and where did the marquee originate?

Far from being a fairly modern invention, their history can be traced back over 44,000 years to the ice age when inhabitants of the Siberian Steppe used animal pelts hung between sticks to form a simple shelter.

Now we have structures such as the huge Millennium Dome on the Thames in London, but how did the simple shelter turn into such a widespread alternative to normal construction? Well we here at Byrne Marquees will tell you just how this occurred.

From humble beginnings

As said already, the marquee has its roots in Siberia, where the people of that time created shelters from animal skins and sticks. Fast forward thousands of years, and animal skins were replaced by fabric to create a tent made from loosely woven black fabric.

These structures could be easily transported when it was time for the nomads to up sticks and move. In fact, these tents were so practical and successful that during the Arab conquests of the 8thcentury, their use spread throughout the civilised world.

To a more permanent solution

While nomads continued to use their black tents as portable homes, people in urban areas started to use fabrics to create shade over courtyards and streets. These awnings were adapted to provide shelter at theatres, and were known as velarium or velum.

The simple structures were then developed and improved over time using pre-stressed fabrics that were kept in place with cables in order to provide shelter for all kinds of special events. Known as ‘envelet’ or ‘toldos’, they were particularly popular in the Catalonia region of Spain as the nineteenth century drew to a close.

A military connection dating back to the first century BC

The fabric structure has long proved to be indispensable to armies on the march. Roman Legions were probably the first soldiers to adopt such shelters and there’s evidence to show that they used leather tents as far back as the first century BC. The Byzantine armies of the seventh century are also known to have used simple tents for shelter during their long campaigns.

The military tent is also synonymous with the standard field hospital. Designed by English Army Captain, Godfrey Rhodes in 1858, the tents weren’t much more sophisticated than those used in Roman times, and remained relatively unchanged until the second world war.

Tents gain royal approval

By the twelfth century, tents had moved on a little to become more elegant and ornate. As they increased in popularity throughout Western Europe society as a place to accommodate lavish events, they also grew larger and larger, and became somewhat of a status symbol.

By 1770, we saw the first purpose built circus tent, which was erected at Westminster Bridge, and travelling circuses adopted the big top style tent for their performances. In fact, they became so popular that a company called Stromeyer and Co. started making circus tents in 1872, and have been accredited with the advances in the development of marquees since that date.

Present day marquees

Today the fabric structures industry has made innovative inroads into developing reliable fabrics and new structural design techniques in order to make bigger and more impressive structures. In addition to the standard marquees that are used to house exhibitions and large functions, these companies can now create complex structures such as the fabric roof of the Hajj Terminal at Jeddah Airport and the amazing Millennium Dome in London, which is 320 metres in diameter.

To conclude, we can safely say that the tent has grown from a simple, basic shelter to a lavish structure that can accommodate thousands of people.

Marquees are the super-convenient, versatile and hassle-free solution to space constraints when you are throwing a party or celebration. If you are tight on space in your home or on your property, a marquee can instantly double the available space for your party guests, making them feel much more comfortable and resulting in less stress for you.

You may not realise this but there are a wide range of marquees available and in order to choose the right one, you need to know a little bit about them.

Read on to discover the different types of marquees that are available for you to choose from.

Framed Marquee

An external frame supports a framed marquee so there is no need for any internal supporting structures. This gives you a clear, unobstructed view along the entire length of the marquee and an open space for your guests.

In addition, you have complete freedom in choosing the layout of the internal space, as there are no supporting poles to take into consideration. They can also be installed on any type of surface – grass, gravel and concrete to name a few.

Trapeze Marquees

Trapeze marquees are truly a sight to behold and are bound to impress your guests should you choose one for your gathering. These types of marquees are tension marquees meaning that they are erected using tension rods, resulting in a stylish looking marquee that is also very resistant to winds.

These types of marquees definitely add flair to any celebration, as their design is very innovative and very stylish, making a very definitive statement about the type of event you are hosting.

Traditional Marquees

Traditional marquees are set apart from other types of marquees by their distinguishable rope and pole construction. Their vintage style make them a perfect choice for a garden wedding or country house garden party as their elegance is the perfect accompaniment to such celebrations.

While the exterior may give a vintage feel, the interior of these traditional marquees can be styled to look extremely modern and stylish if you so wish.

Chinese Hat Marquees

These unusually named marquees are shaped like a traditional Chinese hat, hence the name. They differ from others as they generally don’t have any sides to them but you can have side panels added if you prefer.

Chinese hat marquees are perfect for use as a bar or buffet location or even as a type of ‘entrance porch’ to a larger marquee – the possibilities are endless with these alternative types of marquees.

Stretch Tent

A stretch tent is a new addition to the marquee family and are often seen at festivals and similar events. Their eye-catching design provides a worthy alternative to the traditionally styled marquee. The benefit of these types of marquees is that they’re suitable for all types of weather, both fine and stormy, and can be erected in all kinds of locations.

Marquees are the perfect solution for adding style and space to your party or celebration and the type of marquee you choose should be suitable to host your event as well as reflecting the type of event you are hosting. Determine what kind of vibe you want to give off and your decision process will be so much easier.