Nothing tops a proper English country garden on a warm and sunny Spring afternoon. At the end of a long Winter season, many look forward to the respite that the Springtime brings, from the rain, clouds and chilly winds. My client was on the look out for the perfect venue for his daughter’s Spring wedding which he wanted to host in a garden filled with roses and daffodils and he and his wife pictured how lovely the garden would be with plump grey doves flying in across the skyline and making themselves at home on the garden wall which their guests walked up the brown pebbled driveway from a walled garden which provided ample parking. Fortunately, the couple had located just the place in a village in Hampshire which was able to accommodate their need for a large, flat green garden patch on which to erect a 4 x 12m premium marquee which we had identified as the perfect option for the wedding.

DIY Marquees

As someone who has experience with providing marquee options for many clients over many years, it is always exciting to find an exciting, never-before seen venue! Although it did mean that I had to ensure that the venue was just right for the marquee and that the right marquee was used in case of, what is quite common this time of year, unseasonal weather changes. After inspecting the venue and measuring the area to ensure that the marque size would work in the space available, I informed the client that everything would be in order.

With a perfectly flat piece of land to erect the marquee on, the job was an easy one. If there had been any hills to negotiate, I knew that I could always refer to the DIY Erecting videos which have been provided as a free resource on the DIY Marquees website. I have been a client of DIY Marquees ever since I began my entrepreneurial endeavours as a freelance events co-ordinator. Having my own marquees allows me the flexibility I need to offer my clients the perfect venue almost anywhere in the country, regardless of location or the weather. Having done my research on the DIY Marquee website, I have been able to educate myself on the best marquee for specific occasions and seasons. The information on the website is generous and covers everything that one could possibly think about knowing about marquees, their sizes, features from add-ons to heating, decorating and preparation areas, they have a suitable solution or suggestion for all.

Excellent quality marquees which are guaranteed to withstand the weather considerations are extremely useful to have for anyone in a similar business. Someone in the market for a purpose-specific marquee can investigate the available options by using the DIY Marquee buyers guide along with the interactive planner which provides you with the tools required to test to see how many people, chairs, tables and features one would be able to host in the specific size marquee they may have in mind. DIY Marquees offer a simple and exciting alternative to your usual indoor venues with far more flexibility.

Guest Post: How We Set Up Strawberry Fieldz!

5 years ago I was about to head back to my very boring job following maternity leave, to work as a Relationship Development Consultant at a well know insurance company. My husband Adam was working in a planning role, which he had done for many years and was fairly bored. His main passion has always been music, gigging with his Dad from the age of 5 and playing in bands all through is life, teaching guitar, and running his own recording studio also. So we find ourselves at a small local festival, with a badly erected tatty party tent, with a tiny stage, and really badly managed sound where no one on stage could hear themselves. We sat in the sun after his performance and agreed we could do this set up better. So we did. Simple as that!

Adam researched products and prices, and I worked on a business plan and researched local companies. Where could we add value, go the extra mile, and make our offering unique.  After extensive research I found that websites were hard to navigate, quotes often did not turn up or where wrong, too many contact forms and not enough personal service. So that was where we felt we could really excel, using our years of customer service experience to offer the personal touch that was missing from our competitors.

We launched 8 months later with a website and no marquees at that point.  We used a well known business directory and got a fair amount of work from that.  We had a summer of bookings ahead and so we made the decision to borrow some money and buy the equipment.

DIY Marquees were absolutely amazing, they gave us brilliant advice because they have been there, started a marquee company and been in the hire market themselves. I turned up with a wobbly trailer and two screaming toddlers and we took our marquees home.

The rest really is history. We called many pubs and introduced ourselves, emailed local councils, joined local business networks, and had our vehicles sign written. Our hit rate for converting an enquiry to a booking was around 75% and I think this has to be down to us really caring about our customers and it coming across to them that we have time to discuss their needs, and we really want them to have a good experience with us. This has undoubtedly contributed to the amount of repeat bookings we receive. We have a strong repeat customer base and get recommendations all the time which saves on advertising costs!

We took very little pay in the first 3 years ploughing it all back in to the business to grow as quickly as we could.  We started offering small festival stages in the second year of trading which has added variety to our business. We have provided stages for festivals, local councils, pub events, and got paid to watch live bands!

We have so many great memories over the last few years, from our customers that invite us in to share a freshly made curry, to the quirky sheep that leapt in our van and ate our biscuits.  Every day is different, and each customer unique but it’s been an amazing experience and watching our business grow has been very rewarding.  DIY Marquees has been crucial to our success and have always gone the extra mile to help us. We have had to order next day delivery items at 4.59pm in the evening as we have lost a vital component, had issues onsite and needed advice, and been totally fine with us never giving the correct part name for an item in spite of them sending them to us numerous times. 😊

Get in touch with DIY Marquees if you are wanting to buy a marquee