We obviously advise on what will be the right marquee size for your event but understanding a little of how we got there comes in handy, especially when there are discrepancies between marquee company quotations. There's nothing worse than having a venue too big or too small for your event.
Planning what size of marquee you need does not have to complicated and subject to you having enough room to accommodate the marquee, its simple to calculate the absolute maximum capacities. If you start by thinking of only people within the marquee and no furniture, up to 10 people can be seated within a 10ft square space. So the maximum capacity of say a 20'x20 (6mx6m) marquee would be 40 people.
From then on, whatever space you lose by adding dance floors, band area, staging, catering tables, increasing space between tables, reception areas, bar areas and so on, you lose this space for people and thus your capacity reduces and the marquee size increases.
You also need to consider if the number of people will increase. Especially relevant for weddings when more people attend the nighttime celebrations. Here is a simple sketch sheet to make notes on. I know its simple but its very effective.
