by Tie The Knot Catering | April 26, 2023 | Trends, Wedding Catering, Wedding venues
Your wedding day is one of the most important events in your life, and it’s only fitting that you make it truly memorable. From finding the perfect dress to selecting a beautiful venue, everything needs to be nothing short of perfect. But have you ever considered how choosing a marquee or creating an outdoor wedding can transform not only the atmosphere but also the menu selections for your big day? Choosing a marquee can make all the difference when it comes to creating an unforgettable day for you and your guests. It is your blank canvas to create the vibe you want. Choose the menu that reflects you as a couple, the theme and decor to match – everything is more flexible all you need is your vision…
Picture the scene… a glorious summer’s day, chilled champagne in coupe glasses, delightful canapes being circulated by smartly dressed waiters. Garden games on the lawn, jazz band playing, roaming photographer with dreamy floral backdrops. And there you are, stunning, in your wedding attire with your newly betrothed stood by your side laughing and joking with friends and family. The marquee in the background decorated exactly as you wanted, to match your theme and reflect you as a couple. All the little details you had carefully thought about and hand-picked being enjoyed by your closest friends and family… Welcome to your Alfresco Wedding.
The options are limitless when it comes to marquee weddings, and it really is your own blank canvas to style and create your dream day. But where do you start?
Firstly, think about the style of marquee that you want for your day… it’s more than just your average white tent style marquee with poles that you typically find at a Garden Fete. There is so much to choose from – stretch marquees, tipis, traditional marquees, sailcloth tents… We tend to work with three amazing marquee suppliers :
Sail and Peg
Southern Events Group
Arundel Marquees
These marquee companies offer a range of styles for different budgets, so do get in touch if you’d like some help selecting the perfect marquee partner.
What we love (obviously) about marquee weddings is the freedom and flexibility you have for the catering. You could go for a traditional sit-down fine dining wedding breakfast, or you could go for something more relaxed such as BBQ boards – delicious BBQ food served to the table. If you have been lucky enough to fit the marquee in your garden or saved a penny or two on the venue location, you could splash out and upgrade your dining experience or add an additional canape or two?
If you have a love of seafood, you could add a Champagne and Oyster bar. For the meat lovers think Aperol and Charcuterie, balanced out with a selection of Vegan treats (we’re thinking mini Moroccan rolls, mini tacos packed with falafel, hummus, tzatziki and mini spiced potato cakes) for those who often get overlooked. The world really is your oyster when it comes to a marquee wedding and we are here to help create your vision. – creating bespoke menus, providing advice on the practical side in terms of what you need to consider when it comes to planning an outdoor wedding.
Generally, with a marquee wedding the caterer takes on more of a venue manager role ensuring your day runs how you had envisioned and we are happy to share our knowledge, experience and expertise.
Not sure what to do about the drinks? You can provide all the drinks yourself or ask your caterer (like us) to provide a bar service. Evening food you could choose your favourite street food van to provide the soak-up food – there is so much choice available you can go as quirky or as traditional as you like.
If you don’t want the celebrations to end, the joy of a marquee wedding is that you can easily extend it to a two-day celebration. How about an informal lunch the next day to reminisce abut the night before and catch up on any bits you missed!
No matter what style of marquee wedding you are planning, there is sure to be a catering option that will wow your guests. Here are some of our faves:
- Seaside Platters with refreshing cocktails – binging the beach to your wedding day!
- Bistro boards – hearty modern British classics served informally for guests to help themselves
- Traditional Fine Dining – A three course sit down meal with all the opulence and elegance your wedding day deserves
- BBQ Boards – perfect for summer weddings – cooked on the BBQ and served to the table – bringing a sense of occasion to the much-loved British BBQ!
If you’re looking for ways to take your wedding day up a notch, choosing a marquee could easily be one of them – it’s sure to transform not only your venue but also what’s being served on your big day!
Venue – Balcombe Place
Photographer – Voytek Photography
Marquee – Sail & Peg
by Tie The Knot Catering | April 18, 2023 | Wedding Catering, Wedding venues
All good love stories start here…
Romance is in the air, and being in the “love” industry, you can’t get any better than Valentine’s Day. If you are one of the lucky couples to get engaged over this special day, firstly CONGRATULATIONS! Becoming a Fiancé is one of those magical moments in life, and we hope you are enjoying every minute.
Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate love and affection. It has been celebrated since the early days of Christianity, but the exact origins of the holiday are shrouded in mystery. One popular theory is that it was created to Christianise the pagan festival of Lupercalia, which was held on February 15th. Another theory is that it was created to honour Saint Valentine, a Roman priest who was martyred for secretly marrying couples against the orders of Emperor Claudius II.
Whatever its origins, Valentine’s Day has become a cherished tradition for couples around the world. On this special day, lovers exchange gifts, flowers, and cards to express their love for one another. It is also a popular day for proposals… well of course, what better way to show your love than to tell your partner that you’d like to spend the rest of your life with them?
So now you’re engaged…
You’re excited, butterflies in your tummy when you think forward and start imagining your special day. Something you may have been dreaming of for some years. It goes without saying that family and friends also get over excited “let’s see the ring” “have you set a date?” “Where will you get married?” But don’t feel too pressured at this point, while it is important to set a date and book your suppliers in, the most important thing is to enjoy your engagement and the whole build up to getting married.
On average we see couples spending 18 months engaged before tying the knot (some sooner, some spend longer engaged), this is a lovely amount of time to spend planning your big day and thinking about all the little details you want to make your day all about you.
Set the Date
The first thing to think about is when you’d like to get married. Some couples have a favourite season, a significant date or perhaps are led by budget. For us, Summer is most definitely the most popular time to hold a wedding, and we would say wedding season runs April to September, when we are generally hosting 3-4 weddings per week. Barn weddings are great for the summer, with beautiful countryside surroundings and so many stunning photo opportunities.
But don’t rule out winter, this can be a magical time for a wedding, think open fires, fairy lights – your own winter wonderland. There are some beautiful wedding venues that can really help create the perfect wintery romantic setting. One of our favourites has to be Balcombe Place in Sussex – a grand setting with open fires and candles on every surface. Romance and drama in one beautiful venue.
Sit with your other half and discuss dates, do you have a favourite season or is there a significant date, perhaps the date you first met? Once you’ve set the date, the big three to get booked in are: Caterer, Venue and Photographer, so use your first few months researching these and get them confirmed for your date.
You don’t need to think about menus, décor, or any of the details just yet, those you can take your time over and really make those details reflect you and your partner as a couple. Make it a day to remember. Use the next few months to think about the personal touches that will make your day more memorable for you and your guests.
We are here to help you bring your day together, follow us on social media and we will guide you through wedding planning, making sure it’s an enjoyable experience and your day is all about you and your partner.
Photo Credit: Lemonade Pictures
by Tie The Knot Catering | August 6, 2021 | Wedding Insights, Wedding venues
We waited, right alongside you, month after month, to hear the news that weddings could go ahead again.
Over the quiet months that followed, we rejigged menus, creating elaborate, bespoke offerings that kept the elements you loved and amplified them to reflect your smaller numbers.
We took phone calls to rearrange your dates, sometimes three or four times, scaled-down table plans, and talked in hushed tones to our venue colleagues, standing in empty rooms that we’ve only ever seen filled with people.
Now, there is nothing quite like hearing the DJ play your songs whilst we assemble bacon butties and steaming bowls of indulgent mac and cheese for your late-night bites. The sounds of a hundred voices cheering and the scuff of a hundred pairs of feet spinning across the dance floor has never sounded so sweet through the swinging doors of a catering kitchen.
We will continue to follow guidelines and do everything we can to keep you safe. We will make sure your glasses stay full, and your menus are just as incredible as you remember them being at your tasting. We will ensure your guests are wowed from your very first canape to that last delicious bite of pizza.
It’s a changed old world out there, and it’s no exaggeration to say that we have all learned a lot and lost a fair amount too. But it is an absolute joy to be back where we belong, celebrating you.
by Tie The Knot Catering | February 18, 2021 | Wedding Catering, Wedding Insights, Wedding venues
It’s 2021 and we’re feeling hopeful for what’s to come. If we’ve all learnt anything in the past year it’s that, no matter what is thrown in its way, love will always win.
Whilst, ordinarily we work 18 months in advance of your day, with so many of our wonderful 2020 couples looking to postpone to this year or even next, we are now offering bookings late into 2022 and have even seen some thoughts turn to the 2023.
We want to support our clients, our venues and our industry as we all navigate our way through the landscape ahead, so whilst it may seem daunting to plan so far in advance, we strongly believe that the best way to ensure this is to plan well and be transparent from the very beginning.
If you got engaged over Christmas or the Valentines weekend and are looking to book your date for 2022 or 2023, we’d love to chat with you as we begin to fill our calendar for the seasons ahead.
We work in so many beautiful venues across Sussex and the Home Counties, and can also cater to private properties or in venues that allow external caterers. You can find out more about our venues here https://www.tietheknotcatering.co.uk/wedding-venues/
We work on a first-come, first, serve basis and cater for a max of 2 weddings a day. This means we can guarantee our twice award-winning service, providing you with the expertise and experience of our core team, and our undivided attention.
Our menus are second to none. We offer traditional 3 or 4-course dining, relaxed sharing board style menus or, for the socially distanced gatherings, elegant bowl food receptions. In 2019 we launched a hearty and delicious vegan menu which, over 2020, has been expanded to excite and satisfy even the hardiest of meat-eaters.
Also debuting in 2021, is an entirely new range of seasonal menus, capturing ingredients at the height of their flavour and vibrancy in dishes that complement both our style of modern British cuisine, and our sustainability agenda.
Drop us an email at [email protected] and let’s begin planning your dream menu today!
by Tie The Knot Catering | September 30, 2019 | Trends, Wedding Insights, Wedding venues
We know that planning your wedding is like navigating your way around a foreign city when you don’t speak a word of the language. You know where you want to go, you’re not entirely sure how to get there and you know you definitely don’t want to be ripped off along way.
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by Tie The Knot Catering | February 15, 2019 | Trends, Wedding Insights, Wedding venues
The DIY wedding is on the up. Long gone are the days where your choices were white or pink chair covers and Parma ham vs prawn cocktail for starters.
You are no longer restricted to getting married in a church followed by a hotel reception. Confetti UK revealed that in 2017 61% of couples married in a civil ceremony with a 15% rise from 2009 on barn wedding receptions. With the hopes that a law change will mean UK couples can get married outside these statistics are due an even more radical change in the year to come!
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