Planning / 3 min readThe Union in Frame journal
Marquee and tipi weddings: light, power and weather for the pictures
Words by Union in Frame
A marquee or tipi gives you a field and a canvas roof, and both change the photographs. Plan for what a building would have settled for you: coloured light, bright afternoons inside, power after dusk, mud, portraits on open ground and wet weather with no second room.
Check what the canvas does to the light
White lining softens daylight and is kind to faces. Coloured or patterned linings tint everything beneath them, and tipi canvas tends to turn the light amber. Skin, dresses and table linen take on that tint, and that is hard to correct in editing.
Ask the hire company what the roof and lining are made of. If you love a coloured lining, keep it, but tell your photographer early so they can plan where portraits and speeches happen. If the marquee goes up early, a quick look inside is worth more than any description.
Plan for a bright, uneven afternoon inside
On a sunny afternoon a marquee is not a dim room. Light pours through open sides and window panels, so one end of a table can sit in sunshine while the other is in shade. Clear roof panels add bright patches that move as the sun does.
Think about where the top table and speeches will sit. Speakers facing the open side, with daylight on their faces, photograph far better than speakers with a bright wall of light behind them. Decide this with the hire company while the floor plan can still move.
Sort the power and lighting before dusk
A building has sockets and a lighting circuit. A field has whatever you hire. Festoon and fairy lights look lovely but give little to photograph by, and uplighters in strong colours turn skin green or purple. Ask for warm, dimmable light over the dance floor and top table, and keep coloured washes for the walls.
Confirm who runs the generator, how late it runs and how far away it sits; its hum can end up in any film of the speeches. Your photographer may bring evening lights, so ask whether they need a socket.
Find the portrait spots on open ground
A country house has staircases, doorways and gardens. A field offers sky, grass and the marquee itself. Walk the site with your photographer, or send photographs, and look for a hedge line, a gateway, a single tree or a track that gives the pictures a sense of place.
Distance matters more than usual. The toilets, the generator and parked cars are easier to walk away from than to edit out. Agree how far you can go in your shoes, and keep evening portraits close, when the lit marquee becomes the backdrop.
Make a wet plan without a second room
When it rains at a hotel, portraits move to another room. A marquee has no other room, and a wet week can leave the field muddy on a dry day, so plan for the ground as much as the sky. Ask for matting from the car park to the door, cover to the toilets and somewhere to swap boots for shoes.
For portraits, try the doorway looking out at the rain, or the empty dance floor. If the ceremony is planned outside, agree where it moves to and check your registrar or celebrant can hold it there.
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