Your wedding should be as unique as you are. When it comes to planning your own wedding, you want your guests to remember your big day as an epic celebration that will be remembered for decades to come. Glamping weddings make experiences and memories that last. We’ll show you what makes a great glamping wedding, the different types of options, the benefits and costs involved.
After all, who remembers a bland hotel chain when you have the luxury of being outdoors, surrounded by nature and the people closest to you for the whole weekend. No taxis and early leaving allowed from your wedding that’s for sure!
Our Glamping Weddings Experience
We have been crafting unique Bell Tent Glamping Villages for Weddings for over 10 years so let us share a few things to help you plan your own glamping wedding extravaganza. We’ll also show you how you can create your own glamping village at no cost to yourselves.
Table of Contents
So what is a Glamping Wedding?
Well it’s a wedding that involves Glamping! And what is glamping? It’s Glamour mixed with Camping = Glamping! It’s on site wedding accommodation where and when you need it. We provide bell tents for weddings mainly when they are an outdoor type of wedding using Tipis or Marquees etc or perhaps at a beautiful Barn or even Sports Clubs too…
What are the benefits Glamping Weddings?
Time
Perhaps the most important benefit of all. Your guests are the friends and family you love the most. Rather than squeezing the biggest day of your life into a few short hours and trying to find time to meet everybody. Having Glamping at your wedding slows everything down. It allows you more time to spend with those special people in your life over the whole weekend.
Ease of use
Having Glamping at your wedding and being able to offer it to your guests makes it extremely easy for you and your guests. Rather than having to click around and find hotels, B&Bs or airbnbs nearby, your guests know they can book fantasic onsite accommodation right where they need it. Use our booking portal and we’ll take of all the bookings and payments too.
Personal touches
Glamping gives you a blank canvas for your ideas. By having guests stay longer you have more scope to provide those touches. Firepits and smores at night, breakfast cookouts, later night finishes, getting ready tents etc
Extra Helpers
By having guests stay longer and potentially on the Friday night before a Saturday wedding, you have the opportunity to gain extra helpers. If you need help with table laying, decorations, signage, bunting, you name it, get them involved.
No early leavers
Rather than have guests stay in hotels or B&Bs far away from the action, a glamping wedding brings accommodation to the guests right at the heart of the wedding. Overnight canvas exactly where you need it. No booking taxis at 11pm for your guests. Your guests get to relax and party with you.
Out in nature
Being in beautiful surroundings and fresh air is the perfect way to unwind, relax and prepare for a wedding. Glamping accommodation on site allows your guests to fully settle into your amazing day or weekend.
Scalable to your wedding
A small intimate wedding with 40 people? No problem. A large festival themed wedding with 200 guests, why not! Using a Bell Tent company like Brilliant Bell Tent Hire, you can plan the amount of accommodation you need for your specific event. That’s the beauty of temporary canvas accommodation.
Geoff’s Pro Tip:
We organised pre-set up tents for our own wedding. Having glamping on site really does make it easier for your guests to book but for us it was the time we got to spend with all of our uncles, friends, cousins, nieces and nephews that made it really special.
Downsides of Glamping Weddings
While we believe the pros definitely outweigh the cons, there are some things to consider:
- Not every venue or piece of land has the available space for glamping. (If you are worried just get in touch with us and we can help and talk you through it.) We are very creative!
- Very elderly guests might not be best suited to Glamping at weddings. Always check though as we have been surprised!
- If you are basing this in a field far away from other facilities you’ll need to consider toilets and perhaps drinking water for your guests. While this is easily surmountable it is something to plan in.
Rhian’s Pro Tip:
If you are planning a Giant Tipi or Marquee wedding the chances are that you have toilets planned to go with those structures. These toilets can also be used by the glampers as well.
If there are really no facilities near the glamping field you can keep costs down by booking in a single portaloo for those late night visits. Larger toilet trailers are an option too and are more luxurious but do bear in mind they will need a power supply to run their lights and pumps.
Different Types of Glamping options for weddings?
In the glamping world there is an incredible range of glamping options available. These have exploded since 2012, led mainly by the festival market and taken on by semi permanent venues on a boutique level. You can find a whole host of these on dedicated holiday sites such as Canopy and Stars. These include yurts, shepherd huts, safari tents, luxury cabins, tiny houses, unique campervans & caravans, Tree houses, beach houses, yachts, containers, train carriages, pods, Bell Tents, igloos, caves and many more!
In the UK wedding industry, if you are looking to bring a glamping option onto your land or land you are renting you will be looking for a glamping option that is mobile and designed for easy installation with a luxury fit out. Luxurious Canvas Bell tents are the most available and widely used to create a Glamping Village for weddings. This is simply due to the ease of movement. It’s very difficult to transport 30 shepherd’s hut or safari lodges to a field in Oxfordshire for a wedding after all.
Where can I organise Glamping Weddings?
The answer is anywhere with enough flat space! In the last 10 years we have built Glamping wedding Villages in:
- Private gardens
- School grounds
- Cricket, Hockey and Rugby Clubs
- Polo grounds
- Farm land
- Existing campsites
- Wedding venues (without sufficient on-site accommodation)
- Show grounds
- Wedding event fields
- Orchards
- Mansion Houses
- Private Estates
- Lake side locations
- Forest and Woodland settings
- Pub grounds
- You name it!
Geoff’s Top Tip:
Use the following measurements to map out your camping space. A 5m Bell Tent with a 2m gap between the next Bell tent. Allow for 2m on either end too. E.g 5 Bell tents in a row with need a length of 37m. (2m gap + 5m Bell tent + 2m gap + 5m Bell tent + 2m gap + 5m Bell tent + 2m gap + 5m Bell tent + 2m gap + 5m Bell tent + 2m gap)
Why Bell tents are great for Glamping Weddings
Bells tent hire for weddings makes sense for a number of reasons:
- Scalability. While scaling airbnb rooms or safari tents is nigh on impossible. Building a Bell Tent village to sleep 10 – 200 people is relatively easy to plan and provide.
- Photogenic settings. Bell tents can serve as beautiful backdrops for wedding photos. The unique shape and design of the tents, combined with the natural surroundings, can result in stunning and memorable images.
- Comfortable Accommodation. Bell tents provide a comfortable and cosy space for guests to stay overnight. A fully furnished option from us includes linen, duvets, pillows, floor rugs, welcome mats, rustic tables, lighting, air mattresses, welcome mats, bunting and each tent individually labelled with chalk boards. With 4m and 5m Bell tents available they provide a really comfortable place to stay.
- Versatility. Bell tents are versatile and work with a whole range of weddings. Whether you’re going for a festival, bohemian, rustic, or vintage look Bell tents always look great.
- Connection with Nature. Glamping with Bell tents allows guests to connect with nature while still enjoying the luxury and comfort of a well-furnished tent.
- Easy option for guests. Having a bookable Bell Tent Village available on site is perhaps the easiest option for your guests to use. No faffing around trying to find hotels nearby. No arguing over a designated driver or booking rural taxis. No having to leave early either! Make life very easy for your guests.
- Flexibility in Location. Given a relatively flat piece of land, Bell tents can be pitched anywhere you need them to go.
- Cost. Using the Brilliant Bell Tent Hire Booking Portal you can have your guests book directly with us. This means your costs can be zero.
What does a Glamping Village look like at a wedding?
Think of a beautiful layout of Canvas Bell Tents ready to welcome your wedding guests. The specific arrangement of the tents will depend on the space available.
Long and thin strip of land? Your option are limited to a linear layout.
Open field? Then a whole host of options are possible. Heart shaped, horse shoe, double layers the choice is yours.
Geoff’s Top Tip
“Plan your parking at the same time as planning the location of your Glamping Village. Pick a spot close by but far enough away from the tents so that vehicles are kept in a different area. This makes everything safer, quieter for early departures and more photogenic”
How easy is it to organise your own Wedding Glamping Village
First things first. If you have the land available then it is relatively easy to organise your own Bell Tent Village.
- Get your dates sorted
- Have a rough idea of how many people or tents you are likely to need
- Get in touch with a Bell Tent Hire specialist like ourselves, Brilliant Bell Tent Hire. We will help you with planning as well.
- Decide whether you’d like to book and pay for everything or have your wedding guests book direct with ourselves through your personalised Booking Portal.
- Organise any extras you might need for the site. Items like toilets or water supply if not currently available.
- Any guests booking through the portal will view and have information about arrivals times, facilities etc but you may need to have on the day signage for things like ‘Glamping Area’, ‘Parking’, ‘Welcome drinks’, toilets, etc
How much does it cost to organise a Glamping Village
Well it can be as low as £0. Zilch, nada, Zero. Just like when a wedding couple sends guests a link to book a local hotel the same thing can apply for Bell tents with Brilliant Bell Tent Hire.
82% of our couples in 2023 decided to use our faff free Booking Portal that we offer. We simply create a booking portal page specific to the newly wed couple. The couple then sends the link to their guest list. Anyone wishing to book Bell Tents in the Couple’s Glamping Village simply book and pay via the portal.
No chasing payments. No chasing booking numbers. No stress. By using the portal, couple’s can keep their costs down to literally zero.
Bear in mind the camping area will require a toilet. If there is an existing toilet on site then that can be utilised. Otherwise consider hiring one for the duration.
Conclusion
Planning and delivering a Glamping Wedding can be relatively straightforward. Glamping at a wedding allows you, the bride and groom, to take experiences and memories to another level.
Glamping weddings solves problems associated with not having enough accommodation on site or nearby. Sure not all your guests will want to overnight under canvas but the majority will and epic memories will be made by your event. By providing Bell Tents at your wedding you make it super simple for guests to find, book and enjoy on site accommodation.
