One of the main questions to be answered when choosing a marquee for an event is ‘what size do I need for X amount of people?’, we have done a comprehensive separate guide you can read here to answer that specific question. One variable that can influence the marquee size is the style and size of tables you choose, and how they’re laid out in the marquee.
At All Occasions, we pride ourselves on stocking a comprehensive selection of furniture to hire including tables, we’ll dive into how the tables you choose influence the capacity of a marquee.
Table Choices
First though, let’s cover what table choices you have available. One of the most popular is your round table, these are fantastic for weddings and are really versatile in how you choose to distribute them through your marquee.
Our round tables are available to hire in 3ft, 4ft, 5ft, 5ft 6” and 6ft, you can mix and match these to cater for different party sizes to give you flexibility to slot them around the space you need the marquee to fit in. Above you can see a smaller 4ft table and below are bigger 6ft tables with bigger seating capacity for larger groups.
Next up, we have trestle tables. These are long rectangular tables to hire in either 4ft and 6ft sizes, they require a little more space and consideration compared to round tables but look magnificent and present a lovely uniform feel to your event.
Trestle tables are also extremely useful for shows and events to use for setting up stalls and stands for businesses and can create natural walkways through marquees effectively by lining them next to each other, so they can be used for a broader range of events than your round tables.
Lastly, we also have a large quantity of picnic benches available to hire. Picnic benches are wonderful for public events to create an informal gathering area, our picnic benches fit 4 to a table comfortably and only come in one size so they’re less flexible for fitting around specific marquee sizes. The benches were used to great effect at Hull University for one of their open days in an informal relaxed manner. We also offer extended picnic benches for wheelchair friendly access.
How To Calculate Your Table Sizes
Our marquees come in metres so we’ll use this metric to measure table areas to keep things simple. Our marquees generally increase by 3 metre increments in both width and length, so some example sizes for marquees would be:
3m x 3m
6m x 12m
9m x 12m
12m x 20m
15m x 30m
Understanding how marquee sizes work gives you the knowledge to figure how the right table sizes can meet your required capacity. We’ll work out what each individual table size equates to, that way you can mix and match multiple sizes to fit the space you need. In these calculations we have factored in room for chairs and also room for spacing between the tables as part of the area required so you don’t have to consider this, some additional margin has also been added in to ensure you have a perfectly comfortable space to set up in.
We’ll use examples to give you an idea of what could work.
Round Tables
Table Size People Per Table Space Required (m²)
3ft 2 2m²
4ft 4 2.5m²
5ft 6 3m²
5ft 6" 8 3.5m²
6ft 10 4m²
As an example, here’s how to calculate a 50 capacity tent using 6ft tables.
50 ÷ 10 = 5 x 4m² = 20m²
Tent sizes that’d accommodate this space would be any that surpass this range such as:
3m x 9m = 27m²
6m x 6m = 36m²
Trestle Tables
Table Size People Per Table Space Required (m²)
4ft 6 3.5m²
6ft 8 4.5m²
As an example, here’s how to calculate a 60 capacity tent using trestle tables.
48 ÷ 8 = 6 x 4.5m² = 27m²
12 ÷ 6 = 2 x 3.5m² = 7m²
The number required meant using both sizes of trestle, so we have 6 x 6ft tables required and 2 x 4ft tables required, this means the total space needed is 34m².
Tent sizes that’d accommodate this space would be any that surpass this range such as:
6m x 6m = 36m²
3m x 12m = 36m²
The longer 12m tent could work better here because trestles are longer on one size.
Picnic Benches
Table Size People Per Table Space Required (m²)
One Size 4 3.5m²
As an example, here’s how to calculate a 100 capacity tent using picnic benches.
100 ÷ 4 = 25 x 3.5m² = 87.5m²
Tent sizes that’d accommodate this space would be any that surpass this range such as:
9m x 12m = 108m²
3m x 30m = 90m²
6m x 15m = 90m²
Further Considerations
At this stage it’s imperative for us to highlight we’ve only been calculating the marquee sizes to hire based on just tables alone. In reality, there are other factors to consider beyond just tables for your guests. Depending on your event these could be:
- Staging
- Dance floor
- DJ / musician area
- Corporate presentation space
- Bar
- Buffet / catering / food area
- Informal seating area
- Reception
- Personalised themed pieces
All these elements naturally need to be factored in beyond your guest capacity and influence the marquee size you need. At this point, it’s worth getting in touch with us here or calling us on 01482 348700 and we can help select the perfect size marquee for your event
