New tent design debuted at wedding

A family wedding for a longtime client was the perfect opportunity for Custom Covers to introduce a new tent design.

Tent renter Ridgeway Marquees Ltd. of Redditch, Worcestershire, England, has been a longtime customer of tent manufacturer Custom Covers (1984) Ltd. So when Ridgeway owner Tim Jones was arranging his daughter’s wedding, he turned to Custom Covers for something spectacular. The wedding was the perfect opportunity for Custom Covers to debut a new tent design.

The manufacturer’s goal with the design was to create a marquee with the aesthetics of a traditional pole tent while maintaining the practicality of the clearspan and developing an innovative means to join three marquees together into one tent.

The result is an aesthetically pleasing cone shape with a tensile roof cover that joins three 9-meter (30-foot) clearspan marquee structures for a total of 300 square meters (3,000 square feet) of tentage. Planning time for the structure, from conception to execution for the September 2009 wedding, was two months

Under the guidance of Custom Covers staff, six Ridgeway installers worked 2½ days to erect the structure at the historic Coughton Court Manor House in Warwickshire (10 miles from the birthplace of William Shakespeare). Robert Sanders of Custom Covers says the weather was perfect for the installation—the hottest day of the year for Great Britain—so the anchoring involved the usual securing with stakes through footplates. The tent seated 80 guests at 5½ foot round tables with one head table.

Sanders says that the tri-cone design showcases the company’s ability to come up with a new concept and provides a “wow appeal” that differentiates the company from its competition. Custom Covers has since put the tent design into full production.