Wedding at a Glance
Client: Mackenzie & Steve
Location: Irton House, Lake District
Guests: 60
Season: August 2026
Marquee: Sailcloth
Setting: Overlooking Skiddaw in the Lake District
Service: Full wedding planning
Design: Jessica Sharpe Weddings
In August 2026, I planned Mackenzie and Steve’s wedding at Irton House in the Lake District, with a sailcloth marquee positioned overlooking Skiddaw.
The couple and the majority of their guests had travelled from San Francisco, so the setting was a significant part of the weekend. They wanted their guests to experience the Lake District properly: its landscape, food, pubs and sense of place, rather than simply arrive for a wedding in a beautiful location.
The result was a relaxed but highly considered wedding weekend for 60 guests, with a design that took its cues from the landscape without trying to compete with it. The brief was clear from the beginning: elegant but relaxed, natural but not rustic, and detailed without feeling overly styled.
A Lake District wedding weekend
The celebrations began the evening before the wedding at the Swinside Inn, overlooking Catbells. We took the inn exclusively for the evening, creating a welcome party that felt like a particularly good country pub – warm, relaxed and unmistakably Cumbrian, but still considered.
Guests arrived to Aperol and Champagne before gathering outside for welcome speeches, with the landscape providing the backdrop.
Dinner was deliberately informal. Open packets of crisps were placed directly on the tables, alongside a menu designed to feel generous and unfussy rather than overly formal. The food included soy-glazed crispy chicken, caramelised onion and sage sausage rolls and soup of the day, followed by braised Cumbrian lamb shoulder, pan-roasted sea bass and wild mushroom risotto. Dessert was sticky toffee pudding, peach melba and dark chocolate parfait.
It was a simple detail, but the crisps summed up the evening particularly well. This wasn’t intended to be a formal rehearsal dinner. It was a chance for everyone to arrive, settle in and enjoy being together.
Designing a luxury marquee wedding around the landscape
The Lake District was always going to be the dominant visual element, so I didn’t want to introduce a design that fought with the setting. Instead, the palette and materials were drawn from it. Warm creams, soft taupes and an abundance of greens formed the foundation, with muted heather tones used sparingly as a reference to the surrounding landscape.
The sailcloth marquee was a natural starting point. Its structure allowed the views to remain visible while giving us enough space to create distinct areas within it. The interior was softened with cream carpet and flowing drapery, including bespoke draping designed to echo the shapes of the surrounding mountains.
This was important to me. Rather than simply hanging fabric because it looked good, we used it to create another subtle connection between the interior and the landscape outside. The styling was deliberately tactile. Natural materials such as wood and linen were combined with warm gold accents, distinctive furniture and plenty of texture. Wishbone chairs gave the dining area structure without making it feel formal, while cream lounge furniture was layered with cushions in different patterns and textures.
Creating different spaces within the marquee
One of the advantages of a marquee wedding is the ability to create a completely bespoke layout. For Mackenzie and Steve, that meant creating distinct spaces for different parts of the day rather than treating the marquee as one large room.
There were two lounge areas, one inside and one outside giving guests somewhere to sit away from the dining tables. Outside, the terrace became an extension of the marquee, with cream carpet, a second lounge area, an outdoor bar and green-striped parasols. The green stripe became a recurring detail throughout the design. It appeared on the custom bars and outdoor parasols, providing a graphic element against the softer neutral palette without turning the design into a theme.
The main bar was bespoke, with green striped panelling and a curved gold back bar. The shape was deliberately organic, echoing the undulating lines of the surrounding hills. The outdoor bar hosted an Aperol station for the drinks reception, giving guests another reason to move outside and make the most of the setting.
These are the details that can be easy to overlook when looking at a finished wedding. But creating a luxury marquee wedding is partly about designing how people move through the space; where they have a drink, where they sit, where they eat and how each area transitions into the next.
Wild, abundant Lake District florals
The floral design followed the same principle. We wanted abundance, but not anything too neat or overly symmetrical. Greens were the foundation, with grasses, unusual flowers and subtle heather tones creating a more natural, slightly untamed quality. Amaranthus was one of Mackenzie’s favourite flowers, so this became part of the floral story too.
At the entrance to the marquee, a statement installation combined different urns, baskets, votives and vessels rather than relying on one large symmetrical arrangement. Inside, long banquet tables were dressed with low, textured floral arrangements. The vessels and votives were intentionally varied, allowing the tables to feel collected rather than perfectly matched. The floral brief was to favour interesting textures, grasses and natural elements, with arrangements that felt free-form and organic.
For the outdoor ceremony, meadow-style arrangements created a full, abundant backdrop without taking attention away from Skiddaw. These meadow arrangements were also designed to be moved later in the day, becoming part of the dining and evening spaces. That kind of repurposing is something I always consider when planning a large-scale wedding. It makes the design work harder and means elements can evolve throughout the day rather than being installed once and forgotten.
An outdoor ceremony overlooking Skiddaw
The ceremony took place outside with Skiddaw directly behind the ceremony setting. Bentwood chairs were arranged facing the view, while guests were offered parasols to keep comfortable in the August sunshine.
There are some locations where the right decision is simply to do less. With a view like this, there was no reason to over-design the ceremony. The flowers, chairs and parasols framed the setting, but the landscape remained the focus.
After the ceremony, guests enjoyed confetti before moving into the drinks reception, with the marquee and outdoor terrace providing a natural progression from one part of the day to the next.
A considered dining design
Inside the marquee, tables were arranged as long banquet tables for the guests. The tables were understated, allowing the texture and detail to build through the individual elements. Neutral linen tablecloths were paired with beige ruffled napkins and bespoke striped napkins, while cabbage-pattern crockery added an unexpected layer of personality.
Pretty glassware and carefully selected cutlery completed the place settings. The florals remained low and textural, allowing guests to talk easily across the tables, while an abundance of tapered candles brought warmth as daylight faded.
Nothing was intended to look overly coordinated. Instead, different textures, patterns, vessels and floral forms were brought together within the same restrained palette. That balance of knowing where to add detail and where to leave space was central to the overall design.
The details that made it personal
One of my favourite details was the bespoke escort board. It used the same custom-designed backdrop as other elements of the wedding and was surrounded by considered styling, but the most important part was what sat within it.
Mackenzie and Steve had handwritten notes for every one of their guests. For their guest count, that meant a significant amount of time and thought from the couple themselves. It was exactly the kind of personal detail that I think works best in a luxury wedding. It wasn’t there simply to photograph well. It had a purpose.
Their wedding was ultimately about bringing their closest people together, many of whom had travelled a considerable distance to be there.
When the logistics become part of the planning
The finished photographs of a marquee wedding rarely reveal just how much work happens behind the scenes. Irton House was a particularly challenging site to access, so from the beginning I had multiple logistical plans in place.
Marquee weddings require considerably more infrastructure than a wedding taking place in an established venue. Everything needs to arrive on site: structures, flooring, furniture, bars, lighting, catering equipment, flowers and all of the smaller details that make the finished space work.
When the site itself presents access challenges, those logistics become even more important. On the wedding day, local traffic also caused transport delays, which meant the timeline had to be shifted. This is where having a detailed plan is important, but being able to abandon that plan when necessary is equally important.
Mackenzie and Steve trusted me throughout the planning process and gave me the freedom to make decisions and suggestions as the circumstances changed. So the timeline moved, the guests didn’t need to know why. That is a significant part of my role as a wedding planner. The aim isn’t to make the couple aware of every problem; it is to solve them before they become their problem.
A wedding that felt like the Lake District
What I loved most about Mackenzie and Steve’s wedding was how naturally the location became part of the experience. For guests travelling from San Francisco, this wasn’t simply a wedding venue. It was an introduction to a completely different landscape and way of life.
There was the welcome party at the Swinside Inn overlooking Catbells. There was Cumbrian produce and locally influenced food. There were parasols and confetti at an outdoor ceremony overlooking Skiddaw. There was a sailcloth marquee softened with mountain-inspired draping, wild grasses, greens and muted heather tones. And then there were the more personal details – the handwritten notes, the bespoke bars, the carefully considered table settings and the spaces designed specifically for guests to relax and spend time together.
The result was a wedding that felt rooted in its location without becoming overly themed. It was recognisably Lake District, but still unmistakably Mackenzie and Steve.
Planning a luxury marquee wedding in the Lake District
A marquee gives you an extraordinary amount of creative freedom, but that freedom comes with responsibility. There is no existing room to work within, so every part of the experience needs to be considered, the site, access, infrastructure, furniture, lighting, catering, guest flow, weather contingencies, design and the transition between each part of the day.
For couples planning a luxury marquee wedding, that is also where the opportunity lies. You aren’t restricted by a standard venue layout or a fixed wedding package. The entire experience can be built around the landscape, the guest list and the way you want people to feel throughout the weekend.
The result was highly considered, but never felt overworked. Sophisticated, but relaxed. Detailed, without losing sight of the landscape. And, ultimately, a wedding weekend that gave their guests a very good reason to travel all the way from San Francisco to the Lake District.
Planning your own Lake District marquee wedding?
A marquee wedding gives you the freedom to create something completely bespoke, but that freedom comes with a considerable amount of logistics behind the scenes.
From finding the right site and managing access, infrastructure and suppliers to creating a cohesive design and ensuring every element works seamlessly across the wedding weekend, the planning needs to be as considered as the finished result.
If you’re planning a luxury marquee wedding in the Lake District, or elsewhere in the UK, I would love to hear about it.
Arrange a Wedding Planning Consultation
I offer complimentary consultations to establish whether we’re the right fit and to understand what you’re looking to create.
Supplier Team:
Planning & Design: Jessica Sharpe Weddings
Photographer: Kamila Nowak
Florals: Swallows & Damsons
Venue: Irton House Farm
Marquee – Special Events
Hire Items: Beaties Events & Chateux Noir
Stationery: Lilac & White
Catering: Foray
Bar: Jonny Cocktail
