Oak frame wedding and event venues

Why build a venue structure in oak?

Because it will be in every photograph taken under it, so it has to be worth photographing, and it has to keep working through event after event.

Foxtail Oak designs and makes oak ceremony structures, marquee frames, entrance canopies and chapels for wedding and event venues, in our workshop near Abergavenny. We design and build within 90 minutes of Abergavenny and supply frames cut and numbered anywhere in the UK. Each one is quoted per job.

What can you build for a wedding or event venue?

Ceremony structures, marquee frames, entrance canopies, shelters for guests, balconies and chapels, each designed for one place and one kind of occasion.

• A ceremony structure A roof on an oak frame, open to the sides, for a wedding or a service outdoors. The gazebo at Duffryn Mawr is one.
• A marquee frame An oak frame that carries a marquee. It can be built to come down and go up again, or to stay where it is. The first we made was trial-fitted in a borrowed barn in July 2019 and raised that August.
• An entrance canopy At Sugarloaf Barn, an oak entrance on the front of a working barn, tall enough to keep loading through and detailed to photograph couples under.
• A shelter for guests At Duffryn Mawr, a covered oak lean-to in the stone courtyard off the kitchen, so guests can sit out and stay dry, under a glass roof.
• A balcony At Duffryn Mawr, an oak balcony on two posts against the stone house, with a glass balustrade.
• A chapel An enclosed oak building for small services. The chapel at St Teilo’s, Llantilio Pertholey, is also a memorial to the parish’s war dead, and its gable end is a tree cut in oak.

A ceremony structure, a marquee frame and a chapel share almost nothing beyond the oak they are cut from. So each one starts with the place and the occasion, not with a drawing we already have.

A new structure can be drawn to match what is already on the site. At Duffryn Mawr the balcony, the courtyard shelter and the ceremony gazebo all carry the same oak branch bracing, so they read as one set.

How much does a venue structure cost?

It is quoted per job, because each one is a one-off and an average across them would mislead you.

A ceremony structure open to the sky, a demountable marquee frame and an enclosed chapel are three different buildings with three different costs, and there are not enough of any one of them to draw an honest average from. We publish a rate for everything else we make. We do not publish one here, and that is deliberate.

Tell us what you are planning, where it is going and whether it needs to come down afterwards, and we will price it properly. There are three ways to buy: designed and built, supplied and installed, or supply only. More detail: Supply only, supply and install, or design and build: which is right for you?

Does a venue structure need planning permission and building regulations?

Assume it may need both until your site has been checked. Commercial use, the setting and whether the structure stays or comes down afterwards can all change the answer.

We will tell you what we know applies at the design visit. On a design-and-build job we prepare the planning application and the building regulations drawings with our architects.

Can you work around the events calendar?

We keep the time on site short by doing most of the work in our workshop. At Sugarloaf Barn the frame took two days on site.

Every frame is cut, assembled and pegged at our workshop near Abergavenny before it travels. Where a structure has to go up right first time, it is dry-fitted there first. The first marquee frame was trial-fitted in a borrowed barn in July 2019 and raised in August.

How long were we on site at other venues?

• Sugarloaf Barn entrance, frame only: two days, with the roof covering afterwards
• Duffryn Mawr courtyard shelter: under a week
• Duffryn Mawr ceremony gazebo, base included: a week or two

At Sugarloaf Barn the frame was set tall enough to drive through, so the opening stayed in use as the barn’s working entrance. How far ahead our workshop is booked changes month to month, so we tell you on the call.

From first call to raising

1. A design visit, or drawings and photographs if the place is further afield
2. The design agreed around the occasion, the setting and how the structure will be seen
3. Frame design, with engineering sign-off where the span calls for it
4. Machining and cutting: routine cuts machined at our sawmill from our own files, complex joints cut by our carpenters at our workshop, where every frame is assembled and pegged
5. Dry-fitting at the workshop, where the structure has to go up right first time
6. Raising on site

Which venue structures have we built?

A few of the structures we have built for venues and for a parish. Each one has its own page, with the photographs and the story of the job.

Oak wedding gazebo at Duffryn Mawr: Gilwern, Monmouthshire, 2022. Designed and built. One of the first structures added as the house became a wedding venue, with a salvaged window in the back wall. It has hosted a large number of ceremonies since.

Oak frame entrance at Sugarloaf Barn: Bettws, near Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, 2024. Supplied and installed. An oak entrance on a working agricultural barn at a wedding venue, tall enough to keep loading through and detailed to photograph couples under.

Oak smoking shelter at Duffryn Mawr: Gilwern, Monmouthshire, 2022. Designed and built. A covered oak lean-to in the stone courtyard, carrying the oak branch bracing from the balcony, and the first glass roof we built on an oak frame.

Oak frame chapel of rest at Llantilio Pertholey: Llantilio Pertholey, Monmouthshire, 2023. A 2.5 m × 5 m chapel at St Teilo’s for small services, and a memorial to the parish’s war dead. The gable end is a tree, cut in oak.

The first structure we built at Duffryn Mawr was the oak balcony. More of our work: see every project.

Is an oak structure right for your venue?

It suits you if

• The structure is part of the occasion: something people will stand under, photograph and come back to
• It will be used again and again, or it is meant to stay
• You want it to sit with oak or stone buildings already on the site

Something else may suit you better if

• You need cover for a single event. Hiring a marquee or a tent is the usual answer and costs far less
• You need a fixed price before anything is designed. These are priced per job, after the first conversation

What else do people ask?

Can it come down afterwards?

That depends on what you are building. A frame designed to be dismantled and raised again is a different structure from one bedded into the ground for good. Say which you want at the first conversation, because it changes the design.

Do you build venue structures in my area?

We design and build within 90 minutes of Abergavenny. We supply and install within two and a half hours of Abergavenny, and elsewhere in the UK case by case. We supply frames cut and numbered to anywhere in the UK.

What should you read next?

• Supply only, supply and install, or design and build: which is right for you?
• Is oak framing sustainable?