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I would recommend you buy one tent to start off with. Once you've lived with it for a while you'd have more idea what you want in the second tent.

I think those big tents are probably too much faffing about for one nighters. A good 'weekend' tent would be the Vango Icarus 500 which is a ten minute pitch time.

But the Icarus is polyester, and if you like the heavier weight there's a polycotton coleman smaller tent (McKenzie cabin I think it's called) and also some smaller Outwells (like the Trout Lake).

We always allow an hour to fully pitch and peg out the Bear Lake, including footprint... Then three hours to fill it with all the junk we take

We've bought a weekender to quicken pitching/striking during shorter stays and save the "Big Tent" for longer holidays...

Agree with frome... Buy the one tent... See how you get on... You may pitch it quicker than us - we don't rush and have a 5 year old to entertain whilst pitching so our timings are probably at the longer side than normal...

Have to say though, when in the weekender, I don't have miss the comfort of the BL...

I'd allow 40mins to an hour for the Bearlake with two people pitching, thats all pegged out with groundsheet zipped in.

Well worth it IMO, brilliant tent!

 I'd go with frome, unless your dad is Bill Gates then buy one decent tent, and after a couple of trips you will soon get to know what elase you would like from the next one, Ie more bedrooms, more shared space more windows etc.

Also before going on to something the size of a small chateau, find something comfortable thats quick (and easy to put up) and just go with the flow.

My suggestion would be an Icarus 600 or if you want something a little larger a Maritsa 700, they are both really good family size tents with all of the quality and features we have come to expect from Vango. 

We bought the Norfolk Lake (now discontinued) to cater for a full week or 2 away.....and after a couple of times taking it on a weekender, we decided to go for a smaller one too.

We ended up with a lovely little canvas frame tent from ebay for basically sleeping and storing bags (not a lot of room for anything else) and a basic tunnel tent canopy that fits on the front to set up the kitchen (or take a utility tent if we have the space)

The whole idea of getting away for the weekend is to go, quick pitch and beer, get rid of the kids to the play areas....and relax!