The only place YOU'LL find EVERY wedding venue

Well you got this far - you chose the partner, you got the ring - now you just need a venue and you're well on the way to your new career as a high class wedding planner :-). So you dig out grandads old computer from the shed, click yourself into "the Google" and type in those magical words - wedding venues ... and like every other bride/groom-to-be in the country, your eyes glaze over as you trawl through endless advertising pages entitled "top 20 wedding venues", "best wedding venues", "34 amazing wedding venues" - don't you wish someone would just make a list of them all so you could just get on with it! Well you just found it, you've arrived, now put the kettle on and prepare to dive into the "amazing super fabulous best top venues in the universe" (too much?).

 

ALL of them!

Every couple is different, so while there are hundreds of beautiful classic hotel type venues in this list, we've also gone to great lengths to find all the unusual or quirky wedding venues in Ireland as well - along with what are considered Ireland's destination wedding specialities - castles, country houses and manors. Basically it's all here, whether you want to get married in a castle, brewery, boat, stadium, a theatre or even a zoo!

 

IT'S ABOUT YOU AND YOUR GUESTS

While the romance and ambiance are important, you still have to remember you're looking for a wedding venue that has to accommodate all your invited family and friends - of all ages. So at this point you should consider accessible bathrooms for the older guests, or suitability for kids (and their designated sober and hyper-caffeinated parent). Knowing these things from the start makes the decisions you have to make later a lot easier... and even if you're planning to arrive in a fleet of pink helicopters or on a pink unicorn, then a helipad (or accessible drinking trough) is something you'll have to think about at this stage too.

There's a reason Irish hospitality has achieved legendary status on the world tourism stage. You take a country with a beautiful and varied landscape: dotted with castles, ancient forests, stunning beaches and historic towns & cities; add to it "a thousand welcomes" from the friendliest people in the world (and take away all the snakes and scary spiders); and you're not in a place anymore - you're in "an experience".  On a rare occasion we do get a small drop of rain, but it keeps the dust down and is easily dried off in front of one of the many warm turf fires we've got setup around the place. Getting back to weddings, and aside from the undeniably romantic setting we've perfected here, our arts and musical talent is bewilderingly strong for such a small country -  so our wedding photographers are renowned and travel worldwide, our musicians and wedding bands could be playing in front of royalty last week and putting just as much effort and energy into entertaining you and your guests the next week - not to mention the superb selection of wedding dress designers, milliners and other vendors who go into making Irish weddings the best in the world!

1 . DISCUSS THE type of wedding venue do you both actually want?

I know this is an obvious one, but if you haven't had the discussion between you about what you had in mind in a venue (or don't mind), expectations of a wedding budget, or how long you're prepared to wait (if you're opening a regular wedding savings account etc) then you probably should make time for that before you start. This is the first of many wedding planning discussions you'll have, so set a 'chocolates & wine' precedence and the whole wedding thing will be a breeze!

2. 'GUESTIMATE' your guest NUMBERS - Wedding size vs venue capacity?

So now you have a reasonable idea of what you want, let's make a ballpark number of guests - how big do you think it can get (now is the only time in your marriage where size matters ..em)?

It's generally thought that the larger hotel type venues will hold a bigger crowd, but there are quite a number of manor house and castle wedding venues in Ireland which will do the job equally as well. One caveat however, if you're hosting a larger crowd it's good to ask the venue about guest accommodation, whether it's onsite or they have a list of local guesthouses and hotels that are suitable for your guests, and ultimately if that's going to suit your guests (granny in a wheelchair, new mother-in-law in a neck brace, uncle Gerry's kids who wouldn't walk the length of themselves etc..).

3. CONSIDER IF the venue really haS to be local?

Many of our venues are also registered as civil ceremony venues - which basically means that you have the option to host both the ceremony and the wedding reception in the same place. Which begs the question - do you really need to have the wedding in Cork if his crowd is travelling all the way from Hackballs Cross (Co Louth)? Would one of the many venues in the middle be a better option?

4. KEEP AN OPEN MIND ON THE TYPE OF VENUE

Now you have an idea of guest numbers and a fairly good idea of where the venue could be, you're into the fun part - checking out your options. Keep an open mind for this part! You might be dead against having it in a hotel, or maybe you don't think you could possibly manage to plan the entire wedding yourselves if you rented out a place - but there are some hotels that are really unique and worth a visit; and renting a venue and hiring a wedding planner isn't as expensive as you might think.  Think about the other weddings you've been to: which ones stood out, what were the best (and worst) things about those weddings, and were those elements specifically to do with the type of venue or were they extra touches the couple added themselves?

 

5. Shortlist your wedding venues.

By this stage you've both probably got a few venues in mind, and it's time to break out the wine and chocolates again (dammit, not again!). This is where our little Wedding Pages enquiry forms come in very handy. So without having to construct a 2,000 word Shakespearean email outlining your many likes, concerns and seasonal menu preferences; and without having to unleash your posh phone voice (we both know you have one); it's a simple matter of filling in the quick form with a few details, and your enquiry goes directly to the wedding coordinator at that venue. They'll get back to you with prices and availability, along with any other information specific to weddings at their venue - which of course is their area of expertise.

6. TRY TO MAKE YOUR wedding date flexible?

You may have fallen in love with a particular venue, but it's not available on the August bank holiday weekend (the most popular date in the year for weddings). Consider stretching out your plans by a month or 2 (..or more), and you could still get your dream venue, with a better rate, perhaps a better candlelit experience, more time to save, a better price on your honeymoon (with more availability for annual leave days for you and your guests), plus more time to work off all the essential wine and chocolates you've been having during the intense wedding planning discussions. Oh, and if it helps, here's some handy monthly Irish weather charts from Met Eireann.