Starting to Plan for a Wedding

ronniel21 · 24-08-2015 4:54pm #1

Howdy,

Just got engaged to my girlfriend recently and we are hoping to get married next summer (2016). She would prefer it to be abroad but we haven't completely ruled out Ireland either. We are looking for it to be a bit different, not cost a bomb, somewhere nice obviously (We both love the sound of Italy!) and it will be a relatively small wedding too. Maybe 60-80 people.

Im sure there are plenty of posts already here with similar requests but I thought this would be the best way to get replies that suit us. Any recommendations on locations, tips in general, wedding planners, etc. would be very welcome.

Thank you

fits · 24-08-2015 5:00pm

whats your budget per head? What sort of a day do you want? Formal sit down meal? exclusive use? Fancy five star hotel? buffet or barbeque? If you get an idea of the feel of the place you want you can go from there. Onefabday is a great resource.

ronniel21 · 24-08-2015 5:34pm

Dont even know what our budget per head is. I suppose we would like to stay within the 10,000 to 12,000 for the wedding overall and in saying that I really dont know how realistic that is! We want an informal day, some location that is maybe a bit rustic. Definitely a place to have a bit of a party then at night. Def not a 5 star hotel. Outside preferably with nice grub probably with meals rather than open buffet (open for options/suggestions here too).
I will check out onefabday. Thanks for the quick reply!

DivineGranny · 24-08-2015 6:13pm

Check out Beaufield Mews in Stillorgan for something a bit different.
The have a beautiful Rose Garden for outdoor weddings, they offer alternative wedding meals like Pig on a Spit, Barbecue, Picnic as well as a traditional sit down dinner. They don't have accommodation on site though, but there are a couple of hotels nearby!

Faith · 24-08-2015 6:18pm

If you get married abroad, it's very unlikely that 60-80 people will attend. It's extremely expensive and generally inconvenient to travel to a wedding abroad, so expect your numbers to drop by about 50%, I'd guess.

ronniel21 · 24-08-2015 10:58pm

Thats great. I will check it out. Thanks for your help!

Shybride2016 · 25-08-2015 9:01am

Hi,

Congrats on your engagement and enjoy the planning.

We started planning in January and like yourselves wanted a small wedding, maybe Italy and similar budget. Once we sat down and worked out some of the financials, abroad was ruled out pretty much straight away as you'd have to visit the places you wanted to consider first so that's extra money on travelling around which would eat into your overall budget.

We're getting married in Ireland next year, pretty much have the day numbers capped at 60 and will be inviting more to the evening. The majority of our guests will have to travel over as groom isn't from here originally so we're not expecting that everyone will be able to come unfortunately :-(

One place that came to mind for you is Kippure in Co. Wicklow, check them out online. Their price per head is quite reasonable and it's a casual setting.

PolaroidPizza · 25-08-2015 9:07am

I got married abroad, we had 46 people at it...and I couldn't recommend it more. everyone was in a holiday mood. you end up cutting out all that wedding invitation drama associated with a wedding at home, and you get much more for your euro abroad.
add to that the guarantee of sunshine, the savings on a honeymoon (assuming you get married and honeymoon in the same spot), and the fact that the memories of your wedding wont merge into the memories of every other Irish wedding, I thoroughly recommend you going to Italy.

ronniel21 · 25-08-2015 9:47am

Thanks

Had a quick look online at Kippure and it def looks a bit different which i like. I am going to try options abroad first but might come back to the likes of this option if anroad doesnt work out.

Thanks again:)

ronniel21 · 25-08-2015 9:48am

Thats encouraging to hear,
Can i ask where you got married and if you would recommend it?
Thanks

fits · 25-08-2015 10:00am

You can also go away in Ireland. We went to Connemara, a place neither side had any connection with and it was lovely. we had that relaxing holiday mood thing going on.

meeeeh · 26-08-2015 8:38pm

Faith wrote: »

If you get married abroad, it's very unlikely that 60-80 people will attend. It's extremely expensive and generally inconvenient to travel to a wedding abroad, so expect your numbers to drop by about 50%, I'd guess.

Everyone says that but I've been to wedding in Ireland that costed more than some abroad. And it was low key but when you added up petrol cost, meals on the road, hotel and so on, the wedding in Florence was cheaper than a small affair in Kerry.

I think wedding abroad is perfectly fine if most of your guests don't have kids and if you do it outside June-Agust.

Faith · 27-08-2015 12:09am

meeeeh wrote: »

Everyone says that but I've been to wedding in Ireland that costed more than some abroad. And it was low key but when you added up petrol cost, meals on the road, hotel and so on, the wedding in Florence was cheaper than a small affair in Kerry.

I think wedding abroad is perfectly fine if most of your guests don't have kids and if you do it outside June-Agust.

Yeah, but you can travel on a Saturday morning to Kerry and home again on Sunday, but it's not that easy when you need to take flights. Time off work is an expense that needs factoring in too.

PolaroidPizza · 27-08-2015 11:07am

it your wedding, not your guests. do what suits you. if the travel doesn't suit others, they can always decline.

meeeeh · 27-08-2015 12:28pm

Faith wrote: »

Yeah, but you can travel on a Saturday morning to Kerry and home again on Sunday, but it's not that easy when you need to take flights. Time off work is an expense that needs factoring in too.

Yeah I guess. I would never travel far on the day of the wedding, so anything more than a hour away we would book hotel for at least two nights and a day or at least afternoon off work. And then they often have something planned after the wedding, so I stayed before three nights in Ireland and two days off. I realize it was completely our choice but I had to travel out of the country quite a few times for weddings and never found it overly inconvenient. It's different story if you have to travel with kids.

chanelfreak · 27-08-2015 12:49pm

Faith wrote: »

Yeah, but you can travel on a Saturday morning to Kerry and home again on Sunday, but it's not that easy when you need to take flights. Time off work is an expense that needs factoring in too.

That's not really an issue anymore with Ryanair though.

OP we had our wedding abroad in Spain, we invited 90 people and 85 turned up so dont think that nobody will turn up just because you are having the wedding abroad!

Friends of mine got married last year in Tuscany, they rented a kind of old farmhouse complex with a pool, so everyone stayed on site. Their wedding planner organised the catering (which was a buffet-style BBQ kind of thing, and was YUM, with plenty left over for the next day) and there was a big barn/outhouse that we all helped decorate with fairy lights and bunting and stuff the day before. They stuck a cheap oul kareoke machine in there and they had a playlist with good speakers and we had a ball! Danced and sang til the sun came up

Fiona44 · 27-08-2015 12:57pm

I had a wedding abroad with about 90 people and would highly recommend.
Was a nice laid back atmosphere because everyone was in holiday mode.
And you can't beat having a reception outside in the sun.

Most people we wanted there were happy to make the trip. We just made sure the location was close to an airport which had plenty of flights from Dublin. So it was as convenient as it could be for guests.

Also was probably easier to organize than an Irish wedding as we hired a wedding planner so she took care of alot of the organizing.
I didn't find it any cheaper than Ireland though.

Malari · 27-08-2015 12:59pm

chanelfreak wrote: »

That's not really an issue anymore with Ryanair though.

OP we had our wedding abroad in Spain, we invited 90 people and 85 turned up so dont think that nobody will turn up just because you are having the wedding abroad!

That's mainly if you can get to the airport easily. The last wedding we were invited to in Spain we would have had to fly out of Dublin very early in the morning, which would have meant driving from about 3am, and the same on the way home. It meant a lot of days off work, so we just didn't go.

chanelfreak · 27-08-2015 1:03pm

Malari wrote: »

That's mainly if you can get to the airport easily. The last wedding we were invited to in Spain we would have had to fly out of Dublin very early in the morning, which would have meant driving from about 3am, and the same on the way home. It meant a lot of days off work, so we just didn't go.

Yeah I see where you are coming from, but the same could be said if someone has a wedding midweek in Donegal/Kerry (if you live in the Dublin area). We were invited to a Wednesday wedding in Lough Eske years ago and we didnt go because like you said, the travel meant it involved too many days off work.

Jbubs · 27-08-2015 2:46pm

I was going to start a similar thread but I seen this one and it pretty much sums up our situation.

• Recently engaged
• Hoping to get married summer 2017
• Overall maximum budget of 20,000
• Approx 70 guests
• More informal than the standard wedding
• A Dublin or Wicklow venue (not necessarily a hotel)
• Possibly somewhere with some nice outside space for photos or to sit out for a bit if the weather was nice
• Doesn’t have to be a formal 4 course sit down meal – am open to alternative suggestions

I am flexible on all of the above points - these are just my initial thoughts.

fits · 27-08-2015 3:15pm

Well, I know people can complain about it but we went to the other side of the country for ours and I would do it again. And I would consider abroad too. Our guests were so relaxed. His family stayed in one hotel the night before and mine stayed in the venue so we really had time to sit down and chat and spend time together. There was no rushing around on the morning of the wedding. My nieces and nephews are at a great stage and really bonded and played and had a great time. It was just lovely. The following day sadly rained a lot but if it had been nice there would have been a great opportunity to explore the local attractions. We really considered our guests before we made the decision to go so far and in the end just invited family, aunts and uncles and close friends. It doesnt suit everyone and if your guests have a lot of weddings to go to, it might not be fair on them but this was an unusual occasion for our family and we made the most of it.

Malari · 27-08-2015 3:30pm

chanelfreak wrote: »

Yeah I see where you are coming from, but the same could be said if someone has a wedding midweek in Donegal/Kerry (if you live in the Dublin area). We were invited to a Wednesday wedding in Lough Eske years ago and we didnt go because like you said, the travel meant it involved too many days off work.

Yeah, but I would drive 4 or so hours within the country if I was at the destination then. Maybe 2 days off for a mid-week wedding. For us, we either would have had to stay in Dublin the night before for the early flight, or drive through the night to catch it, THEN travel to Spain. It is a bit more involved. Even if the wedding was a Saturday, that's an awful lot of travel in your two days off work.

It's not to say I wouldn't do it, but it would totally depend on who's wedding it was and how much it meant to me to be there.

ronniel21 · 13-09-2015 3:55pm

Thanks for all the replies. We are still very early in planning but we have no problem going away and that seems to be our plan to be honest. At the moment Malta and Portugal seem to be the favourite options. If anyone has any experience of either I would love to get some info...

Just from some early research. Portugal offers settings that we would be interested in...

MIN2511 · 13-09-2015 7:42pm

Jbubs wrote: »

I was going to start a similar thread but I seen this one and it pretty much sums up our situation.

• Recently engaged
• Hoping to get married summer 2017
• Overall maximum budget of 20,000
• Approx 70 guests
• More informal than the standard wedding
• A Dublin or Wicklow venue (not necessarily a hotel)
• Possibly somewhere with some nice outside space for photos or to sit out for a bit if the weather was nice
• Doesn’t have to be a formal 4 course sit down meal – am open to alternative suggestions

I am flexible on all of the above points - these are just my initial thoughts.

Would you consider the Dylan hotel? We've booked the Dylan for our wedding next year, the location is ideal, the area is quiet. There's the catholic church next door, registry is 7 10 minutes away and the Dylan also have a small room for a civil/humanist ceremony.

stickybookmark · 16-09-2015 1:37pm

Portugal - the Algarve -is fantastic. Been to a wedding there and it was brilliant. Ticks all the boxes. You would need to get a wedding planner on board and probably go over definitely once, maybe twice.

2013Lara · 16-09-2015 6:50pm

Jbubs wrote: »

I was going to start a similar thread but I seen this one and it pretty much sums up our situation.

• Recently engaged
• Hoping to get married summer 2017
• Overall maximum budget of 20,000
• Approx 70 guests
• More informal than the standard wedding
• A Dublin or Wicklow venue (not necessarily a hotel)
• Possibly somewhere with some nice outside space for photos or to sit out for a bit if the weather was nice
• Doesn’t have to be a formal 4 course sit down meal – am open to alternative suggestions

I am flexible on all of the above points - these are just my initial thoughts.

Beaufield mews? Village at Lyons?

Starting to Plan for a Wedding

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