Alternative wedding venues in Dublin City

dermy

Hi,

My girlfriend and I are planning to have a small civil wedding ceremony in Dublin City this year. We are then going to have our close friends and family to a nice restaurant for lunch. All in all, a pretty small affair.

However, later on we want to throw a huge wedding party for all our friends, extended family, work colleagues etc. etc. We'd also like to have one or possibly two bands to play live.

So what I need is venue suggestions in Dublin city that would take about 150 to 200 people and has a bar and a stage and a sound system, and possibly a dancefloor. A late license would be a bonus.

And we'd like to do all this without breaking the bank if possible!

Can anyone suggest somewhere that might suit us? Thank you!

sweetie

I've been to weddings in the Harbourmaster and Floradita bars over the last few months and both were very nice although I'm not sure whether they would hold the amount you require. If you need a dj for your event see my sig. Cheers.

ilovecheeses

What about the guiness storehouse?

Or you could also rent out Cruzzos in Malahide for those numbers, really beautiful spot

We looked into the harbour master for our wedding and thought it was a bit shabby - it obviously used to be nice at one stage but its a bit wrecked now, but sure check it out.

donaghs

You could try Blackhall Place where the Law Society are based. They hire out and probably tick all those boxes.

4eyes

Hi,
we viewed Tailors Hall in Christchurch and thought it was lovely. It was €800 for rent and has a bar. The bar would need to be stocked by you guys and they don't hold a lience so you would have to have a free bar or sell tokens for the bar. (it's easy enough to stock a bar as i've recently found out!) There is a lovely sized courtyard leading out from the bar too.

We were very close to booking it but the reasons we didn't is because we have 100 guest for SIT DOWN MEAL but found the rooms too small for that, however if your meal has already happened and you just want a party venue it would be worth your while taking a look. I think they rent it out for corpret events. I've heard alot of people using it for their wedding recently.

i really liked it, and you can do what you want with it, people in there seemed nice.

Thier number is 4541786. i can't remember the lady's name that we spoke to.

If you want anymore info let me know.

byrneorla

Hi,

I know it doesnt help but I too am looking for a party venue. We asre getting married in Vegas and looking to hold a party the weekend after. Please let me know if you have any luck with finding a venue and we will steal your ideas,

Good luck

Orla

smelltheglove

You could also try Fallon & Byrne just off Grafton Street. They have a function room upstairs you could book and a few different decor styles to choose from. Food is amazing.

sweetie

Fallon and Byrne's function room is nice. I've played a few wedding parties there.

Mar1

This probably a long shot .
How did you get on with your plans did you decide on your venue.
i liked some of your ideas and looking for something different in a venue and nothing too expensive.

looking forward to hear how you got on .

barbiegirl

I think there's a really nice large room in the Mansion house behind that could be fantastic.

DubDubStep

Hi, i've registered here becouse i want to ask about venue.

I've just got engaged last week And i would like to warm up this thread.

I have almost the same question as dermy, so it's not worth making new thread.
My problem is that i live in Dublin for only half a year, and i don't know city that well.

Me and my fiance are planning to organize wedding in Sep 2011, our parents are paying for everything, but we have to organise the wedding. We are looking for a sophisticated venue in Dublin.

I found here a lot of nice Dublin venues but i think that it will be more effective if i ask you for opinions, then if i go everywhere.
Can you tell me something about service and food over there?
I'll be thankful for every post.

dermy

DubDubStep,

Congrats on your engagement first of all. And apologies for the long post but here goes:

I don't know how much help I'll be but I'll share with you what we did anyway and you can decide for yourself if you like the idea.

Let me first just say that our priority was to keep the cost down. Unlike you, we were paying for everything ourselves and we chose to spend the lion's share on our honeymoon

So what we did was we had a small ceremony and lunch for about 60 close friends and family in the Merrion Hotel in Dublin. It was excellent 5 star service as you'd expect from the Merrion. The room for the civil service was beautiful and the food was exquisite (still the best meal I've ever had). We went for a lunch (as opposed to a Dinner, cheaper but just as substantial) and then the whole party moved to the party venue for around 7pm. One or two did a bit of a pub crawl on the way and the whole affair was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

The Party venue was upstairs at the Odeon (beside Harcourt St. luas). I'll admit the venue was not exactly modern or amazing or anything, but it suited our needs perfectly. We put about 170+ people in and had free wine plus a full bar and 2 live bands followed by my own music on ipod for the late night dancing part.

We also looked at several hotels for the party including the Clarence, the Hilton and others but nearly all these rooms were ugly part conference centre style rooms and had portable bars with only a couple of taps. Or else they had a crap license and had to stop early etc. Fallon & Byrne was almost an option for us, the room was quite nice etc. but the bar options were weak. Basically you had to pick a temporary tap or two and then buy kegs. Tough on you if there is not enough, or too much. So we went with the Odeon and we decorated the room ourselves to improve it. In the end I wouldn't change a thing, the Odeon was perfect for what we wanted, and the staff were really helpful and nice.

Now I dont remember all the details but the ballpark figure was as follows:
We spent about 12k in total on the Wedding day. That included the ceremony, the room, the lunch & wine, the bridal suite (excellent btw), the bridal breakfast and complimentary champagne, the Odeon, the bar tab, one live band (Moog69's- highly recommended!!!, the other band were friends of mine and did it gratis) and I think that's about it.

Keep in mind that we saved cash by not bothering with a video, a photographer (my bro did it for us and he's capable), a cake (who eats those anyway), invites (we emailed a tasteful PDF believe it or not and it made counting replies soooo easy). I'm sure there were other ways in which we saved money but I can't remember now what they were. My wife and I are not traditionalists and were happy to dispense with most of the usual crap you expect at weddings. This probably saved us somewhere between 2 to 5k.

Can't really remember any more details but it meant that we could devote over 20k to the honeymoon and we managed to spend nearly 5 weeks touring Africa and even got a 5 star week in the Seychelles at the end

And I still get people coming up to tell me that it was the best wedding they'd been at ever.

That's it, let me know if you have any more questions or specifics and I can ask the missus- she organised most of the big day while I did the Honeymoon.

Just another little update- 2 years on, we're still together and now we have a baby girl

good luck DubDubStep.

DubDubStep

Thank for very much for ideas
I wrote that parents are paying but i'm not going to crash their finances:)

I want to find nice venue, and you gave me some ideas and thank you for that. I'm a IT guy, so i like your advice about invites. I think i can do the same ;] I'm quite good with ps and corel i will do something on my own ;] Photographer will be also my friend i think
Anyway, thank you very much and congrats on your baby girl

pixies7

Wondering if I could revive this thread(again!) been trawling through the web for a Dublin venue for about 80-100 guests, something a little bit different, and hopefully a bit cheaper, than the traditional hotel sit down 3 course. Don't mind if it's basically an empty room with a bar, just a nice one! Anyway this is the only place I have found any decent ideas for this, and just wondering if anybody would have any more?? Don't mind going a bit out of Dublin but don't want to make people travel too far as I don't think it's fair to people's bank accounts at the moment! Any help welcome!!:)

Borderfox

pixies7 wrote: »

Wondering if I could revive this thread(again!) been trawling through the web for a Dublin venue for about 80-100 guests, something a little bit different, and hopefully a bit cheaper, than the traditional hotel sit down 3 course. Don't mind if it's basically an empty room with a bar, just a nice one! Anyway this is the only place I have found any decent ideas for this, and just wondering if anybody would have any more?? Don't mind going a bit out of Dublin but don't want to make people travel too far as I don't think it's fair to people's bank accounts at the moment! Any help welcome!!:)

I was working at a wedding that started at City Hall for the ceremony and went on to this restaurant in Fade Street http://www.lgueuleton.com/ really nice and sat about 100 people. Food was fantastic

John Mason

we are getting married in the Anglers Rest, having dinner for 40 and 100-200for the party afterwards.

it was important to us that we have everything in the same place, they were really helpful - we told them our budget and arrange everything for us within the budget.

we also didnt want the usual hotel yawn fest.

i think they can seat 120 for dinner if

Dublin Mark

How about the Old School House in Ballsbridge? A friend went to a wedding there and said it was great

angeb

Hi Irishbird,
Wow that venue is amazing, I'm actually going to go see it this weekend on your advice:)
Not getting married until summer 13, but I'm so excited about venues!
Just one question, is there a late bar option? Most important!!
Cheers!

sweetie

Anglers rest bar is open till at least 1.30 music over at 2, dont think theres any later as its not a hotel.

John Mason

angeb wrote: »

Hi Irishbird,
Wow that venue is amazing, I'm actually going to go see it this weekend on your advice:)
Not getting married until summer 13, but I'm so excited about venues!
Just one question, is there a late bar option? Most important!!
Cheers!

we paid for a bar extension until 2.30pm - it was an additional 800e. most people have arranged to stay in the same hotel, so we will get a residence bar there

Lorilee

Hi there Hoping to reignite this thread. Just got engaged and I am looking for wedding venues that are a bit different around Dublin. I am going to drop over to the angler's rest to take a look as the website looks lovely. Has anyone been to a wedding there and what was it like? Has anyone else got any interesting places to suggest as a reception venue with a difference?

John Mason

In relation to the late bar, they didnt throw us out until 4am.

we had a sing song with instruments, and everyone was ready to go at by 4am