Organising the venue for civil ceremony certification....

Unwilling

Hi

We have checked out a few hotels, but none of them are ticking all the boxes.
One is picture perfect, at the high end of our budget, but the distance from Dublin/City Centre means most of the people wouldn't turn up for the afters...
I know... if they don't it's their loss, but at the same time, I would at least like to meet them half way.

We have found a small venue, near to the city centre, caters for all our requirements EXCEPT that they are not approved to do civil cermonies.
I did read on the boards somewhere of someone making the arrangments for their venue to get approval and negotiating it off the price, but I can not re-find this ... so if it is you.. please help.

In the mean time, if anyone knows HOW to get a venue approved.. PLEASE LET ME KNOW>

It's the only hindrance with this venue....

Thank you ALL;)

ROCKMAN

Found this on a website hope it helps.

How to get a venue approved for a civil ceremony in Ireland

If you wish to have a civil ceremony at a venue other than a Registry Office, you must contact the Registration Office in the area where the venue is located and apply to have the venue approved for the solemnisation of your civil marriage. This may involve the Registrar making an inspection of the venue. In order that the venue can be inspected in good time for your intended marriage, it is recommended that you make these arrangements well in advance of your notification appointment with the Registrar.

There are a number of conditions each venue must meet in order to be approved as a location for a civil marriage:

The room in which it is proposed to hold the ceremony must be large enough to comfortably accomodate all of the guests while seated.
The building in which the ceremony is taking place must meet the fire code and all relevant health and safety legislation.
The venue must have adequate public liability insurance cover, (If you are using a hotel, you won’t have to worry about this as they should have it in place, however if you are using a period home or similar do make sure and ask!)
The venue must be accessible to people with disabilities.
The venue must have no recent or continuing connection with any religion or religious practices (What this means in reality is no part of the venue should be used for religious purposes)
The ceremony must take place within the venue and cannot take place in the open air or in a marquee on its grounds.

The process itself is a fairly simple one and most hotels will assist you in getting the required approval, make sure and ask if they have had any civil ceremonies held in the hotel before, if they had it will be much easier to get the location approved for your ceremony.


Ps ..If you and your partner are the first to get a venue its certification you should try and get some sort of discount ,as you are helping this venue with future events and maybe extra trade.



..........

tatli_lokma

Unwilling wrote: »

Hi
I did read on the boards somewhere of someone making the arrangments for their venue to get approval and negotiating it off the price, but I can not re-find this ... so if it is you.. please help.

In the mean time, if anyone knows HOW to get a venue approved.. PLEASE LET ME KNOW>

Hiya,
think it might have been me you mention! We had our wedding in a castle in north County Dublin. We were the first to arrange it - in fact the first to even approach the venue and suggest it! They had never even considered it and thought it might be quite difficult! Its not! I already had the paperwork for a civil venue, so simply made sure that the minimum requirements were met, got the caretaker to sign the forms and sent them off. About a week later they sent out a registrar to view the venue, and they approved several rooms there and then. Now, eventhough they have 'pre-approval' each ceremony must be applied for independently (to ensure no one goes changing anything!) but once the first one is done, provided other couples don't go changing how the set up will be, it is VERY straight forward for others to get approval.

We arranged for the local paper to call out, got some publicity etc. All these things meant we could negotiate a bit with the venue - having said that, even had it been full price it still would have worked out A LOT cheaper than the local church!

Once the venue meets the requirements, it really is VERY straight forward. And if you choose somewhere already open to the public, then this makes it even easier, as automatically a lot of the requirements will be met (such as wheelchair accessible, open to the public etc etc).

If you want more details PM me - happy to help.