Village at Lyons

gafferino

Hi folks

Looking for anyone who got married there or went to a wedding there - giving it serious consideration and would love to hear some opinions??

Cheers

Penny Dreadful

gafferino wrote: »

Hi folks

Looking for anyone who got married there or went to a wedding there - giving it serious consideration and would love to hear some opinions??

Cheers

Was at a wedding there a while ago and will be attending another in December. The food was great as was the service, surroundings, etc. However, if you have a large group of people they will be split in two as one room cannot hold many people. The group will be split in two and be seated on two different levels. It can create a "them and us" atmosphere which you may not like OP.

gafferino

Thanks penny. We would just fill the lower half and invite more to the afters as we dont want that situation arrising.
The only thing im really worried about is people staying upstairs and not dancing? Did you experience that?
I suppose it depends on your crowd and how good the band is!

Penny Dreadful

gafferino wrote: »

Thanks penny. We would just fill the lower half and invite more to the afters as we dont want that situation arrising.
The only thing im really worried about is people staying upstairs and not dancing? Did you experience that?
I suppose it depends on your crowd and how good the band is!

Some people did stay upstairs but they were part of the older crowd and likely not to have danced overly much anyway. Also as they had been there for the meal they had settled into their seats and table and were reluctant to move away.
As it happens the band that played at that wedding were ok, not great, not bad but ok and that does make a difference. I was at another wedding in a different venue earlier that year and the room was an L shape and so the crowd was divided to an extent anyway. The band though were fantastic and from their first song to the last song played by the DJ the floor was full all night long.

kildarebride

Hi all,

Apologies for late comments on this thread but I'm a new Bride to Be and seriously considering Lyons estate for our venue, totally fell in love with it when we saw it.. the grounds, but not the main function room.
The concern is that we have 180 guests. They're saying they can accommodate them on the 2 levels.. 100 downstairs and 80 upstairs- has anyone been to a wedding in Lyons of a similar size and how did it go?
We're also concerned about the drinks reception room being a bit small too for 180 guests.. again, they say it's fine but Id be keen to hear others thoughts... we really love this venue and our hearts are saying choose it, but my head is concerned..

Any help/advice/experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Typer Monkey

I was at a wedding there on NYE last (it's where we got engaged actually so I do have a soft spot for it). We considered it for our wedding this October but ruled it out because of the split level function room. We would have had 30-40 people upstairs and wouldn't have liked them to feel '2nd tier' iykwim.

Also it splits the crowd for the party. Loads of people stayed upstairs beside the bar while the band were on. The bar also closed quite early and the party transferred to a house on the grounds where they had lots of drink and sandwiches laid on but it felt like a drunken house party and we left fairly quickly (and none of the family went at all).

On the upside the location is fab for a civil ceremony and the conservatory is really nice and airy for the drinks reception. The staff were really lovely and the manager gave us a bottle of bubbly for free when he heard we'd just gotten engaged.

Lots of positives but the split level function room ruled it out for us unfortunately.

lazygal

It would be seriously crammed with 180 guests. I was at a wedding of 80 last year and just the lower space was used. I don't see how another 100 would have fitted in. Also, the bar being on the upper level really affected the band and dancing. The older crowd settled themselves upstairs for the evening and as I was pregnant at the time traipsing up and down the stairs was a pain. The conservatory where the have the drinks isn't that big-and it would be crammed tight unless the weather was good for drinks.

I sound really negative but other things were the price of drinks at the bar-very expensive and I heard more than one other person mention this. And at breakfast the next morning the food ran out at about 11am and nothing extra was brought out, we were left fighting over the last few bread rolls and pastries. Not really good enough for such an expensive venue.

kildarebride

Thanks Typrmonkey and Lazygal,

These are all similar concerns to what we have.. but I still just love the venue so much that Im finding it hard to admit that we probably need to continue the search!

Speaking of that, we're keen to get married in Kildare (as I want to use my local church in Straffan) and have viewed a few venues but they feel a bit too hotel'y for us.. such as K Club, Carton, Killashee- all lovely venues but we're keen to have something much more private and low key.. would anyone have any other ideas of venues that I may be missing that are supposed to be nice?
I'd struggle with just a private house with Marquee as neither myself nor the fiancee are very creative so we'd struggle to decorate it properly.. any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

ilovespudss

kildarebride wrote: »

Thanks Typrmonkey and Lazygal,

These are all similar concerns to what we have.. but I still just love the venue so much that Im finding it hard to admit that we probably need to continue the search!

Speaking of that, we're keen to get married in Kildare (as I want to use my local church in Straffan) and have viewed a few venues but they feel a bit too hotel'y for us.. such as K Club, Carton, Killashee- all lovely venues but we're keen to have something much more private and low key.. would anyone have any other ideas of venues that I may be missing that are supposed to be nice?
I'd struggle with just a private house with Marquee as neither myself nor the fiancee are very creative so we'd struggle to decorate it properly.. any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

The Balyna House at Moyvalley Estate is very nice, but it's for a much smaller crowd than what you were saying earlier. Max numbers in the house is 100.

JP85

Anybody manage to negotiate a better room rate for guests? Currently €200 and people will be reluctant to spend that when you only spend such a short amount of time in the room.

Liam McPoyle

We went to view the place aswell and the split level put us off. The grounds etc are stunning but if you have more than 100 people having them separated would just not work we felt. Plus having the bar on the upstairs section I think would be an issue as people tend to congregate near it ime.

On the room rates the guys we spoke to said they couldn't do anything, basically the rates were the rates.

Shedite27

Was at a wedding in VAL.

There was no problems with the upstairs/downstairs dinner situation.

The dancefloor being so far from the bar is a problem though, the floor was a lot emptier than I'd usually see.

sweetie

Shedite27 wrote: »

Was at a wedding in VAL.

The dancefloor being so far from the bar is a problem though, the floor was a lot emptier than I'd usually see.

A common enough occurence at this venue I believe.

clint_silver

sweetie wrote: »

A common enough occurence at this venue I believe.

True. but staff will make you a nice cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit while youre waiting to get setup so I wont hear a word said about the place.