Civil Ceremony

Skipper12

Complete newbie to all of this but hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

We are recently engaged and are now looking at booking the venue. We have narrowed it down but now we are looking for something that may be considered a bit unusual. We would like to have the civil ceremony element away from the hotel but can not find out the best way to do this. I tried searching through internet and wedding forums but can not find anything. Basically we would love to have the ceremony in a country manor type house setting or similar. The reason we are looking for something like this is
1. We don't like the idea of the whole day being spent in the hotel. (Regardless of different rooms)
2. Our guests would not be in the hotel from too early if we have the ceremony off site. (they would most likely be at the bar in the hotel from the off)
3. It would break the day up nicely as more of an event with travel etc.

We looked at Moyvalley and Ballyna house and the grounds are fantastic but the actual function room was less impressive.

Probably a ridiculous request but are there any venues that can be booked for a couple of hours for the actual official wedding ceremony and a small reception?

We are in Clonsilla but our hotel venues that we have narrowed it down to are in Meath and Kildare.

Any suggestions appreciated. (even if that advice is to forget about what we are thinking:D )

MarieOC

Have a look at Castletown house, it's an OPW site so you can have the ceremony there but not the reception. It's beautiful. I love it there. It's where I would have had my ceremony if I'd not eloped.

There are a good few other OPW sites that allow you to have the ceremony there.

Edit; found a link to where I read an article on it
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/national-heritage-sites-opened-for-weddings-1.1733862

Milly33

Have a look around the areas that you picked... I cant say I know either of those places but really nowadays you can have your ceremony anywhere you like.. a good friend got married in an old priory and it was loverly.. It was OPW owned so they had to ask but it was fine... Just sit down and think what would ye like..

make sure also to think of guest I know the day is all about ye but lets say if there are older people make sure the site is easy for them to get to eg there is no climbing over walls or anything... And chairs if you need them ask a few friends to bring some and also be prepared for the weather

lazygal

As a guest and as someone who had a day in one venue I wouldn't rule out having the whole day in one place. I'm not a massive fan of breaking up the day and it feels less of an event to me to do so. We had a 3pm ceremony and I'm sure some had drinks in the venue bar before our ceremony but they're adults, we didn't think the worst of them. I love all in one weddings, much more enjoyable than having to haul ass between two different places just for the sake of it.

pooch90

Completely agree with above post.

Splitting the event makes sense when it's a church/hotel set up. Not otherwise IMO.
I would much prefer to get to the venue, have a drink and a mingle while waiting for ceremony and not have to face back into another drive.
You can't try to mollycoddle your guests drinking OP.

I'm biased though as we had our ceremony onsite at The Station House in Meath (51 weeks ago!)
As with Lazygal, we had a later ceremony than our church equivalents, which gave us more time to get ready in the morning and gave guests who had to travel a more relaxed morning.

Skipper12

Thanks for the feedback folks

Turns out that there are some beautiful OPW sites open and available for such civil ceremonies but unfortunately they would not accomodate the numbers that we expect to have.

On the positive side the venue showed us pictures of where the civil ceremony would take place and it looked fantastic. (All dressed up for an actual ceremony)

Once again thanks and I am sure I will be looking for more advice from you all.