Mount Druid - is this the norm?

Shelli2

Hi All,



We've just started looking for a venue, and one place that caught our eye was Mount Druid.

I dowloaded a brochure from their site which had a variety of menus and costs of the accomodation on site etc.



We liked it and decided to ask for a viewing, they asked what dates we had in mind and sent us an email with further details on the venue etc.



This is where they disclosed that the rental of the venue (converted barn) was a further €4800 on top of the charge per guest!! :eek:

With menus starting at €50 per person for a BBQ option with not much else included, and a minimum guest number of 120 I find this extortionate.



Is this the norm with venues?

I'm not bothered looking if this is going to be the case!

kg703

If you are looking to rent out an entire venue privately as well as have it catered then of course.

Hotels will do you a PP deal.

That’s not even that bad, if you want a private venue to yourself you could be looking at triple that in some places. I rented out a place and think I visited every single one of them within 90 mins from Dublin so I can promise you, expect it unless you want a hotel.

Jem123

Shelli2 wrote: »

Hi All,



We've just started looking for a venue, and one place that caught our eye was Mount Druid.

I dowloaded a brochure from their site which had a variety of menus and costs of the accomodation on site etc.



We liked it and decided to ask for a viewing, they asked what dates we had in mind and sent us an email with further details on the venue etc.



This is where they disclosed that the rental of the venue (converted barn) was a further €4800 on top of the charge per guest!! :eek:

With menus starting at €50 per person for a BBQ option with not much else included, and a minimum guest number of 120 I find this extortionate.



Is this the norm with venues?

I'm not bothered looking if this is going to be the case!

Hi Shelli, I was at a wedding here and wouldn't rate it tbh. The staff were incredibly rude and anyone that stayed in the yurts was absolutely freezing. When the bride brought it up with Mount Druid she was very unhappy with their response.

LirW

There are indeed other venues that do charge a venue rental on top of their catering options. These would usually be venues where you rent the grounds exclusively.

If you want to avoid that you should probably stick with Hotels/venues that have a set all-inclusive packages.

Happy hunting!

convert

It's not very uncommon. That happened to us at Kilkea Castle, where nothing was mentioned about the venue hire fee when chatting by phone or email, but was mentioned when we met them. We wouldn't have gone down had we known as it put it way over budget, but gave us something to think about when talking to other venues.

It really comes down to you and whether you think it's worth it to have exclusivity of the venue for your big day, and if you really think the venue is perfect otherwise, and other costs come within budget.

emzippy

Just to chime in here as well, we were at a wedding here 2 years ago. I wouldn't rate it either.

These are just a few of the things I didn't like. The bbq meat was so dry I could barely swallow it. Didn't find the staff particularly nice. The wedding cake was left out overnight by staff so when we came to eat breakfast in the morning, in the same barn area, it was covered (and I mean covered) in flies! Disgusting. Also the yurts were cold and damp and way overpriced for what you got!

MaryWed

Has anyone here had their own wedding in Mount Druid?

We checked it out a couple of weeks back for a wedding in late 2020 or early 2021, really liked it, although I have heard the accommodation can be cold and damp. Their prices were quite high though, I understand you have the entire venue to yourself so the €4,000 for the venue was fine but canapés, 3 course meal and some late evening food was coming back at €78pp without any drinks. So basically it’s cominh back at over €100pp (including venue) and they wouldnt budge on the drinks. no arrival drink, no wine included at dinner and no drink for a toast. Also cannot bring your own wine. With their wine priced at €26-€30 per bottle it means if we include even a wine at dinner it’ll be about €1200 extra on top.

Did anyone else have this experience? We have priced 4 other places, 1 that’s similar and actually has a better rating and three other 5 star hotels which all come in considerably cheaper with at least 1/2 bottle of wine at dinner included. The problem is we’re from Offaly so the location really suits.

c6ysaphjvqw41k

I haven't heard good things about weddings here either. I think it is kind of common in venues like this though where you hire out the venue. We went for a hotel instead, but one where the wedding was held in a separate part of the hotel that was just for the wedding. We only saw wedding guests and not other hotel guests.

MaryWed

Giovanni Damp Knickers wrote: »

I haven't heard good things about weddings here either. I think it is kind of common in venues like this though where you hire out the venue. We went for a hotel instead, but one where the wedding was held in a separate part of the hotel that was just for the wedding. We only saw wedding guests and not other hotel guests.

Their venue does look amazing, and it’s 20 minutes from a lot of our guests. The problem we found wasn’t necessarily with the price but them not budging on any extras. It’s worrying that they’re not being in any way accommodating.

Thundercats Ho

We're getting married here in the summer.
It was the same for us. They wouldn't budge on the price, and we can't bring wine in ourselves.
We wanted to do homebrewed beer as a welcome to the lads, but no dice.

There's no power in the huts for phone charging, hair dryers etc.

The menu we're going for is €63 for the BBQ, canapes, dessert, and finger food at night.
The wine starts at €26, but when we went to the wine tasting night (30 couples there) they wouldn't even let us taste the house wine! It was from €28 to €35-40.

They're even charging €15 for breakfast / brunch the day after the wedding.

IMO the huts aren't suited to a winter wedding, as it was freezing when we arrived (last month), but in fairness the stove was lit when we were at the tasting and was lovely and warm when we got back.

It does all seem to be about money with them, and tbh i had been questioning my decision of booking here, due to the negatives i've listed above. However, when we went up, and had a wander around the site, and saw the tin chapel / boat house / barn again, i was convinved it was the place for us.

A hotel wedding wasn't for us, so we knew we were going to be paying a premium no matter where we went, and although it was more expensive than other boutique venues we saw, we were captivated by the place.

mooreman09

We were looking at this type of venue. Had gotten our head around the fee's. We were against a hotel wedding, however we ended up being blown away by a 5 star and getting treated so well when looking around. They wouldn't move on price but it was a fairer deal than other venues had and we're comfortable with what we should get from the venue.

Take a look and compare.