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How long to plan a wedding?
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29-10-2019 3:48pm#1Hi all,
I finally got engaged the other day
Ideally we'd like to get married next year, but I'm concerned that most places will be booked out already. We definitely want to get married on a Friday or Saturday so that it's not an inconvenience to our guests, but we wouldn't mind going a little off peak (maybe September or October, before it gets too dark/cold).
I'm wondering how realistic it will be to expect to find a decent venue for next year though? How much time is normally needed? We don't have our heart set on anywhere in particular yet, so plan to narrow it down and then enquire. But I'm worried about getting my hopes up. Not to mention availability of photographers, bands etc at "short" notice.
Also, we're thinking we'll probably have approximately 50-80 guests in total. Could that be an additional problem though? Even at a glance, there are a lot of places that seem to require numbers of 100 or more, especially on Fridays and Saturdays. We're not into the big hotel weddings, so looking at smaller hotels/venues in or near Dublin. I feel we're in a bit of an awkward bracket though in terms of our numbers. Too big for the very small venues and too small for the typical large venues!
Any advice appreciated
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We definitely don't want a church wedding, so it'll be a humanist or spiritualist or HSE (not planning to have it in the registry office though). Any idea if those book out well in advance?
A friend of mine that had 60 at her wedding got a restaurant to open up with an early bird menu for her reception. It normally opened at 7 so they got the place to themselves from about 3-6.30 then went across the road to a pub that had a dance area and had a DJ. It was honestly one of the nicest weddings I was at. The service from the restaurant was excellent as was the food. I suspect that it's the wrong part of the country for you though otherwise I'd recommend them.
Yeah that's a nice idea alright! I'm not aware of any restaurants in Dublin City Centre that aren't already open for business by around 5pm though. I might look into restaurants anyway though. I suppose I'm just reluctant to have 3 separate venues (ceremony, food, afters). And I'd say 80 would be our max, so might be an issue for typical "afters" venues for a Fri/Sat 0 -
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Hi all,
I finally got engaged the other day
Ideally we'd like to get married next year, but I'm concerned that most places will be booked out already. We definitely want to get married on a Friday or Saturday so that it's not an inconvenience to our guests, but we wouldn't mind going a little off peak (maybe September or October, before it gets too dark/cold).
I'm wondering how realistic it will be to expect to find a decent venue for next year though? How much time is normally needed? We don't have our heart set on anywhere in particular yet, so plan to narrow it down and then enquire. But I'm worried about getting my hopes up. Not to mention availability of photographers, bands etc at "short" notice.
Also, we're thinking we'll probably have approximately 50-80 guests in total. Could that be an additional problem though? Even at a glance, there are a lot of places that seem to require numbers of 100 or more, especially on Fridays and Saturdays. We're not into the big hotel weddings, so looking at smaller hotels/venues in or near Dublin. I feel we're in a bit of an awkward bracket though in terms of our numbers. Too big for the very small venues and too small for the typical large venues!
Any advice appreciated
You have loads of time, we got engaged and married in under 5months.0 -
The only thing that we found when booking our wedding was that the humanist solemnisers booked really fast. We actually contacted some over 18 months in advance that had zero Saturday availability in the next year, if that makes sense? I've also seen some photographers etc book out a year in advance, so if you're set on anyone in particular you might need to hope for the best.
Otherwise I'd say you can definitely find something to suit in that timeframe. I'd also look at Novemeber as an option, I know it gets dark fast but we basically had our 1st pick of everyone we wanted (photographer, videographer, cake, flowers, venue) on a Saturday with no problems at all, some at a reduced cost. If you go near the end of November like we did it's likely your venue will already have extra decorations in place for Christmas so one less thing to worry about. 0 -
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We definitely don't want a church wedding, so it'll be a humanist or spiritualist or HSE (not planning to have it in the registry office though). Any idea if those book out well in advance?
I believe that there is a bit of a shortage of humanist officiants for Saturdays, especially if you want to have the ceremony outside of the Dublin area - a lot of this is because the HSE weddings are limited to Monday-Friday.0 -
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Hi all,
I finally got engaged the other day
Ideally we'd like to get married next year, but I'm concerned that most places will be booked out already. We definitely want to get married on a Friday or Saturday so that it's not an inconvenience to our guests, but we wouldn't mind going a little off peak (maybe September or October, before it gets too dark/cold).
I'm wondering how realistic it will be to expect to find a decent venue for next year though? How much time is normally needed? We don't have our heart set on anywhere in particular yet, so plan to narrow it down and then enquire. But I'm worried about getting my hopes up. Not to mention availability of photographers, bands etc at "short" notice.
Also, we're thinking we'll probably have approximately 50-80 guests in total. Could that be an additional problem though? Even at a glance, there are a lot of places that seem to require numbers of 100 or more, especially on Fridays and Saturdays. We're not into the big hotel weddings, so looking at smaller hotels/venues in or near Dublin. I feel we're in a bit of an awkward bracket though in terms of our numbers. Too big for the very small venues and too small for the typical large venues!
Any advice appreciated
Congratulations to you both.
We got engaged in Dec 2017. Our first port of call was the celebrant as we knew who wanted. She had two dates in the October but one was DCM day so we went with the Friday option.
After that we viewed 3 venues as only saw places with availability. Paid deposit in February. We actually had two venues as had our ceremony in town.
Got my dress in March and the shop went bust so had to find another supplier. That arrived a few months later.
Got a photographer on a recommendation.
Took it handy for a few months with zero fuss.
We thought we knew what we wanted for the invites so worked with a graphic designer and it took 3 drafts.
Picked our cake on the Monday for the Friday.
Set up a joint email account, we found that very handy.
Write up a list of people you intend inviting.
Places say minimum numbers but don't let that put you off.
We paid to have the venue for the day. Met the requirement but know another couple that didn't and still went ahead.
Picked flowers maybe 3 weeks before.
Oh had make-up trial in the July. Didn't get hair trial and it fell out on the day and had to head back so wouldn't recommend.
All the very best, oh and start regularly saving as also depends on what you want to have and willing to spend.
Enjoy. People say it is all stress but it really isn't.
We both got personal bests in a half marathon two weeks beforehand. Keep your life as it is.
Oh, get your Wedding licence 3 months in advance of your intended date. You then have 6 months from that date. Definitely start with a celebrant.0 -
Thanks for all of the advice so far!
I think ideally we'll go with a humanist ceremony, having read more about the different options. I had a look on the humanist website and I see a fair few stating on their bios that they are already booked out for 2019 So I guess that could be a very limiting factor. HSE would probably be the next best thing for us, but do you actually get to pick the person doing the ceremony or do they just assign someone to you randomly?
I'm still not clear what approach we should take for booking everything. I had thought we could come up with a short list of venues and then start making enquires, particularly around availability. Then immediately contact some humanists to see if they have any overlapping availability with the venue(s). Or would we be doing things backwards?! I'm not sure what order things are normally done! I feel like we need to have all our ducks in a row to try and book everything symtaneously? Some of the humanist bios say to contact them with details of the date and venue, so I thought I'd have to sort those out first (but only provisionally book incase there's an issue).0 -
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Thanks for all of the advice so far!
I think ideally we'll go with a humanist ceremony, having read more about the different options. I had a look on the humanist website and I see a fair few stating on their bios that they are already booked out for 2019 So I guess that could be a very limiting factor. HSE would probably be the next best thing for us, but do you actually get to pick the person doing the ceremony or do they just assign someone to you randomly?
I'm still not clear what approach we should take for booking everything. I had thought we could come up with a short list of venues and then start making enquires, particularly around availability. Then immediately contact some humanists to see if they have any overlapping availability with the venue(s). Or would we be doing things backwards?! I'm not sure what order things are normally done! I feel like we need to have all our ducks in a row to try and book everything symtaneously? Some of the humanist bios say to contact them with details of the date and venue, so I thought I'd have to sort those out first (but only provisionally book incase there's an issue).
You would need to register your intent to marry and that needs to be done 3 months prior so 2019 is out of the question for you for a start - it's only under extreme circumstances can they do it for less than 3 months but you need to apply to the courts for that....0 -
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Thanks for that! If we go the humanist route then, I guess we just try to pick someone from the following link?
https://www.humanism.ie/category/celebrant/dublin/
(Maybe double checking against the HSE list of approved solemnisers!)
I'm not sure what the etiquette is though - would it be ok to email a few people to get an idea of availability, then check the availability of whatever venue we have in mind... and then go with the humanist who has overlapping availability with the venue? I'm just afraid that if we pick one person to go with from the offset, we might end up seriously limiting our venue options based on the dates one particular humanist is available (when there might be a few humanists we'd be happy with and would give us more flexibility for venue dates). 0 -
Thanks for that! If we go the humanist route then, I guess we just try to pick someone from the following link?
https://www.humanism.ie/category/celebrant/dublin/
(Maybe double checking against the HSE list of approved solemnisers!)
I'm not sure what the etiquette is though - would it be ok to email a few people to get an idea of availability, then check the availability of whatever venue we have in mind... and then go with the humanist who has overlapping availability with the venue? I'm just afraid that if we pick one person to go with from the offset, we might end up seriously limiting our venue options based on the dates one particular humanist is available (when there might be a few humanists we'd be happy with and would give us more flexibility for venue dates).
Have you been to one previously and liked the celebrant? If so start with them.0 -
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Thanks again for all the advice!
At the moment I'm having trouble narrowing down suitable venues. The guestlist is actually likely to be smaller than we initally thought, more like 40-60 depending on the dropout rate (which may be high, as there are fair few that would need to travel home from abroad). Ideally we'd like somewhere that can:
- Accommodate a small number of ~40-60 people on a Friday or Saturday
- Have a sit down meal and afters in the same place (we wouldn't have many/any more guests for the afters).
I really like the Anglers Rest, but they have a minimum of 70 at weekends (although we haven't ruled out paying extra for 70 people, even if we only have ~50 on the day).
I've been in touch with the Cliff Townhouse too and they would be perfect for our numbers. But they said we'd either need to finish up by 11.30pm, or if we want to stay late we'd need to book all 9 rooms. The vast majority of our guests probably wouldn't need/want accommodation or any who do could easily find something cheaper. So we could end up paying a lot of money for empty rooms or else we'd have to finish up "early" (which I haven't ruled out myself :P). I know they're a popular option though, so could have trouble with availability, particularly getting a date that a humanist is also free.
I've enquired about the Schoolhouse too - again, perfect for our numbers. But it sounds like we'd have to have an early dinner (done by 7pm) and my partner is concerned about the fact that we wouldn't have exclusive use of the bar afterwards.
I'm waiting for a response from Marco Pierre White restaurant in Donnybrook, as again, they're good for our numbers. But not sure if an afters is a runner there.
Any other ideas in Dublin? 0 -
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Thanks again for all the advice!
At the moment I'm having trouble narrowing down suitable venues. The guestlist is actually likely to be smaller than we initally thought, more like 40-60 depending on the dropout rate (which may be high, as there are fair few that would need to travel home from abroad). Ideally we'd like somewhere that can:
- Accommodate a small number of ~40-60 people on a Friday or Saturday
- Have a sit down meal and afters in the same place (we wouldn't have many/any more guests for the afters).
I really like the Anglers Rest, but they have a minimum of 70 at weekends (although we haven't ruled out paying extra for 70 people, even if we only have ~50 on the day).
I've been in touch with the Cliff Townhouse too and they would be perfect for our numbers. But they said we'd either need to finish up by 11.30pm, or if we want to stay late we'd need to book all 9 rooms. The vast majority of our guests probably wouldn't need/want accommodation or any who do could easily find something cheaper. So we could end up paying a lot of money for empty rooms or else we'd have to finish up "early" (which I haven't ruled out myself :P). I know they're a popular option though, so could have trouble with availability, particularly getting a date that a humanist is also free.
I've enquired about the Schoolhouse too - again, perfect for our numbers. But it sounds like we'd have to have an early dinner (done by 7pm) and my partner is concerned about the fact that we wouldn't have exclusive use of the bar afterwards.
I'm waiting for a response from Marco Pierre White restaurant in Donnybrook, as again, they're good for our numbers. But not sure if an afters is a runner there.
Any other ideas in Dublin?
Is it the Haddington in Dun Laoghaire? Try them? They wanted us to book rooms which didn't suit us.
MPW, amazing. Do it!
Friends recently got married and went to the Dean. It was excellent. Great food, staff and rooms. The dining room and bar I mean.
Suesey street is a super spot. The Hibernian club?0 -
Is it the Haddington in Dun Laoghaire? Try them? They wanted us to book rooms which didn't suit us.
MPW, amazing. Do it!
Friends recently got married and went to the Dean. It was excellent. Great food, staff and rooms. The dining room and bar I mean.
Suesey street is a super spot. The Hibernian club?
Thanks a mill!
I was in touch with the Haddington as it looks absolutely lovely. But for weddings they'll only offer exclusive hire and only on a Thursday (and costs 30K :eek:).
Fingers crossed Marco Pierre White might be a suitable option! If anyone has experience of weddings there (their own or as a guest) I'd love to hear about it.
I looked up the Dean, but have been having trouble getting first hand information of anyone who has had/attended a wedding there. So any more info on that would be great E.g. was the food good (good choice good quality?), venue nice (not too plain?), no randomers wandering in, service good etc.
No. 25 (is it actually the same place as Suesey street or beside/above it?) is on the list and think I'll give them a shout for more information.
We were seriously considering the Hibernian Club, but their history as a "gentlemens club", dress code stated on the website and pictures of all the stuffed animal heads on the walls have turned me off 0 -
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Thanks a mill!
I was in touch with the Haddington as it looks absolutely lovely. But for weddings they'll only offer exclusive hire and only on a Thursday (and costs 30K :eek:).
Fingers crossed Marco Pierre White might be a suitable option! If anyone has experience of weddings there (their own or as a guest) I'd love to hear about it.
I looked up the Dean, but have been having trouble getting first hand information of anyone who has had/attended a wedding there. So any more info on that would be great E.g. was the food good (good choice good quality?), venue nice (not too plain?), no randomers wandering in, service good etc.
No. 25 (is it actually the same place as Suesey street or beside/above it?) is on the list and think I'll give them a shout for more information.
We were seriously considering the Hibernian Club, but their history as a "gentlemens club", dress code stated on the website and pictures of all the stuffed animal heads on the walls have turned me off
Thats a shocking price from Haddington House, notions! I was at a wedding there before, they didnt have exclusivity and I don't think it mattered for what its worth, the reception area is nicely apart from the main area of the hotel.
AFAIK Sussey St is the restaurant attached to 25 Fitzwilliam.
Did you try the Dylan? I think it may have gotten confused with the Dean on this thread.0 -
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If you're happy to go outside the city centre Roundwood House in Laois is where we had our wedding and they'll happily take those kinds of numbers. It's fabulous! Probably an hour's drive outside the city I reckon. Let me know if you want any more info!
Thanks buffin! I had a look at it there and it looks lovely, just the kind of thing we'd be looking for really. It's a fair bit further out than what we had in mind is the only thing, but not a total deal breaker I don't think.
If you have any more information that'd be great. I'd be curious to know the costs in particular... whenever I see "exclusive hire" I always think it'll be prohibitively expensive Happy to chat by PM! 0 -
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I'll send you a PM!Thanks buffin! I had a look at it there and it looks lovely, just the kind of thing we'd be looking for really. It's a fair bit further out than what we had in mind is the only thing, but not a total deal breaker I don't think.
If you have any more information that'd be great. I'd be curious to know the costs in particular... whenever I see "exclusive hire" I always think it'll be prohibitively expensive Happy to chat by PM!0 -
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I'm back! So we've provisionally booked The Anglers Rest and even found a humanist who is free on the same date
My question atm though is about accommodation. The Anglers Rest doesn't have accommodation (which is fine), but we might like to go back to a nice hotel at the end of the night. Is this an issue though with me showing up at the end of the night at another venue in my wedding dress? I'm thinking if the place we're staying has another wedding on... especially if they have a one wedding per day policy.
Has anyone any experience of this? Is it better to flag this to the accommodation before booking to see if it's ok, or just show up at silly AM in my wedding dress and hope it won't be an issue? (better to ask forgiveness than ask permission etc) Not much they could do at that stage anyway! I obviously just don't want to end my wedding day on a sour note if the hotel makes an issue of it.0 -
I looked up the Dean, but have been having trouble getting first hand information of anyone who has had/attended a wedding there. So any more info on that would be great E.g. was the food good (good choice good quality?), venue nice (not too plain?), no randomers wandering in, service good etc.
i know you've provisionally booked already, but i was at one in the dean and had a great time. it was a large function room on the 1st floor. randomers didn't seem to be an issue. the food was fabulous - it was like finger food but like mini bowls of tasty curry or other really nice bites being brought out.
friend had a prosecco/champagne reception as well0 -
Thanks bluewolf, but we're 99% sure we're going to go to stick with the Anglers Rest We did look into the Dean a little more, but the fact that there's not a private bar was a deal breaker. I know it's very unlikely that there would be issues, but you can never be sure who might wander in on the night.
We visited Marco Pierre White in Donnybrook too and it was really nice. But we just feel that the Anglers Rest is a better fit for us overall. It has a nice country kind of feel, but still very close to the city centre for convenience. And Alison there was so nice when we met her and they sound very flexible!
I suppose now I'm just trying to imagine the finer details of how the day would go, including where we'd spend the night...0 -
Thanks bluewolf, but we're 99% sure we're going to go to stick with the Anglers Rest We did look into the Dean a little more, but the fact that there's not a private bar was a deal breaker. I know it's very unlikely that there would be issues, but you can never be sure who might wander in on the night.
We visited Marco Pierre White in Donnybrook too and it was really nice. But we just feel that the Anglers Rest is a better fit for us overall. It has a nice country kind of feel, but still very close to the city centre for convenience. And Alison there was so nice when we met her and they sound very flexible!
I suppose now I'm just trying to imagine the finer details of how the day would go, including where we'd spend the night...
Castle knock hotel is a good option. Friends of mine got married in the Anglers rest and the wedding party left and returned there.
Anglers rest is lovely, my only issue was that, as a veggie, my main was tiny compared to everyone else and I had to nip out for food. Apart from that it was great0 -
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