Dublin City Restaurant Venue

ShortAPennt

Hi All,

We are looking at doing a cermony followed by a restaurant for our wedding in June 2021. I am just wondering what are people's oponions / experinces in relation to finishing times.

We have been told that our venue will finish by 1.30am and we will need to out of the premisis for 2am.

Where do people usually go after this?
Do people book another venue?

I know alot of our party will want to drink on until 4am type of thing. And to be honest i myself love the wee hours sing song part of a wedding. Does anyone have any suggestions for what to do at 2am?

Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

woodchuck

Personally I think 2am is plenty late! But if you want to keep things going, you could consider booking accommodation that has a late night residents bar?

SozBbz

Agree, 2am is plenty late.

*unless you're all mad bastards in your mid 20's and you're the first of the "gang" to get married.

Id say if there are some who want to go on afterwards, it will be a small cohort and they'll probably figure it out themselves.

Also, most places probably won't want to take a booking starting at 2am so not really sure what your options would be, other than telling people to stay in the same hotel and use the residents bar. But equally, surely the point of having a city center wedding is that people can sleep in their own beds.

baby and crumble

I agree, we thought that loads of folks would be up for it at ours but by 1.30 most folks were well done, only a handful wanted to keep going and AFAIK they headed to the Liqour Rooms on the Quays. Especially if it's a city centre wedding and most folks live in and around Dublin. I think most folks liked being able to get home, once the draw of only stumbling upstairs after a late one and getting a cooked breakfast handed to you the next day wasn't on (since nobody was really staying in the hotel) that was it.

qwerty13

baby and crumble wrote: »

I agree, we thought that loads of folks would be up for it at ours but by 1.30 most folks were well done, only a handful wanted to keep going and AFAIK they headed to the Liqour Rooms on the Quays. Especially if it's a city centre wedding and most folks live in and around Dublin. I think most folks liked being able to get home, once the draw of only stumbling upstairs after a late one and getting a cooked breakfast handed to you the next day wasn't on (since nobody was really staying in the hotel) that was it.

My experience differs completely! I was at a couple of dublin weddings, and 2 of them shut down by 1/130 and it put a complete dampener on things for a lot of guests! Things went from party to poop very quickly, and it was hard to organise people to go to the same venue by then, and it all just fell very very flat. The night ended on a pretty nothingy note tbh.

Now these were weddings outside Dublin City centre. Not far - but far enough that a place to go / taxis would have to be sorted before leaving the venue. Maybe it would work out better with a venue bang in town. And an early start time would also probably mean that people would be more inclined to go home early.

SozBbz

the only place I can think of would be somewhere like maybe the Black Door on Harcourt Street - no harm in contacting them to see if they'd reserve an area (who knows?!) or if not, maybe put your guests on a list?

The only places I can think of in town that open extremely late are a bit grotty and certainly wouldnt be quiet enough for a wedding party to all sit together and have a singsong.

ShortAPennt

baby and crumble wrote: »

I agree, we thought that loads of folks would be up for it at ours but by 1.30 most folks were well done, only a handful wanted to keep going and AFAIK they headed to the Liqour Rooms on the Quays. Especially if it's a city centre wedding and most folks live in and around Dublin. I think most folks liked being able to get home, once the draw of only stumbling upstairs after a late one and getting a cooked breakfast handed to you the next day wasn't on (since nobody was really staying in the hotel) that was it.

Thanks for sharing your own expiernece. I have never been to a Dublin wedding, even though doing it for our own so i wasn't really sure how they all played out.
I know for me i would much rather be heading home to my own bed and love the convience of it all being on my doorstep. But i know people equally love heading down to the venue for a night away and making a real session of it.

We have around 20 - 30 people that will be coming in from abroad so they will more than likely get a hotel room somewhere in dublin. Maybe i could organise a rate for all of us with one hotel in town as suggested above and this would sort some of this issue.

Thanks again for coming back to me.

ShortAPennt

SozBbz wrote: »

the only place I can think of would be somewhere like maybe the Black Door on Harcourt Street - no harm in contacting them to see if they'd reserve an area (who knows?!) or if not, maybe put your guests on a list?

The only places I can think of in town that open extremely late are a bit grotty and certainly wouldnt be quiet enough for a wedding party to all sit together and have a singsong.

Great idea! Thanks for the suggestion! Perfect for all that want to drink on...... i'm just not sure how i would feel myself going in there in the white frock

ShortAPennt

qwerty13 wrote: »

My experience differs completely! I was at a couple of dublin weddings, and 2 of them shut down by 1/130 and it put a complete dampener on things for a lot of guests! Things went from party to poop very quickly, and it was hard to organise people to go to the same venue by then, and it all just fell very very flat. The night ended on a pretty nothingy note tbh.

Now these were weddings outside Dublin City centre. Not far - but far enough that a place to go / taxis would have to be sorted before leaving the venue. Maybe it would work out better with a venue bang in town. And an early start time would also probably mean that people would be more inclined to go home early.

Thank you so much for sharing your expiernce, you see i think this is what i had imagined..... everyone standing outside the venue looking at me to see what is next.....

Even though we are all in our 30's i think there is a 20s streak in a large number of us that will want to keep the party going....

Maybe organising a hotel for the majority to stay would be an easy way out...

Great tip with the early start! That is defintly a winner!

Thanks again.

SozBbz

ShortAPennt wrote: »

Great idea! Thanks for the suggestion! Perfect for all that want to drink on...... i'm just not sure how i would feel myself going in there in the white frock

Totally agree - it wouldnt be for me, but perhaps you could buy a white party dress if you wanted to carry on? Something fun but not as expensive or fussy as a full wedding dress?

Obviously I don't know your style but something like this?
https://www.asos.com/yas-tall/yas-tall-wedding-midi-dress-in-white-lace/prd/14504553?clr=&colourWayId=16621331&SearchQuery=&cid=8799
or
https://www.asos.com/lipsy/lipsy-wrap-front-lace-midi-dress-in-white/prd/12957361?clr=&colourWayId=16463109&SearchQuery=&cid=8857

Equally you'd be well within your rights to just want to head to your Honeymoon Suite with your new husband!

qwerty13

ShortAPennt wrote: »

Thank you so much for sharing your expiernce, you see i think this is what i had imagined..... everyone standing outside the venue looking at me to see what is next

And that is exactly what happened. No one seemed to know what to do. It got quite awkward really, and the end of the night just fell completely flat.

SozBbz

ShortAPennt wrote: »

We have around 20 - 30 people that will be coming in from abroad so they will more than likely get a hotel room somewhere in dublin. Maybe i could organise a rate for all of us with one hotel in town as suggested above and this would sort some of this issue.

Yeah I think perhaps this is your best bet. If you can get a decent rate, then brilliant, and trying to get all your out of town guests to stay in the same place is a good idea. Just make sure you pick somewhere with a nice residents bar and ideally close to your venue.

In my experience, your Dublin based guests won't want to pay for a nights accommodation when they're only a €20-30 taxi from their own beds.

ShortAPennt

SozBbz wrote: »

Yeah I think perhaps this is your best bet. If you can get a decent rate, then brilliant, and trying to get all your out of town guests to stay in the same place is a good idea. Just make sure you pick somewhere with a nice residents bar and ideally close to your venue.

In my experience, your Dublin based guests won't want to pay for a nights accommodation when they're only a €20-30 taxi from their own beds.

I think your dead right, i would be of the same mindset that i would just get a taxi home. Afterall isnt that the major upside of having it in the city

Any thoughts on a nice residents bar? Maybe sophies in the dean?

woodchuck

qwerty13 wrote: »

And that is exactly what happened. No one seemed to know what to do. It got quite awkward really, and the end of the night just fell completely flat.

I feel like this depends on the particular group, especially their age. Our DJ is finishing up at 1am and we need to be gone by around 2am. That's perfect for us, as we're not late night revelers! I'll be more than happy to make my way to bed at that stage. Most of our friends would be the same and the older crowd will be long gone by then.

We're just going to try and spread the word about the timing in advance. That way if there are some people expecting things to continue on until the wee hours, they won't be disappointed.

OP just bare in mind that even if you do come up with a plan for after 2am, your guests might decide to just call it a night. It can be very hard to keep a crowd together at that hour.

SozBbz

ShortAPennt wrote: »

Any thoughts on a nice residents bar? Maybe sophies in the dean?

AFAIK Sophies closes around 2am, which i presume means last orders, so kicking out at 2.30.... which doesnt really give you much extra time.

I'm from Dublin so I've little to no experience in staying overnight in city center hotels, but I imagine maybe the old fashioned high end hotels might have good options.

I'd suggest maybe ringing around to ask who might be able to facilitate. I don't think somewhere thats going to be dominated by people on a night out (like Sophies) will work because it would be hard for them to kick all the regular punters out and leave your crowd in situ... Perhaps the ground floor (reception) bar area is the residents bar in the Dean, but I'm not sure.

Also, Woodchuck is right, it might be like hearding cats at that stage.

baby and crumble

Going back to what I said, I've really only been to 2 full city centre weddings, one was mine and honestly I was bet by the time 1.30am came, and I absolutely loathe singalongs etc so I had no desire to organise anything, I think 1.30/2am is late enough and you've been hosting everyone all day. Like I said a few of the die-hards found a place to go literally a 2 minute walk away so there was no issue with that. Don't most weddings end around then anyway?

The only other one I was at was in Smock Alley and you have to be out of there by 11pm - they had organised somewhere to go on to, but I think a lot of folks bailed at the changeover, I know we did. Ended up on the last bus home, happy days. It was a lovely wedding, though.

lazygal

We got married in a Dublin venue with no residents bar etc. Venue closed at 1am or 130am and that was fine by us. We piled into a relative's car and went home. I don't ever do those sing songs till the small hours.

Electric Sheep

I would do an old fashioned "going away" to signal the end of the wedding. Get changed into a going away outfit, be driven away in a decorated car while being waved off by your guests, they go back into venue and have last drink, then all go home.

It removes the element of a flat ending and makes it much more upbeat.

I suspect most guests secretly hate the pressure to stay up all night singing and will be delighted to leave at a reasonable hour.

qwerty13

Electric Sheep wrote: »

I would do an old fashioned "going away" to signal the end of the wedding. Get changed into a going away outfit, be driven away in a decorated car while being waved off by your guests, they go back into venue and have last drink, then all go home.

It removes the element of a flat ending and makes it much more upbeat.

I suspect most guests secretly hate the pressure to stay up all night singing and will be delighted to leave at a reasonable hour.

I guess it depends on the crowd. I hate the sing song stuff - but I know loads of people love that. I’d love the chance to catch up with people who you’ve seen all day, but haven’t had the chance to chat to (probably more a thing at family weddings). And then there’s the case that if a lot of the crowd is gelling, they’d just like to stay up and have the craic!

I personally think it’s better to have a plan or something to facilitate people staying up late. I do know lots of people that view a wedding as an opportunity to go ‘all out’ if they’ve hired a babysitter etc. Especially if it involves a crowd of old friends catching up.

dia squish

I hope it's ok to restart this thread. But looking at Dublin city restaurant venues and wondering if anyone has been to a wedding in Roberta's? Or heard any reviews?