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Wedding of 15 guests- Looking for people's ideas and stories

Blanco100

Myself and my fiance are having a small wedding of 15 (just our immediate families).

We would like ideally to get married at City hall, followed by a dinner/ drinks reception somewhere nice.

We were looking at private dining at the Shelbourne, it looks nice. Does anyone know of places in Dublin or surrounding counties that would cater for party of 15 with any degree of privacy?

We still want the wedding feel even though we have such a small guest list.

I guess I'd just like to hear how other people did it, within the criteria we are working

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chocfan

Chapter One have a private dining room which is lovely and would certainly feel celebratory-I was at a work thing there once, it's just inside the door on the right and has a separate door into it etc so you're not part of the main restaurant at all

I'm sure it's not cheap! But the Shelbourne isn't either so if you were looking for somewhere nice, it might be an option?

Blanco100

chocfan wrote: »

Chapter One have a private dining room which is lovely and would certainly feel celebratory-I was at a work thing there once, it's just inside the door on the right and has a separate door into it etc so you're not part of the main restaurant at all

I'm sure it's not cheap! But the Shelbourne isn't either so if you were looking for somewhere nice, it might be an option?

We have changed our plan now to seek a venue that offers private dining and having actual ceremony on site. City hall is very expensive for what you get I think.

We have a budget of between 3 and 4k I think we are being a little optimistic ðŸ˜

I'd still love to hear anymore opinions on where to look or if anyone had a similar guest list budget, what did you do?

dragonfly!

Hi there
I was at a wedding a while back where there was aprox 15 people
It was a civil ceremony in a hotel with a meal in the restaurant
It was nicer food than a "wedding" meal and with normal restaurant service
I know the couple saved a lot of money this way but there wasnt anything you would expect at a wedding such as arrival food, tea / coffee etc
The music was a man with a guitar - so there wasnt much dancing
If you have any other questions relating to it I can ask the couple for you?

PhoenixParker

If you're on a budget then I would consider using the registry office. It's a nice enough room and there are plenty of options for private dining nearby.

We did the registry office with 13 people followed by lunch in the private dining room at guilbauds. Lunch is very good value in a lot of the fancy restaurants. Food and drink came to around €1000 including tip.

I know a few people who've done similar at the Shelbourne lately.

miezekatze

We're looking to do something similar, 12-15 guests. There aren't a lot of venues where you can also have a ceremony for a small party like that. The previous poster suggested registry office followed by private dining and that's probably what we will do too.

pullandbang

We had 12 in total at our son's recent wedding in Boyne Hill House. We used the old house for everything - ceremony, dinner and dancing. Brilliant day despite the rain. The 13th guy in this photo is the photographer - needed to make up the numbers

LK Rose

Great photo! Was there a band of some sort or dj for the dancing? Thinking of doing a small wedding ourselves and wondered what it would be like?

pullandbang

LK Rose wrote: »

Great photo! Was there a band of some sort or dj for the dancing? Thinking of doing a small wedding ourselves and wondered what it would be like?

No band or DJ. We circulated a Spotify playlist amongst the guests beforehand and we all added a few favourite songs to it. Made for an interesting night as we ended up with everything from Nathan Carter to Pantera :eek:

Blanco100

Thanks for the replies

Can anyone give me bit of detail about the layout of the day?

Did anyone get married on site at venue where you booked meal?

Was their same feeling of exclusivity as you may be afforded at bigger wedding?

Also what was timeline of ceremony, dinner, finishing up?

As for Spotify, how did that work? Was it just a laptop playing in background or What?

We are still looking over brochures of venues, fancy private dining for 15, ceremony on site and rooms booked for parents of both and ourselves obviously.

It's a long day with such small numbers. Also I appreciate people will be private about how much they spent etc... but we think this wedding is more expensive than having 250 guests where you usually recoup a fair chunk of it (presumptuous I know). Can anyone advise on how far a smaller budget of 3-4k will get you, all in?

Thanks again for all the replies, hugely helpful

LirW

We talk about getting married on and off and we'd have very small numbers in general, both small families. Talking about 45-50 people at the very max.

If you wanna do it in a traditional venue like many hotels there is nothing really around that caters these small numbers unless you're lucky and they'd do it weekday in the off-season. Especially the ceremony on site with dining/reception is hard to find, especially on that budget. These places cater big numbers.
That said, there are some beautiful venues out there that tailor everything and are cool with small numbers but you'd have a set fee that would exceed your budget.
For example I know that Huntington Castle is grand with any number of guests but the hire fee for the venue alone is between 4,5 and 6k. You have to sort out catering, ceremony etc all yourself.

Realistically what you're planning won't work out with such a small budget in most places. I looked at pretty much any venue in the Leinster area and they all have a hook, be it budget or numbers.
Your best bet would be the registry office and a nice fancy dinner in one of the restaurants nearby, loads of them do set meals and get a nice cake and spend the night in one of the nice city hotels.
We're probably opting for it because you get some good value and still have a nice day.

If you wanna go all in you have to up your budget to 10k and you'll find some fine character venues that do such a small number. Also enquire in popular hotels that host bigger weddings if they have small rooms that can be reserved for dining. They might not do the ceremony but you never know.
You'll most likely have to compromise on during the week and probably also off-season, venues are a lot more flexible in the quiet months.

pullandbang

Blanco100 wrote: »

Did anyone get married on site at venue where you booked meal?

Yep, happens all the time, including my son's wedding.

Blanco100 wrote: »

Was their same feeling of exclusivity as you may be afforded at bigger wedding?

Boyne Hill House is exclusive so it's yours for the day with no outsiders.

Blanco100 wrote: »

Also what was timeline of ceremony, dinner, finishing up?

Civil ceremony is usually 3pm with dinner for 6pm giving plenty of time for photos etc. I think we finished dancing at 4.30am the next morning :-)

Blanco100 wrote: »

As for Spotify, how did that work? Was it just a laptop playing in background or What?

Exactly. During the night we would nip up to the laptop and put one of our preferences on. Anything to shut Nathan carter up......

Blanco100 wrote: »

It's a long day with such small numbers. Also I appreciate people will be private about how much they spent etc... but we think this wedding is more expensive than having 250 guests where you usually recoup a fair chunk of it (presumptuous I know). Can anyone advise on how far a smaller budget of 3-4k will get you, all in?

It's not that long a day and trust me, it will fly in. I know because I'm a wedding photographer so I go to lots of weddings. Your 4k will get you a fair bit, but as you say, you will lose out on the gifts of a bigger crowd.

buffin

We had a wedding of 14 people ourselves included and it was, for us, perfect! We did everything in one venue - Roundwood House in Laois, which was a stunning place with amazing people running it. The venue was ours exclusively for the duration.

Rough timings of the day -

9am - breakfast with those who'd stayed previous night
10am - last prep, putting out cake etc
12pm - getting ready - myself and bridesmaid did our own hair and makeup
2pm - other guests arrived and checked into rooms
3.30pm - ceremony outdoors in their grounds. We asked friends and family to lead the ceremony, with a priest joining to give a blessing also. It was incredibly intimate and lovely. We had a reading, some prayers, music (live musician), blessing, ring exchange etc. I can honestly say I've never seen so much emotion at any other wedding. Of course it wasn't legal (we did that few days later in registry office) but it was our vows to each other exactly as we wished, and trust me at least 1/4 of other ceremonies I've been to weren't technically legal either but were better hidden by having a celebrant who was a stranger, which we just didn't want! Anyways...
4pm - drinks & canapes in the sun (we asked the ceremony musician to stay and play which led to a brilliant sing song)
6pm - dinner (speeches first)
9.30pm - band arrived - the venue owners are friends with a local band who don't officially play weddings but do there and can turn their hand to any song and some traditional Irish music - 2 guys with a guitar and fiddle and they were amazing. There were more people dancing than I've seen at many bigger weddings. But the band had also said if the vibe wasn't dancing they'd play background music while we chatted.
11.30pm - snacks and drinks, people pulled out guitars and we stayed up chatting til the wee hours

The day didn't feel long at all, and in fact the smaller numbers allowed for more spontaneity (we delayed dinner about 45 mins because it was so nice and sunny out!)

All in for everything we probably spent double the budget you're suggesting, influenced by the following -
- we paid for everyone's accommodation & full bar for entire day
- we paid for live musicians (worth it IMO)
- we had full photographer for entire day
- I did flowers myself so saved considerably (previously worked in a flower shop so kind of knew what I was doing)
- no hair/makeup - yes to bridesmaid outfit
- no grooms suit (wore what he already had) or groomsman outfits - we bought matching ties for all the brothers so they felt part of it
- made my own wedding dress (knew what I was doing, wouldn't otherwise recommend!)
- made our own cakes
- made own invitations

The venue was what made it for us - they couldn't have done more and been nicer. As an example we'd agreed (the morning of the wedding) to have drinks outside at the picnic table weather dependent, but when we went around to that area we didn't expect how lovely they'd made it - hay bale seats with lovely fabric covers, flowers everywhere, table beautifully laid out with cakes/drinks etc - we got such lovely surprises on our own day. Couldn't recommend them enough and I believe they can do legal ceremonies if that's a must-have.

Happy wedding planning OP and if I can help with anything more specific on costs etc via PM happy to! For us we also felt it important to have a real wedding feel and it very much did, couldn't have been happier and wouldn't change a single thing!

SarahS2013

We warned...weekend dates in City Hall are hard to come by. It's also costing me a fortune between the hire charge and the celebrant! It's probably be cheaper to do it in a church!!!

Blanco100

we are going to get married on site now at venue. Meeting with them this week.

One question though in terms of formalities, do we still have to source someone in order to officiate our ceremony so to speak?

And if so, how much is it to get someone to do this? Thanks again in advance

SarahS2013

Yep you'll need an approved celebrant to make it legal.

Not sure how much civil celebrants cost but my humanist celebrant is costing me nearly €600!

lazygal

You'll also need to ensure the venue is approved for legal wedding ceremonies.

Blanco100

we have finally decided on our wedding venue and we are very happy with the choice. We have a total guest list of 20 and we will be getting married in 6 months.

We are not getting around to finalising entertainment, transport, photographers etc.

Again i'm just looking for some advice of people who were in similar situation of having a small wedding. In terms of photographers we are being quoted 1500euro for a full day, now a photographer is important but with there only being 20 guests it seems a bit excessive in fairness. I get we are paying for time, but it seems excessive the constant snapping pictures of only 20 people.

Also in terms of entertainment, our venue is allowing entertainment until 1am, we were thinking of hiring a singer for the church and having them double up as music for the drinks reception. We were thinking of hiring a DJ for straight after the dinner then but again we are not sure about how to lay it out correctly.

I would appreciate any advice from people who were in a similar situation in terms of having small numbers and arranged photographers, transport and wedding music without paying an absolute fortune.

Thanks a million again in advance guys

lazygal

Photographers charge a rate regardless of the size of the wedding. They do as much work with a small one as a large one, in fact smaller ones can be far more challenging in some ways. I don't think the rate you've been quoted is excessive, nor do I think the smallness of your numbers will be a bargaining chip-the photographer could easily do a big wedding and not have a couple looking for a discount. Our photos were the best money we spent and I regret cheaping out on the videographer because our wedding video is only okay.
Transport, do you know someone with a nice car who can do the driving for you?
Wouldn't bother with a singer for the drinks reception, put the money into your photos!

Blanco100

lazygal wrote: »

Photographers charge a rate regardless of the size of the wedding. They do as much work with a small one as a large one, in fact smaller ones can be far more challenging in some ways. I don't think the rate you've been quoted is excessive, nor do I think the smallness of your numbers will be a bargaining chip-the photographer could easily do a big wedding and not have a couple looking for a discount. Our photos were the best money we spent and I regret cheaping out on the videographer because our wedding video is only okay.
Transport, do you know someone with a nice car who can do the driving for you?
Wouldn't bother with a singer for the drinks reception, put the money into your photos!

Yes we are not going to bother with a singer for pre drinks reception we will probably settle for a dj after dinner in the private room of the hotel.

Transport still needs to be sorted though

PhoenixParker

For the photographer, you could try looking for an elopement package.
Basically they just do a few hours instead of the full day so it's cheaper but you need to be ok with not having a full days worth of photos.

Now is a good time to look for six months out because it'll be filling an unsold date rather then them holding out for someone else looking for a full day.

Blanco100

PhoenixParker wrote: »

For the photographer, you could try looking for an elopement package.
Basically they just do a few hours instead of the full day so it's cheaper but you need to be ok with not having a full days worth of photos.

Now is a good time to look for six months out because it'll be filling an unsold date rather then them holding out for someone else looking for a full day.

We have chosen the half day package here which will suit us perfectly.

Transport now seems to be the troublesome one. Dont want to spend a fortune but would like to hire a car and driver. Whats the going rate? Journey would be about 35/40 mins into dublin

JustAThought

Maybe you should read the 'just got married in malta' thread - sounds like yours is already turning into a mini wedding complete with mental overheads and will.end up at at least 6.or.8k - dj for 20.people, hire cars, expensive photographer... it may be well worth a lateral think. Have a read of it...