| Location, location, location!!!
The first thing you should do when picking a hotel for your
reception is do out a very rough guest list as a guide. That
will, I’m lead to believe narrow down the possibilities.
However if you’re like us and want a wedding with approximately
120 guests (not including those for afters), you are still
left with a huge number that can accommodate you.
With the brochures collected at the Bridal Fair in the Point
Depot and after contacting over twenty hotels (there were
probably more that I contacted but can’t remember) in
the Dublin, Meath and Wicklow environs, we had loads of brochures
to get through.
Some hotels were looking for the entire cost of the wedding
to be paid prior to the day. They went on the ‘we’ll
see’ pile. Some were looking for over €2000 non-refundable
deposit. Those went of the ‘only if we win the Lotto’
pile. Some were affordable but the hotels on inspection didn’t
have the ‘IT’ factor. They just weren’t
hitting the mark.
I got quite stressed during July and August 2003, and got
to the point where I posted on WOL looking for a wedding coordinator
to take over. It may have been just what needed because when
Joseph saw that this was what I was getting to, he seemed
to jump into action. “No use spending money on a coordinator
when that money can be spent on other things on the day”
was his idea. He’s probably right but when I was as
stressed as I was, I would probably have handed over the arranging
of my wedding to any Tom, Dick or Harry.
I had contacted a wedding coordinator earlier in the process
but as he mentioned, June, July and August are his busiest
months and he would get back to me when things calmed down.
As he hasn’t gotten back at this stage, I’m not
holding my breath. Even if he does, I don’t think Joseph
would want to let anyone else in on the decision making process.
To that end, we didn’t even have a decision making process
until quite recently!!!
Getting back to the choice of hotel - we were down
to about 5 and the Marriott Hotel in Druids Glen was amongst
them. They were very welcoming when we took a spin down to
check them out. They are a family friendly location and didn’t
have a problem if we had children at our wedding. It seemed
that there wasn’t anything they wouldn’t do for
us, and they definitely had that “Wow” factor.
They, however, were on both the “We’ll see”
and “Only if we win the Lotto” piles. But, it
really is worth seeing how you can splash out if you want
to. There were three things that put me off Druids Glen. The
first was the price per head and what you got for it. The
second was that they required 100% of the cost of the wedding
prior to the day. This is quite a strange request from a hotel,
in my opinion as you don’t pay for accommodation in
a hotel until you are checking out not at check-in. The last
and probably least important was the fact that the bar was
located outside the function room. I could see my guests wandering
between the two areas and this didn’t appeal to me.
Also amongst the contenders was Kilkea Castle in Kildare,
The Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, Mount Wolseley in Carlow,
Castle Bellingham in Louth, Roganstown in Dublin and Arklow
Bay in Wicklow. The latter two were late contenders.
We had previously attended a wedding of friends of ours in
Kilkea Castle and although it is a very special location,
I wanted our wedding to be in a location that none of our
guests have been before.
Castle Bellingham was the only hotel to send a cd with photos
and 360 degree views of the rooms. They were also very reasonable
for what they were offering but, and there is always a but,
they were about an hours drive away. The distance factor as
a result ruled out Mount Wolseley as well. This left The Shelbourne
Hotel, Roganstown and Arklow Bay.
As time ticked by, myself and Joseph along with our son took
a trip down to view the Arklow Bay Hotel. I was very taken
by it, as was Joseph, though I think at this stage he would
have agreed to anything!!! So it looked like a decision was
looming. The other decision to be made and was equally important
was where we were going to have the wedding ceremony itself.
I posted a thread on WOL asking for advice and as usual the
girls and guys came through.
It came down to three scenarios :
(a) Get married in Dublin and have the reception in Dublin
(b) Get married in Dublin and have the reception in Wicklow
(c) Get married in Wicklow and have the reception in Wicklow
In my next instalment I’ll tell you which one we picked!!!!
Till then,
Lynne
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