So, we are finally getting around to writing a review of our wedding day with our first anniversary fast approaching and the arrival of our first child imminent!! We are writing this on our first return to The Galway Bay Hotel since our Wedding Day and all the great memories have come flooding back.
We where married in St. Mary’s church, Tooreen, Co. Mayo by Fr. David Cribben who is Chaplain at UHG. The location provided a challenge as both our families are spread to the four corners of Ireland and Europe, but they all made it and in the end we had about 200 guests and a few more for the evening reception. We have tried to give a little information on each of the major tasks involved in organizing a wedding in the order that we approached them ourselves. Our Hotel venue was the first thing we organized but we have written about it last, but to be honest because we chose the right hotel they did a lot of the hard work for us. A big thank you goes to Victoria and her team at the Galway Bay Hotel.

Band & DJ

After been to numerous Family & Friends Weddings throughout the years there was only one band that stuck in my mind that I would want for my own wedding. I contacted David Cunningham of Concord Entertainment to book the date and thankfully they were available. They offered an all-inclusive package to include the DJ music after the band had concluded. The dance floor wasn’t empty once all night as they offered music to suit everybody’s taste with a few dance games thrown in to provide us with some highly entertaining DVD footage. I would highly recommend http://www.concordentertainment.com for any future weddings.

Dresses.

I really had no idea what kind of dress would suit my body shape. Dinagh Modes, Castlerea, Co: Roscommon came highly recommended. The shop has no Website as Pamela’s reputation for been the most helpful, knowledgeable but above all HONEST precedes her. Pamela is not shy about telling you if a dress does not look right on you-this was very refreshing as in some places I went to prior to Dinagh Modes I felt if I had thrown on a bin liner they would have told me I look fabulous in it. Pamela was in no ways pushy and gave excellent advice as to what shape dress suited your own body. As Pamela does all her own alterations she was able to customise not only my dress but all the bridesmaid dresses to highlight the good bits and disguise any sneaky lumps & bumps with no fuss or drama. Pamela even hires out the veils, tiaras & a selection of jewelry so there is no need to buy them saving Brides even more time! I cannot praise Pamela enough. After been to a few bridal shops its clear that Dinagh Modes leaves the rest behind when it comes to knowing what their talking about and what a bride needs to feel amazing on her Wedding Day.

Suits.

For the Groom and groomsmen’s Suits we wanted something smart and simple. My brother lives in Cavan so we looked in the area, as it would be easy for him to pick them up before and leave them back after the wedding. Lets be honest here! Nearly every man’s suit hire shop in Ireland stock the same range of suits! Our final decision came down to the attitude of the salesman and the price. D & M Stores in Cootehill, Co. Cavan ticked all the boxes. They were very helpful and gave us a great price including a free suit for the Groom. We highly recommend them!

Photos & DVD.

For the photos we went with Carmel Williams Photography of Kilkelly, Co. Mayo. http://www.carmelwilliamsphotography.com. A family friend recommended Carmel and, again we were not disappointed!
Carmel and her assistant Karen were easy to communicate with, understood exactly what we wanted and ultimately delivered it on the day. They visited Barna Woods and Spiddal before our wedding day to find ideas for the photos, which made things a lot easier on the day. The final product was an album that we will cherish forever. Carmel also provided smaller versions of the album for our parents and the other members of the bridal party as part of our package, which was a really nice touch.

For our DVD we had Sean Browne from Castlerea. http://www.seanbrownevideo.ie. Sean, to say the least, is a character!! He is as enthusiastic as he is professional. We had great fun with Sean all day and he produced a really great DVD for us. We would highly recommend both Carmel and Sean for any family event as they are outstanding professionals and they worked really well together.

Flowers.


The flowers were also part of our Wedding Package with the Galway Bay Hotel. My biggest fear with the Church Flowers was that the colour at the back of the altar and the carpet around the altar was bright red and would be hard to match flowers to that intense colour! I took some photos with me to Knocknacarra Florists where Laoise & Shane soon put my mind at rest. The Church flowers completely transformed the Church and the buttonholes and bouquets certainly did not disappoint.

Hair.

My bridesmaids & I found it difficult to find a hairdressers open on a Saturday morning before 09.30am-slsight panic started to set in!!! I eventually was recommended to try Pamela Devine- a local hairdresser who came directly to the house on the morning of the wedding....with time been of the essence this completely relaxed everyone on the Wedding Day.Pamela invited me to her own home to have a couple of trial runs & we eventually settled on appropriate upstyles for myself & the girls. Pamela does not have a website-her reputation preceeds her in our local area & I would highly recommend her in the future. My future mother-in-law was staying in Co: Galway for the morning of the Wedding. I had my own hairdresser Ray Morrin in the Icon Hair & Beauty Salon, Tuam style her hair on the Wedding morning-the end result was flawless and resulted in one very happy Mother-in-Law.

Make-Up.

I was blessed with my makeup artist Fidelma Fay. Fidelma runs her own business http://www.tirnanogbeauty.com in Belturbet &is a close friend with Daragh & Myself. Fidelma was extremely generous with her time in the lead up to the wedding with make-up & tan trials. She had met all the girls at the Hen party so it was easy to plan & ensure that makeup & tans suited all the girls. I had never had spray tanning done before so I was very dubious about it. Fidelma has had vast experience with weddings in the Belturbet area & completely put me at ease. I was delighted with the natural looking result both in the tan & makeup. I would highly recommend her to friends & work colleagues for future weddings.

Invitations and Thank You Cards.

For our invitations and thank you cards we looked on-line having firstly looked locally and not found what we wanted at the right price. We ordered some samples on eBay and it turned out I knew the girl who made them and she had exactly what we wanted. Mary Agnew is based in Redhills, Co. Cavan, http://www.hcostationery.com/. Mary was a pleasure to deal with from start to finish.


The Hotel.

We looked at a few venues for our reception and had booked a venue in Mayo, but someone said that the Galway Bay hotel, http://www.galwaybayhotel.net/, was worth looking at, as it is a lovely hotel and had an all-inclusive package. We were prepared to loose our deposit paid to the other venue but they did give us our deposit back. From the moment that Michelle and myself walked in the front door of the Galway Bay hotel we knew we had arrived at our wedding venue. Then we met Victoria Whelan, who was to be our wedding coordinator, and the deal was sealed!
We got everything we asked for and more. Everything they said they could do, they did and more often than not, with bells on! They exceeded all our expectations. Victoria’s enthusiasm for the job and attention to detail made our lives so easy and took all of the stress off us. We knew Victoria and her team would come through for us and that if it could be done it would be by them to the best of their ability.
We would also like to thank William who was a great help to us on the day and even stayed on after his shift had ended to make sure everything was just as we had asked for. All of their staff went out of their way for on the day. They were a pleasure to deal with from start to finish.
The Hotel provided us with a full wedding package that really made things very easy for us. They included our room with a lovely sea view, rooms for parents and a very good rate for our guests. the wedding car from Getaway Cars, the flowers from Knocknacarra Florist, the Cake, which was delicious, from Clare Kelly in Tuam, a chocolate fountain and finger food to keep our guests entertained while we had our pictures done, the seat covers for the Ballroom and last but definitely not least a fantastic menu for our wedding banquet.
For our meal we wanted to keep away from the all too common Beef of Salmon and went instead for Lamb with a herb gravy and Salmon with an Asian twist, which was beautiful. The portion sizes were generous and no one left the room with an appetite unsatisfied. The hotel were very accommodating in where we had our speeches as we had one or two nervous speakers and we wanted them to speak early on in the meal. They also provided a lovely supper later in the evening and sandwiches in the wee small hours in the Residents bar.

Organising a wedding is a huge task and I cannot stress enough that picking the right Hotel venue will lighten your workload so much. We ars so glad that we picked The Galway Bay Hotel and we could not praise them highly enough. They truly gave us the day we had dreamed of. The help and support that we received from our Families was immense and we could not have gotten the day that we did without them.