mrs2be.ie

[Queenie]

H2B and I are looking to for a reception venue that would ideally be fairy central in Dublin as we want to have the ceremony in Trinity. We both live in England at the minute and are about to start making appointments to view some venues, obviously time is limited though as we will only have a couple of days to do some viewings. I like the look of Bewley's Ballsbridge and maybe The Old Schoolhouse. Has anyone been to a wedding at either venue and what was it like? We're on a fairly tight budget so Bewley's 6500€ appeals to me as we're likely to have about 100 guests, though I may be able to cut this down...

Any other suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks missies!

[Snuffy]

Bewleys in ballsbridge is gorgeous and while we didn't end up going with for budget reasons Barbara who we were dealing with was extremely helpful and responded exceptionally quickly to e-mails and I'd recommend it. Fab venue. But, they do charge for parking, it's €10 for people staying in the hotel overnight and that really bugged h2b, so be warned on that. Also I personally felt the chair covers were needed to keep the wow factor of the room, the chairs were horrible blue ones, but that's just my opinion. They will send you more pics of the room if you ask for them, the chandeliers look lovely at night with the uplighters on. The mezzanine level also gives you some options, we could have put a tv and a wii/playstation up there to keep the 2 kids who'd have been at it happy. Plenty of options for your drinks reception inside and outside depending on the weather. Plenty of great photo ops both inside and outside, they've a lovely small garden area out the front with a fountain. Beef for mains will be an extra charge but they have the "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" attitude which is good. The dj they use is from a reputable company who do have experience of djing all night at weddings. They're open to working with that all inclusive package and excluding things and including things you may or may not want, and are very quick to come back with quotes for you. Perfect sized room for 100 people. We both absolutely loved the place but as we'd be looking at 120 guests it was just too much of a squeeze on our budget.

Sorry, that's long!! And probably full of useless info! Any other questions you want to ask about bewleys I'll try answer for you as best I can.

Don't know much about the schoolhouse but I had looked at their website before and I remember the number they could hold being small??

[Queenie]

Wow Snuffy!
Thank you so so much for taking the time to give me all that info - very kind of you. I think I'd probably begrudge asking guests who are paying for their hotel (and some paying a flight from England or travelling from Belfast, where my family are) to pay an additional €10 on parking. I think I'd also want seat covers, I know what you mean about the effect on the room. I will definitely look at it and will email requesting photos in the meantime.

Just out of interest, where did you opt for in the end?

Thanks again - I really appreciate it!

[hugbear]

I got married in Trinity but didnt stick to the city, we went out to Wicklow for our reception. It was a 40 min drive but no1 seemed to mind, and if they did we didnt know about it. Just remember that Trinity only allow 7 cars in so people will be paying for parking that day anyway.. Its in the fine print. I have to say though that room in Ballsbride is stunning!! Im sure you could negotiate a price with them...

The Hilton in Kilmainham is supposed to be nice... Also think about hotels that are near the city i but not directly in it, like Clontarf castle.

[Snuffy]

No problem! They have good room rates but it was the principle behind the parking that really annoyed us if ya get me. I didn't ask for a quote based on the package with just chair covers added on so not sure how much extra they'd be on their own. We looked at adding chair covers and extra wine with beef for mains. They will work with you if you give them your budget and what you want and give a quote based on that, but we knew at that stage it was too much of a stretch so decided not to get them to do it for us.
They were really helpful and pleasant to deal with though.

We are going to go with the parkview hotel in newtownmountkennedy in Wicklow. Haven't booked it, just provisionally as we can't book a registrar for a civil ceremony until next year, but I think we will book it and hope for the best regarding the registrar. They've a great all inclusive package price and the room is lovely and we really liked the set up. Ok so it doesn't have the wow factor in comparison but we had to compromise somewhere and we felt the only place we could was on the price of the venue, we couldn't go smaller on the guest list. We compromised on location to work with our budget. By that I mean there isn't lots of photo options outside the hotel but there are options a few minutes drive from the hotel.

[hugbear]

No problem! They have good room rates but it was the principle behind the parking that really annoyed us if ya get me. I didn't ask for a quote based on the package with just chair covers added on so not sure how much extra they'd be on their own. We looked at adding chair covers and extra wine with beef for mains. They will work with you if you give them your budget and what you want and give a quote based on that, but we knew at that stage it was too much of a stretch so decided not to get them to do it for us.
They were really helpful and pleasant to deal with though.

We are going to go with the parkview hotel in newtownmountkennedy in Wicklow. Haven't booked it, just provisionally as we can't book a registrar for a civil ceremony until next year, but I think we will book it and hope for the best regarding the registrar. They've a great all inclusive package price and the room is lovely and we really liked the set up. Ok so it doesn't have the wow factor in comparison but we had to compromise somewhere and we felt the only place we could was on the price of the venue, we couldn't go smaller on the guest list. We compromised on location to work with our budget. By that I mean there isn't lots of photo options outside the hotel but there are options a few minutes drive from the hotel.

Just want to say that this hotel was one top of our list, we didnt go for it in the end just due to distance but out of all the hotels we viewed it was one of our favs!! food was beautiful, service was excellent.. rooms are beautiful, function room is stunning!!!! and value wise its excellent... Good choice!!! the garden at the side is actually lovely, any photogrpaher will get lovely pics there. The bridal suite was beautiful too.

[Snuffy]

Great to hear that, thanks!
Yeah the garden is lovely, but I'm seriously anal about keeping options open when I do pretty much anything! So was delighted to find the garden exhibition centre is 3 mins up the road and mount usher gardens is 10 mins the other way. Theyre all inclusive is one of the best priced ones I've come across.

[hugbear]

Great to hear that, thanks!
Yeah the garden is lovely, but I'm seriously anal about keeping options open when I do pretty much anything! So was delighted to find the garden exhibition centre is 3 mins up the road and mount usher gardens is 10 mins the other way. Theyre all inclusive is one of the best priced ones I've come across.

The room itself has the wow factor.. the ceiling fittings are stunning... also the balcony area is great!!! plus the rooms are affordable lots of people will stay over.

[Queenie]

Thank you again to both of you. The Parkview does indeed look excellent and super value. I would definitely consider it. My only issue,and even typing this I know it sounds ridiculous, is that it's in Wicklow. My H2B is from Wicklow and my mother is taking issue with the fact that the wedding will not be taking place in Co.Down, where I am from, and where she lives, as she says its tradition to get married in the brides home town. Our argument is that Dublin is where we met, its mid way between my family in the North and West of Ireland and my H2Bs family in Wicklow. I personally have no issue with getting married in Wicklow as there seem to be some beautiful venues there, but I am trying to keep my mother on side at the minute. Stressful!!

[hugbear]

Thank you again to both of you. The Parkview does indeed look excellent and super value. I would definitely consider it. My only issue,and even typing this I know it sounds ridiculous, is that it's in Wicklow. My H2B is from Wicklow and my mother is taking issue with the fact that the wedding will not be taking place in Co.Down, where I am from, and where she lives, as she says its tradition to get married in the brides home town. Our argument is that Dublin is where we met, its mid way between my family in the North and West of Ireland and my H2Bs family in Wicklow. I personally have no issue with getting married in Wicklow as there seem to be some beautiful venues there, but I am trying to keep my mother on side at the minute. Stressful!!

No as I said we got married in Trinity but felt the parkview was way too far out from the city... look up the Hilton hotels... Or would you consider a 20-30 min journey to maybe Citywest hotel?
The Conrad is beautiful (city centre) but its expensive... the city centre hotels are quite expensive. Priory Hall you were looking at is stunning, dont rule it out!
Some other places I can think of are the Burlington (city centre) and the crowne plaza (there are a few around dublin)..

[Snuffy]

Some other stunning looking places but perhaps a bit more expensive are
Number six Kildare street
The royal college of surgeons
There's another place around st Stephens green somewhere that's like a private house but caters for smaller weddings and I just can't remember the name of it

I kinda know what you mean about pleasing mothers! Mine wanted us to look at venues in the midlands as we've relations literally all over the country so it'd be central but since were paying for it I had to sit her down and show her the difference in prices and we couldn't afford the same deal in the midlands hotels, she was ok then. Different situation to you though!

[Queenie]

Thanks hugbear, I will check out their websites and look at prices etc. You're a star!

[Queenie]

Thanks snuffy, we will be paying for it ourselves but just want to keep the peace. She might just have to lump it if the best deal we can get ends up being in Wicklow. I'm off to book flights so we can go view venues, will report back soon!

[Snuffy]

Do! Would love to hear where you went to view and what ye think.
Yes, I'll admit it, I'm totally nosey!