Journal

Organising your wedding in Northern Ireland can be daunting, it can also be one of the most enjoyable experiences you will ever do. The unbelievable amount of decisions that have to be made can make it quite a stressful time, like everything the best way to approach the planning of your wedding is a little at a time.

The huge choice of wedding venues and services available in Northern Ireland make the simplest of decisions nearly impossible but with good research and careful planning everything becomes a lot easier.

A few of my brides say that organising their wedding was the best bit and they don’t know what they are going to do with themselves now that the wedding is over, some have actually started business in the wedding industry in Northern Ireland because they enjoyed it so much.

Here are my top five that I consider will help you make the best decisions for you and your wedding in Northern Ireland.

CHOOSING YOUR WEDDING DATE

When picking a wedding date you may need to paint a picture in you head of what you imagine your wedding day to be like. If you are thinking of your guests relaxing and chatting in the warm sun with glasses of champagne, then it is obvious that it is a summer wedding, if you want an indoor wedding with mulled wine and your guests seated around tables at the reception venue, then it’s a winter wedding that suits you.

Most weddings in Northern Ireland are during the summer, the main reason for this is the weather, warm enough for the bride to show off her wedding dress and dry with plenty of light to give the photographer time to get great outdoor photographs at the wedding reception venue. Weddings in the summer are also later in the day, this gives the Bride and Bridesmaids more time on the morning of the wedding to prepare their hair and makeup.

Winter weddings in Northern Ireland are also popular, these normally happen around Christmas to make the most of the festive period when guests are generally off work. These types of weddings are usually earlier in the day than summer weddings due to light fading early and are normally in-door based due to the cold weather. You can strike it lucky and get snow that will add to the atmosphere.

The day your wedding falls on can be the biggest factor, if it is a Friday or Saturday, the days most weddings take place, guests will be off work the next day and are likely to stay later, or stay the night at the wedding reception venue. If however it falls on a day where guests may need to go to work the next day they may need to leave your wedding reception early. Look out for bank holiday weekends and if you have got a lot of guests travelling from England check their public holidays, as they are different to Northern Ireland. Another factor is sporting events, if there is a big sporting event on the night of your evening reception you may well find a lot of the evening guests may not appear, so research is crucial, you don’t want to come up against the World Cup final on the biggest night of your life.

TYPE OF WEDDING CEREMONY

Most weddings in Northern Ireland are still church weddings, although more services than ever are being held at the wedding reception venues. This is not for everyone but it has benefits, it keeps all the guests together at the one venue and save people travelling. They are normally civil ceremonies were the local registrar comes to the licensed wedding venue, but there are also church ministers who will carry out a religious ceremony, the venue usually will be able to supply you with a list of local officiators that you can speak to.

There are also financial benefits to holding your wedding in the one location as you don’t need to decorate a church and wedding reception and transport costs for wedding cars should be a lot less. A lot of the wedding venues in Northern Ireland are also offering all-inclusive packages that include chair covers, flowers, room hire and a host of other services.

However the traditional church wedding adds to the sense of occasion and gives the wedding photographer more variety in their work due to there being more than one location. It is traditional for the couple to get married in the brides family church although it is possible to have your wedding in a church that you don’t belong to if it is more aesthetically pleasing or better suited to the number of guests invited. Most churches in Northern Ireland are very accommodating.

THE RIGHT WEDDING RECEPTION VENUE

With so many wedding reception venues in Northern Ireland to choose from what makes each one different or more special to you than the other and how do you decide the one best for you.

Firstly you need to work out the approximate number of guests that will be attending, if it is going to be a small wedding look at just the intimate venues, it is very easy to make a small wedding look lost in a big room. Once you have this number you should now have a shortlist of a few venues that suit the size of your wedding. If at all possible visit the wedding venues on a day that they have a wedding on to get a feel for what the room looks like setup.

In this shortlist you should find three distinct types of wedding venues, very exclusive, exclusive and semi-exclusive. The one you decide on can be a question on how much your budget is.

VERY EXCLUSIVE WEDDING VENUES

This type of wedding venue is completely exclusive to you, there is only your wedding there with no one else allowed access to the location, it is not open to the general public.

With these types of wedding venues in Northern Ireland you hire the venue separately from all the other suppliers. Most do not supply in-house catering, you need to contract the services of a professional catering company with experience in wedding and events separately.

You can find Caterers for weddings in Northern and Southern Ireland on my Wedding Photography Suppliers Page

EXCLUSIVE WEDDING VENUES

An exclusive wedding venue is were your wedding is the only wedding on that day but the general public have access to the location, these are the most popular wedding venues in Northern Ireland. They are usually also hotels so guests can stay overnight after the reception. Unlike the very exclusive wedding venues they supply all the catering in-house, so it can be a much easier wedding to organise.

There are other advantages of an exclusive wedding venue. The main one being that there is no chance of meeting another Bride and Groom and exclusive use of the grounds for your wedding photography. It’s your day and the wedding photographer is not restricted by where they can work.

SEMI-EXCLUSIVE WEDDING VENUES

These are similar to exclusive wedding venues in Northern Ireland with the main difference being they can hold multiple weddings on the same day as yours and the general public have access to the location. In some cases they can hold up to four weddings a day. The main draw back with this type of venue is meeting other Brides and Grooms and the wedding photographer may not have complete freedom to do what they want in the reception grounds. This may limit the areas where the photographer can work, hence restrict the photographers creatively. The main benefit to holding you wedding reception in this type of venue can be they are generally less expensive, a good tip is to block book accommodation early for guests, on particular dates the rooms can become unavailable very quickly.

PRIORITISING WEDDING SERVICES

The next consideration is to book the key suppliers who are going to be at you wedding. Prioritising these is critical as once they are booked they cannot do other weddings on your wedding day, good suppliers book out very quickly.

These are the suppliers that will physically be at your wedding and are restricted to working at just your wedding. Examples of these are wedding photographers, videographers, wedding cars, and entertainment. Florists and cake makers for example do not need to be at your wedding, so generally the can do multiple weddings on the same day.

There are various ways of sourcing the best suppliers this includes bridal magazines, Google search, hotel recommended suppliers lists. One of the best ways is to talk to other brides who have recently been married and ask who they used.

The more research you do the better chance you will find the best suppliers for you.

CHOOSING A GOOD WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

All the best wedding photographers in Northern Ireland are unique, so how do you find the best one for you. I recommend you do as much research as possible.

When choosing a good wedding photographer it is essential to view as much of their work as possible, seeing actual weddings in their entirety is important. All legitimate wedding photographers in Northern Ireland will be members of professional bodies like The Professional Photographers Association of Northern Ireland, The British Institute of Professional Photographers or The International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers. A lot of other organisations exist but most of them you pay to become a member rather than on merit.

Most wedding photographers will likely meet you for an initial consultation, at this meeting you can get a feel for what type of work they do and their personality. It is essential to ask if they have the relevant insurance and to make sure that it is them that will be actually photographing you wedding on the day and not a student or an assistant.

If at all possible ask to see photographs taken at your wedding venue, the most experienced wedding photographers in Northern Ireland have most likely been to your venue at least once.

You could also ask them for references from previous clients or ask your reception venue for recommendations of wedding photographers in the local area that they have worked with in the past.

I will be writing a more in-depth article on this subject in a future post, if you would like to contact Des about your Wedding Photography in Northern Ireland click on the highlighted link.