We had settled on settling our date for our wedding the 22nd of July 2021 after putting it off for years, so let’s go hunting for a venue.
We had viewed about 6 different venues before we went to visit the Arklow bay hotel, upon arrival we both met Dick the General manager who made us both feel welcomed and brought us into the wedding show case, it was very well layed out. The wedding coordinator Eimear was talking with another couple when we arrived so Dick proceeded to talk with us about themes and colours for our big day, dates etc even went as far as to change the lighting in the room to Teal which is and was Elizabeth’s ideal wedding colour.
He brought us around the hotel and showed us the bridal suite, indoor and outdoor venue, for where the weddings are held if the weather allows for it which we had planned for being the 22nd of July 2021.
Dick showed us the wedding menu’s available to us and the packages on offer, we wanted as little hassle as possible and the more we could deligate the better, we have 2 young kids and I’m a chef so the less we have to do the better, We went for the top package (I think) 😂. Basically all we had to do was source dresses, suits and rings everything else was looked after by Eimear and the crew from the Arklow Bay.
So we booked the date and started the journey to the wedding we wanted and had planned in our head for years.
We had continued contact the whole way through the process and then boom Global pandemic, Covid-19 landed in Ireland late January and grew to be a bride and grooms worst nightmare, we were hearing of weddings having to be cancelled and postponed until further notice and we had started to panic then.
Around the middle of May we had Contin plated postponing the wedding as the Covid-19 cases where growing too fast that it looked as if we wouldn’t get our big day on our 7th year anniversary of going out together.
Eimear was fantastic at first we taught we could get away with reducing the numbers to 50 instead of 100 guests and we hoped it would be enough that if restrictions we’re still in place we could proceed but, that was not the case we there was a full level 5 restriction in affect, so we had to postpone until 22nd of July 2022.
In the end we were lucky enough that restrictions started to lift early June as cases dropped and the race was back on, after postponing the wedding by a year we got back in contact with Eimear to try go for our original date of the 22nd of July 2021, with 5 weeks to go to the big day it was going to be a push.
Eimear and the crew got everything back on track to go ahead with 2021 and we where laughing we could have 50 guest but we only ended up have 37 in total which was fantastic everything on the day in the hotel went off without a single problem.
We had originally planned on a outdoor wedding and the forecast was set to look good and in traditional Irish style the morning of the big day it rained 😂, so we where forced to move it indoors which wasn’t a problem at all the Staff got it all sorted in a matter of a few hours.
Our Room was beautifully decorated and very well Laid out that all the guests could be in full view of the top table and in turn we could see everyone of our guests, we obviously hoped we could have had more guests but unfortunately with the pandemic it just wasn’t an option, we had friends and family stuck in Australia and China that couldn’t get home for the big day unfortunately.
The food was fabulous, we had been very fussy about other venue’s s due to the menus and food choices on offer as I am a chef and I also had a few chef friends on the guest lists, after our event in the hotel they gave us permission to sit out in the garden after the wedding and we light candles and about 15 of us sat there until early hours of the next morning, if ever there was a mental picture of a relaxed and comfortable wedding this was it and all thanks to Eimear, Dick and the rest of the Staff at the Arklow bay, Without them we would not of had the day we did.
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