Suzy Quirke has been with Powerscourt Hotel from the beginning. Passionate about her job, her own journey through this beautiful building is a walk through the building of a career. She remembers the hotel when it was itself a building site and is genuinely thrilled with the progression she’s made through the ranks to wedding planner. She has a solid knowledge of the DNA of the Wicklow five-star and her knowledge and personality ensure you’re inspired with confidence in her ability.
It’s a complicated and complex role, she says, but the key strategy is to be there to support the couple through every step of their journey. From the first meeting she tries to help a couple infuse the day with their own personality, giving them the space to decide for themselves if Powerscourt is for them.
Last November she faced the same struggle herself. Having worked at the hotel for eight years, logic told her to have her own wedding elsewhere but the choice niggled at her until she and her partner James followed their hearts and cancelled their original choice and booked with Powerscourt Hotel.
“I just knew that I could trust them to make the day extra special. Knowing everything I do about how hard everyone works here I couldn’t be sure that we would find that elsewhere. So we returned to Powerscourt and it was a wonderful decision. I knew that every detail would be looked after – not because I work here but because we all work so hard on every event. The food, the venue, the accommodation, the landscape. It’s such a romantic and beautiful place.”
Like many couples who choose Powerscourt Hotel, she’s had all her significant moments here. She got engaged here, celebrated birthdays, brought her young baby there on its first hotel trip. “The service really is everything and is at the heart of what a five-star hotel should be. We hope that we can replicate that for every couple,” she says. “I love meeting couples at the entrance when they arrive, hold their bouquet, solve a problem, whatever it takes to make their day - everyone else here is the same. We believe in the hotel and hope that shines through.”
There’s only ever one wedding in the hotel at a time, making your choice of weekend a premium, but Suzy will work with couples to find the perfect solution to any date clashes. They also manage the 18th century Powerscourt House nearby. The architecture here is superb she explains and the views over the gardens rival the views from the hotel itself. Both venues, the main hotel or the house, offer incredible backdrops. The river walk that connects the two is one of her favourite parts of the estate, leafy and quiet, it’s a romantic route that brings you immediately into the wild of the hotel’s surroundings.
It’s these surroundings that allow Suzy full reign to create a bespoke wedding - fire pits in the gardens, outdoor barbeques, firework displays (restricted to two per year to protect the wildlife), the secret garden built into the building itself and the space and views that simply become a constantly changing and dramatic backdrop. Her enthusiasm for her job is infectious.
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