A registrar's office in a Clarinbridge hotel is proving popular with couples who want to get married somewhere different, writes Róisín Ingle
The popularity of a hotel in Co Galway suggests there will be a huge demand for weddings in alternative locations when the legislation allowing couples to say “I do” in a venue of their choosing is implemented next year. More than 200 couples have already tied the knot at the Clarinbridge Court Hotel in the scenic Galway village since the service was introduced in April last year.
When the Co Galway registry office moved from the boardroom of the Merlin Park Hospital, the Clarinbridge Court became the only hotel in the
country where civil marriages could be egally performed. The former office
was too small and, according to a spokeswoman for the Western Health
Board, "may have had some unhappy memories for some people if a friend or relative had died there".
Since the office's "marriage licence capability" was moved to the hotel, solemnisation ceremonies, held on Thursdays and Fridays only, have been performed by registrar Teresa O'Reilly in the hotel's reading room, a quiet space decorated with flowers and candles. Couples must give three months'
notice of their intention to marry, meeting the registrar to complete a notification form in her presence and set a date for the wedding.
A EUR30 fee, paid to the registrar, covers the cost of legal paperwork, the
ceremony and the marriage certificate. According to regulations, details of the marriages must be posted in glass cases in the lobby of hotel in advance, providing novel reading material for guests.
Five weddings were performed at the hotel yesterday, with only two staying
on at the hotel for their reception. Couples on their second or third marriages are taking advantage of the less formal venue, as are non-nationals and those looking for an alternative to the church or the conventional registrar's office.
"It ranges from people coming to get married in jeans and T-shirts with their
best friends as witnesses, to couples arriving with limousines and having the
full works at the hotel," says the hotel's operations manager Elizabeth Igoe. Couples must be resident in Galway for 10 days before the marriage, and, with some of them opting to stay in the hotel for that period, it's been a financially lucrative development for the hotel.
There is nothing to stop registrar's offices around the country requesting a
change of venue, but most are likely to wait until the Civil Registration Act
2004 is fully implemented next July. Those in the industry say the number
of couples inquiring about weddings in alternative venues has increased in
recent month.
"We are constantly getting e-mails about it," says Damien Carroll of Irish
Weddings Online. "They want to go to a hotel so that they can make it an
all-in-one event. An awful lot of people are holding their breath and booking
their weddings for next year in the hope that they will be able to choose their
own unique venue for their wedding at that point."
"I would hope people don't lose the spiritual aspect of marriage," says
Alannah Gallagher, editor of wedding magazine Confetti, when asked about
the implications of the new legislation. "Wherever you get married, it's a
serious business and it shouldn't be turned into a circus." A survey run by
the magazine earlier this year revealed that 90 per cent of readers would prefer a church wedding.
"It's difficult to recreate that church ambience anywhere else, and people in
Ireland are still remarkably traditional," she says. "But people do like choice and there is something lovely about having all the elements of the wedding in one place."
Teresa Byrne, Registrar of Civil Marriages for Dublin, says there appears to
be "a lot of interest" in alternative venues. "We are putting people on hold at the moment because we don't know when it will be possible," she says.
In the meantime, couples will continue to dream up original wedding
plans – some are even hoping to get hitched in Croke Park.
"The Cliffs of Moher is one of the venues we are asked about most," says a
spokesperson from the General Register Office in Dublin. "We tell them it's
not suitable for health and safety reasons, and anyway, if it started raining
you would end up having the ceremony in the souvenir shop."