Romance keeps village’s recession at bay

ROMANCE is helping keep the heritage picture postcard village of Adare sweet and rosy in the depths of the recession.

The three local hotels have up to 250 weddings booked this year, with a spin-off of up to €25 million.

And more than 80 of these wedding ceremonies will take place in the 13th century Holy Trinity Abbey Church in the centre of the village.

Parish clerk, Frank Dillon said that since he took up duty five years ago he has seen 482 couples leave the church as man and wife.

Adare Manor Hotel attracts couples from all over the world the celebrate their big day.

Last Friday, international soccer star, Kevin Doyle and his bride, Jenny Harney held their big day reception in the historic Gallery at the Manor.

The Gallery is modelled on the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles.

Anita Higgins, general manager of Adare Manor, said: “Adare is a beautiful setting for a wedding, there is no location like it.”

She said most of their 62 rooms along with the bridal suite are booked by wedding parties on the day of the wedding.

The bridal suite costs €950 a night, but comes complimentary to all couples who hold their reception at the manor.

The Dunraven Arms on the village main street hosts weddings every Friday and Saturday.

The proprietor, Louis Murphy said: “We do weddings on these two days and we only do one wedding on each day so we can give the wedding parties our 100%.

We cater for weddings of up to 300 and we get a huge amount of Dublin weddings.

“People just love coming down from the city and most stay on for the weekend to take in golf and fishing. Weddings are very important to us and we have a great tradition of catering for weddings.”

The Woodlands House Hotel, owned and run by the Fitzgerald family, is one of the biggest wedding venues in the country.

It regularly caters for weddings of more than 400.

Hotel manager Elaina Fitzgerald said weddings were “the main stay” of their business.

She said: “This year we will host about 100 weddings and the guests can number from over 400 to as few as four. We are getting a lot of small intimate weddings.

“A big change in recent years has been the big increase in civil weddings being conducted here in the hotel. About 10% of our weddings are now held in the hotel with the registrar coming to marry the couple.”