Small Weddings Make a Comeback
The biggest challenge for couples in the current economic climate is how to make your wedding unique and special, without compromising quality, which is why small weddings are making a comeback – and venues such as Ballinacurra House, Kinsale – provide the perfect solution for downsizing but not downgrading.
Ballinacurra House – has been voted Ireland’s Premier Private Estate for Exclusive Hire – and host intimate, boutique weddings for up to 100 +, on a 40 acre estate, just 2 minutes from Ireland’s gourmet capital, 20 minutes from Cork International Airport, and with the improvements in the motorway road network - now just 3 hours from Dublin.
“In the last couple of years the landscape for weddings has been dramatically changed by two key factors: the new marriage reform law meaning full civil ceremonies can take place outside the church or registry office, and of course the recession,” said Ballinacurra House owner Des McGahan.
“These two factors mean couples have a more creative choice for their special day and with the current financial challenges there is a definite shift to more intimate venues and smaller occasions, where the focus is on quality not quantity - without breaking the bank.”
Everyone wants their special day to be different and the way to achieve this is to;
• Reduce the numbers, and therefore the budget
• Focus the spend on the important items
• Quality Venue• Quality Food and Beverage
• Quality Entertainment Organising a Weekend Wedding Party may seem daunting to some, and you may feel that you need the help of a wedding planner to help pull everything together.
However you will not need that additional expense as the owners of Ballinacurra House – Des & Lisa McGahan – previously owned PRISM, Asia’s largest event management company in its day and run the property as their core business of an Events House.
Ballinacurra House, Kinsale, was voted "Best Exclusive Hire Property" at the International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) in Cannes for 2007/08 by the prestigious Luxury Travel Magazine, beating out stiff competition from Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island, won Kinsale Business of the Year in 2008 and hit the headlines recently as the secret hideaway for Michael Jackson and his family, who rented the private Georgian Estate for a number of weeks while writing a proposed new album.
At Ballinacurra House customers can enjoy the experience of a 40 acre luxury, private country residence, complete with your own personal chef, butler - a bespoke wedding of your choice, in the inspirational setting of renowned medieval tourist town – Kinsale, Ireland's culinary capital. Magnificent south-facing walled gardens feature an outdoor entertainment patio, Italian Pizza oven, croquet lawn, playground, helipad, picnic lawn, stream and pond, and leads down to woods and a small boat jetty on the Bandon River estuary.
The property has 22 themed rooms, in the main house, cottage and coach house and the informally manicured grounds are perfect for outdoor cocktail parties, activities, garden parties and BBQ's or winter weddings with log fires throughout. The capacity of the Ballroom for a sit-down dinner is 50 and can accommodate 96 in the Garden Room or 130 using both rooms side by side. A Private Wedding at Ballinacurra House is only ever "Exclusively Yours”.