Somewhere green to go with your something blue.
As Earth Day takes place on April 22nd, it’s worth checking out which wedding venues in Ireland are the most sustainable or eco-friendly, and thanks to research from SaveMyDay, it turns out there’s a fair few.
8. Mountain View
Location: Ballyhale, Kilkenny
Mountain View is a venue that’s all about supporting local, set in the beautiful rolling hills of the Kilkenny countryside. It won Ireland’s Best Alternative and Best Festival Wedding Venue at the SaveMyDay.ie Irish Wedding Venue Awards 2022, with space for up to 250 guests.
Choosing Irish craft beers and spirits for the bar, selecting a menu featuring seasonal and locally sourced ingredients, supporting local and Irish businesses not only helps Mountain View to create a more sustainable and memorable wedding but also helps to boost the local economy and promote a sense of community.
7. The Wicklow Escape
Location: Donard, Wicklow
For more intimate sustainable weddings, The Wicklow Escape is an ideal choice. They have an ethos of zero waste, and have created both an abundant kitchen garden and a network of hyper-local produce for their wedding menus.
This is a wedding venue that truly feels like an escape, where you and your loved ones can celebrate in style.
6. Brooklodge & Macreddin Village
Location: Macreddin East, Wicklow
If country chic is your wedding vibe, then you’ll want to have a look at Brooklodge.
What makes BroodLodge a great sustainable wedding venue? Well, it’s home to Ireland’s first certified organic restaurant, The Strawberry Tree. Their organic ethos extends far beyond food and Macreddin Village is now proudly carbon-neutral. In 2018, Macreddin Village committed to purchasing Biogas which is made entirely from organic waste.
They are also the only hotel in Ireland with two, 200KVA carbon-neutral wood-chip burners providing all the hot water in their guest’s sink, bath and shower. Biogas combined with the woodchip plants means that all the fuel required in Macreddin Village is totally carbon neutral.
5. Camus Farm
Location: Clonakilty, Cork
Set in 30 acres of West Cork hills, with panoramic views over Clonakilty Bay, Camus Farm has sustainability, biodiversity and animal welfare at the heart of everything they do.
As an organic farm they offer a truly authentic farm-to-fork experience for couples and their wedding guests, with much of the wedding menu’s produce being grown or reared on the farm.
Camus Farm hosts weddings for parties of as many as 100 people.
4. 10 Bridge Street
Location: Killorglin, Kerry
If your wedding guest list extends as high as 180 people, this Kerry based venue can accommodate that. 10 Bridge Street is a unique venue hosting a wide range of exclusive wedding celebrations from sit-down banquet style wedding dinners, family-style tasting menus, informal casual style parties, intimate celebrations and late-night dancing – essentially it’s whatever you need it to be on your big day.
Some of 10 Bridge Street’s sustainable practices include using wedding software for pre-ordering meals to reduce food waste, digital invites reducing stationary and delivery, discouraging table favours that aren’t reusable or recyclable, using local food producers and encouraging couples to use local wedding suppliers to help reduce carbon footprint.
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3. Airfield Estate
Location: Dundrum, Dublin
One of Dublin’s two most sustainable wedding venues is Airfield Estate, based in Dundrum. This location is based on 38 acres of land, and can accommodate both indoor and outdoor weddings, depending on the time of year.
Some of the reasons to choose this venue include their romantic and serene Walled Garden, and elegant reception spaces as well as their celebrated restaurant of Overends Kitchen, where farm to fork food is showcased at its very best.
Airfield Estate were recently crowned with the Best Sustainable Practices award from the Restaurant Association of Ireland.
2. Ballintubbert Gardens and House
Location: Stradbally, Laois
Voted Ireland’s Best Outdoor Wedding Venue at the SaveMyDay.ie Irish Wedding Venue Awards 2022, Ballintubbert Gardens and House is perfect for a sustainable wedding you want to have al fresco.
The extensive gardens have always been a core highlight of Ballintubbert; the venue’s ethos has always been based on clear sustainability practices. The 14 acres of organic gardens are a picture perfect setting for hosting a civil ceremony, or toasting the newly weds at the drinks reception. Ballintubbert is also certified as Ireland’s first organic or ornamental garden.
1. Clontarf Castle
Location: Clontarf, Dublin
If you want a touch of glamour with your sustainable vibes, Clontarf Castle could be the option for you. Not only can it host up to 300 guests (ideal if you’ve got a dozen aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews) this Dublin 3 wedding venue boasts beautiful seaside views for you and your party.
Clontarf Castle has the Green Hospitality Award Eco-label, with its main eco aims being to reduce carbon emissions by decreasing energy consumption, preserving water resources and minimising waste production. They also have ample on-site accommodation for wedding guests, and space for both ceremony and reception, reducing the need for people to travel between locations.
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Tips on keeping things sustainable on your big day.
SaveMyDay has put together ten ways of keeping things earth conscious while you celebrate your happy day.
1. Consider your wedding location and try avoiding lengthy travel times for guests to reduce travel emissions.
2. Hosting the ceremony and reception in the same venue will also reduce transport emissions.
3. Opt for local independent suppliers that have sustainability policies in place, and this also reduces the environmental impact of long-distance transportation and shipping.
4. Choose locally grown, seasonal and organic produce for your wedding menus.
5. Renting wedding décor or working with a wedding venue that provides in-house dressing that is reused across weddings. This will also save on your wedding budget.
6. Using natural materials over plastics from the hen party to the wedding favours to the wedding menu produce and packaging.
7. Work with local florists to use seasonal wild flowers for table decorations along with bridal bouquets and buttonholes.
8. Use greenery sourced from the venue’s grounds for table decorations.
9. At Kilkenny’s Mountain View, they have introduced beautifully crafted wooden tables which allows them to remove the use of table cloths and laundered napkins which have large environmental impacts from water use, energy use and hazardous chemicals in the cleaning process.
10. Sending paperless save the dates, invites and thank you cards
All images via Best In Fest
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