Lisa & Patrick

Our Story

A little bit about you both:

We are from Northern Ireland and the West Midlands in the UK and met at an industry function in 2009. Together for the past 7 years and haven’t looked back since.

Tell us a bit about the proposal:

At home on Liz's birthday in early 2021. Something of a mutual discussion had been going on in the weeks beforehand but Patrick cooked her favourite meal and gave her a card with dessert. She agreed on the spot.

What suppliers did you work with?:

Cake by http://amazingcakes.ie/
Live music by http://www.velvetloungeband.com/.

The beauty parade:

Outfits sourced by ourselves.

Hair and make-up by https://www.powderroomhairmakeup.com/

Something old, something new?:

Patrick borrowed a tie from someone who felt it suited him better than her husband from whom she was getting divorced.

The Big Day:

Tulfarris Hotel, Poulaphouca Suite.

Manor House gardens.

Chicken & mushroom bouchee, soup & Featherblade of beef.

"Let There Be Love" (Nat 'King' Cole).

The arrival of the bride and the speeches by friends and family at the ceremony.

Post Wedding celebrations:

We did things in reverse and had a fun evening at the hotel with most of our guests the night before (Saturday) after a very pleasant round of golf.

The day after the wedding we attempted to play golf again but the weather and our hangovers were against us.

Owing to work commitments we're going on several mini-moons over the coming months.

Why did you choose Tulfarris?:

We needed a location near Dublin airport as 90% of our guests would be flying in from elsewhere, and the Tulfarris Hotel had the perfect layout to host a wedding in spacious yet private surroundings without causing any disruption to the main hotel property.

Honora Carberry took our first phone call on 8th March and from beginning to end was refreshingly plain-speaking, helpful, patient, and flexible.

What really convinced us we'd made the right choice, however, was Honora's most creative promo videos recorded on a phone during the pandemic when the hotel was closed. The first was a walk-through video on the hotel's website showing the various features of the wedding property & Manor House, which we watched repeatedly since at the time all visits to the hotel were prohibited.

Some weeks later the "Fireside Chat" video appeared online, featuring Honora along with GM Darren Byrne and Chef Eddie McDermott sitting by the fireplace in the Manor House. Again recorded on a phone, the likely discomfort in staging a conversation of this nature was well hidden but we just LOVED the honesty behind it. It was a perfect example of professional hoteliers putting their heads together to show the hotel in a good light to the outside world at a time when no marketing budget was available and no show around visits was allowed. More importantly, each time we thought of the hotel we thought of these three people, the guts it took to make such a video, and their evident determination to not let the pandemic get in the way of extolling the property's virtues. (We have taken to showing this video to our own teams as an example of what can be achieved despite some of the worst circumstances ever suffered by the hotel sector.)

With the above in mind, we didn't feel that any other venue could possibly come up to the same standard, and in the end, the Tulfarris Hotel certainly kept its promises. Thanks to the management and their respective teams for a truly memorable wedding weekend!