Alternative Hen Weekends with Just Cooking.ie in Co Kerry

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Kerry based Cookery School ‘Just Cooking’ located in Firies, County Kerry have launched details of their Alternative Hens Packages for the Irish wedding market on their website www.justcooking.ie. The Cookery school, which is conveniently located just twenty minutes from Killarney and ten minutes from Tralee, have put together courses and linked up with local hotels and Spa’s to offer Hen groups a very different experience to the usual Hen activities available in Kerry. From Asian Cuisine Courses, a Spanish Tapas Course to a Beginners Course there is something to suit everyone. The group will be greeted on arrival with Champagne and Canapés. They will then be treated to a meal prepared for you, with tips and tricks on how to achieve it yourself, by award winning chef Mark Doe. Wine will be served throughout and parties can also bring there own wine if they wish to have something more specific. Once the course has ended arrangements can be made by Bernie Doe to get the group to their next destination.

Both Killarney and Tralee are very popular Hen destinations and Mark and Bernie Doe, proprietors of Just Cooking Cookery School, feel that what they have to offer adds to the charm of having your weekend break or evening out in Kerry. They are also delighted to announce that they are now running their Just Cooking Alternative Hen Party Packages in the Kenmare area, another extremely popular Hen weekend destination. Mark and Bernie feel that there is a huge market for what they have to offer; “We have had Hen parties on our courses in the past and they have been delighted and surprised with what we have on offer here at Just Cooking so we decided to expand on this and give them something more and cater to the Hen parties that want to do something different. We can cater for a variety of needs and groups and I must say the craic is always great on our courses! Many brides these days want to do something other than go straight to the pub and our courses provide a great fun evening or day with a difference”.

Just Cooking can cater for day courses and evening courses as well as self catering groups in the Tralee, Killarney and Kenmare area. Just Cooking can come to your self catering accommodation and cook for your group offering the same high standard courses at your convenience. Please contact Mark or Bernie Doe on 066 979 3660/
0866095318 or email info@justcooking.ie. You can also log onto www.justcooking.ie for more detail on the amazing Hotels, Spas and activities that are part of the Just Cooking Hen Weekends to see what best suits your group.

The best ‘Best Man’ prank ever

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After having sworn to ‘no pranks before the wedding’ an anonymous Best Man in the UK, using technology, hooked up the newlywed couple’s bed to send an update to Twitter every time there was some ‘extra motion’ on the bed. The Twitter account @newlywedsonthejob gained over 22,000 followers in a relatively short space of time.

In an interview with Staggered, the anon best man has said that he will tell the bride and groom about the prank on Feb 26th, the day of the groom’s birthday! Staggered have even offered to sponsor a live video feed of the occasion!

We’ll be watching to see how events unfold in what is unarguably the best ‘Best Man’ prank ever.

Staggered is the UK’s number one men’s wedding magazine and provides advice on stag-dos, wedding suits and wedding speeches, making it ideal for best men, grooms, fathers of the bride and, even, brides.

Cromleach Lodge provides an idyllic setting for weddings and weekend breaks

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Cromleach Lodge Country House, Sligo, is situated in the quiet hills above one of Ireland’s most renowned trout fishing lakes, Lough Arrow on the borders of Counties Roscommon & Leitrim. This 4* Luxury Sligo Hotel is famous for it’s fine cuisine, splendid accomodation and genuine Irish Hospiality. It is an excellent destination wedding venue with it’s own wedding co-ordinator to help tailor every aspect of your wedding. A Champagne Wedding Showaround is taking place on the 2nd and 3rd of January 2010.

To find out more about Cromleach House 4* Luxury Hotel, Spa and Wedding Venue click here.
In the video below one of the proprietors Christy Tighe speaks to a local writer Brian Leydon. Several other videos are available on their website

New website that helps you save money

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Weddings can be costly affairs as you well know. Saving money to pay for your wedding venue, suppliers, honeymoon etc. can put tremendous strain on anybody. The easiest way  to save money is to cut back on expenditure, the easiest way to cut back on expenditure is to monitor your expenses (quick someone tell the Government!).

At the recent Business Camp in Limerick I met with Daniel Hunt, Technical Director of Curbl.com. The site allows you to easily record how you spend your money, will notify you when you have bills coming and provides you with easy to understand  graph and reports.

Better still it’s free to sign up!

curbl.com the easy way to save money

curbl.com the easy way to save money

Wedding car breaks down and needs a push

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I spotted this video which highlights the importance of choosing a reliable wedding car to bring you to and from the church on your wedding day. Of course any car can break down but always try and get a reputable reliable car and chaffeur for your wedding day. Thankfully in the video they got the car going but it could have easily ended up badly. At least now the couple have a good story to tell of what might have happened 🙂

How a Wedding Photographer can create positive word of mouth to increase business

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This blog is usually geared towards offering helpful tips to brides and grooms preparing for their wedding. But as many wedding suppliers also read it I thought I’d share an idea with them also.

As we all know a referral from a trusted source is a fantastic way of gaining new business. One very simple way for any wedding supplier to be remembered and possibly talked about by a couple after the wedding is to send a simple ‘Happy Anniversary’ card for their first anniversary.

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary a couple of months ago and didn’t receive one single card from any of our suppliers apart from the Hotel who sent a voucher for a meal for two.

We weren’t expecting any, and the thought hadn’t even crossed our minds that they would. However such a simple gesture would have meant something to us. That it wasn’t just a case of ‘I’ve gotten my money, Thanks and good luck’. I’m not having a snipe at any of our wedding suppliers, they were all fantastic on the day and I would recommend them to anyone. But a year later a lot of people would have to think hard about who they got to do what. A simple card would be a great reminder.

Any supplier could add their own little twist to it to generate further sales; A gift voucher from the Jeweller, Beautician, Florist, Wine Merchant etc.

The wedding photographer and videographer are in a great position however to really benefit. They could easily create a quick little video to share with the happy couple. They’ve already got the footage and photos. Then with the couple’s permission, afterwards it could be uploaded to YouTube, where the couple could share with their friends on Facebook, Twitter and whatever other networking sites they are on.

It is very easy to do. I created one myself using Animoto as a surprise for my wife. You can see it below. She immediately posted it to her Facebook profile.

Now can you imagine if it had been our photographer who created it. Would we have told everyone about it? How great he was? What a fantastic job he had done? Of course we would! He could even have put his details on the end of the video.

My advice to wedding suppliers is simple. Your past customers are one of your greatest resources and will happily refer you to others. Just give them a reason to do it. Don’t just take the money and run just because you won’t be expecting repeat business from them.

Anyhow here’s my video

Free online tool to help plan a wedding

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Watching Dragon’s Den recently I was impressed by a website which was featured on it. Family Fridge is ‘A free online tool helping you and your family to become more organised’.

It is designed for families, but I think you could also use it to help plan your wedding. Basically decide who is going to be in your ‘family’ ie. the wedding party, Bride, Groom, Bridesmaids, Groomsmen etc. There are some useful features included in Family Fridge which could be of help in organising a wedding.

A calendar lets you share important dates with everyone. Now no one is going to forget the date of the wedding itself. Heavens forbid! But it could be handy for sharing dates like meeting with the photographer, dress fittings, hair and beauty trials, marriage courses, hen and stag outings etc. All the relevant parties can share and know the availability of each other.

You can mail each other and leave notes within the site and there is also a feature which allows you to securely store important documents. Basically it acts like a fridge you might have at home with notes stuck on it with magnets, calendars and important reminders.

And, what could be very useful is a gift list, where you can leave suggestions of gifts that you might like.

All in all it could be a very handy tool for a wedding party to collaborate in planning the big day. It could help reduce stress on the bride having to phone or email everyone to tell them about the plans ahead. Simply post all the plans on the ‘fridge’ where authorised people can access them. Then it’s up to everyone else to check in for themselves.

Then after the big day the happy bride and groom can set up their own Family Fridge 🙂

Choosing a song for the first dance

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There are so many choices out there with regards to what music you will have played at your wedding, both at the church ceremony and at the reception. In Ireland we do love a good wedding and the choice of music can add to the overall success of the big day.

Choosing a song for your first wedding dance together can be either extremely easy or can lead to disagreements. Sit back, cuddle up to your loved one and listen to some of the tunes on this playlist to give you an idea of where your preferences lie and what song you would like for your first dance.

Click here to go to a site that has a large selection of suggested tunes that you can listen to, that might help in making your decision.

Beware when booking your wedding photographer

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Your wedding photos are one of the highlights of your wedding. They provide a long lasting memory of what should be one of the happiest days of your life. When your own memories fade the photos will always serve as a reminder of that special day. Many wedding photographers in Ireland now seek payment upfront as do most other wedding suppliers. This is understandable as offering credit has it’s own inherent risks.

But what happens if you have paid upfront and get nothing back?

Peter Donegan and his wife got married 3 years ago and have still received no photos from their wedding photographer. You can read more about that here

To avoid this happening to you a happy middle ground should be achieveable. Some kind of half now and the balance when you receive your photo album (or variations thereof) should be the best option to ensure that you get the service that you pay for. The photographer needs to be paid for his/her time and you need to get what you paid for.

The whole business landscape in Ireland has changed dramatically over the past year and I’m sure people are more willing to shop around for the best deal (I’m still not sure why we stopped doing this in the first place). If you don’t get the terms and conditions that you want, move on until you find someone who’ll give them to you.

You don’t pay a builder until the house is built, why should it be any different with your wedding photographer?

Here’s hoping that Peter and his wife eventually get their wedding photos.

Best Wedding Invitation Ever

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Spotted this on Joe’s blog and thought it was worth sharing