Fernhill House Hotel & Gardens wins “Best Wedding Venue”
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Breakfast Business with Enterprise Ireland on Newstalk. Welcome back to Breakfast Business with Susan Hayes Culleton. Now, Fernhill House, Hotel and Gardens in Clannachilty has been awarded the prestigious Best Wedding Venue Prize at the International Historic Hotels of Europe Awards. And the West Cork Hotel is celebrating 200 years in business next year. Joining us now is Michael O'Neill, Manager and Part Proprietor of Fernhill House, Hotel and Gardens. Good morning, Michael.
Good morning from wonderful West Cork. Delighted to be on the show.
Now, Michael, I have to tell you, I know your part of the world well, as my dad grew up in Timaleague, only over the road from you. But for our listeners who may not be as familiar, what's really special about West Cork hospitality?
What makes Fernhill House Hotel & Gardens a top wedding venue?
West Cork is just a magical corner of the world you know and like we've it's all about the people you know we've unbelievable people and like everybody's up to something artistic or crafty and things like that like we we've a fantastic array of craft producers here in West Cork like from Timaleague there where your father was from we use a Milaga honey you know it's fantastic I do I have it at home Yeah, you know, so, you know, it's a lovely, and then we have the beautiful scenery down here to inspire everyone as well. So it really is a truly magical corner of the world, you know, and we love welcoming people and we'd like to see more people down in West Cork.
And in 2024, there were 19,680 wedding ceremonies. What trends are you seeing in weddings today, Michael?
so yeah the ceremonies on site are growing the whole time you know it's becoming more of a trend you know and luckily here at Fernhill we're really well set up for ceremonies we've like we've A and B options with the weather and everything we've a beautiful outdoor wedding garden and we are like and then our backup option is a stunning we just built a beautiful event space for it and we have and we also this year we added an amazing bridal beauty suite for the for the the the bride's getting ready in the morning at the wedding so they can do it all on site you know and have a fantastic day so and then also i suppose the weddings are getting a small bit smaller but and the brides are you know i think the style of the weddings are really getting better there are the autumn weddings particularly the colors they're picking and everything like that you know so kind of trends from instagram and things like that there the the the brides and the grooms are doing a fantastic job in fairness to them
And what mistake do you see brides or grooms making all the time? And I'll give you the one from my own wedding is that we didn't video it. It's always been our regret that we should have videoed it. But anyway, we can't do much about that now. But what mistake do you see happening?
I think that, you know, just getting out there and just booking the things that there's one of, you know, like I see some people like to get engaged and then they just don't go about it for months, you know, and they can be fierce competition for dates and not just for venues. Like you have to match your band, beautician, photographer, all of these things. So I think, look, if you can, like it is a daunting thing. It's such an important day. But if you can at all, just get out there and just book the things that there's only one of, if you know what I mean, like just to lock them in. And then you can relax for months and, you know, enjoy it there. And, you know, you'll have all your best suppliers lined up.
And, you know, I think that's my kind of top tip, really, especially because there's a huge amount of people get engaged over Christmas and there's a rush for suppliers and dates and all these things, you know. So really try and get out and beat the crowd there if you can.
And if we turn to the business of weddings from your own perspective, then where does the margin really lie? Is it in the food or the bar bill or the accommodation?
Yeah.
The food is just getting squeezed the whole time.
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