The Bride is Always Late: Irish Wedding Blog from WeddingDates.ie » WeddingDates.ie Events

Wife Carrying A-Go-Go!

Ciara Crossan — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:17:31 +0000

People, we have lift off!! As you know, were have been trying to raise sponsorship to help take us to the Wife Carrying World Championships in Finland next week. Well, the good news is, we have managed to secure sponsorship and are 100% definitely going!!

The Carlton Hotel Group, have come on board as our main sponsor and we couldn’t be more delighted!! As a company who deals with wedding venues up and down the country, I am in a great position to know the marketing people, and as a hotel group, the Carlton are one of the most active with their social media, I figured they would jump on something as quirky as this!

Being "carried" by George Hook to celebrate the Carlton Hotels Sponsorship

To celebrate their sponsorship of the WeddingDates Wife Carriers, they are running a brilliant offer at the moment: if you book into any of the 10 Carlton Hotels around the country, your wife/girlfriend/partner goes free if carried over the threshold of the hotel!

That’s not all, anyone that books a wedding during the championship in any of the Carlton hotels will also receive a complimentary 7 night stay across Carlton Hotels! Brilliant! Check out http://www.carlton.ie/wifecarrying for more details.

I have also managed to snag a top of the range Campervan for the 2 week trip across Europe and back, and this has been generously sponsored by Celtic Campervans, the top campervan rental company in Ireland. Steven, is a great guy to deal with and is so supportive of our epic plans to drive all the way to Finland!

Check out the camper we will be hitting the road in:

We are set to head off on the Fastnet Line Cork -Swansea ferry next Thursday 24th June. The captain of the ferry is even going to marry us in a “mock wedding” ceremony on board the ship!!

Here’s our route: 7 countries, 7 days – mammoth journey!! Hope we don’t kill each other along the way!

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Ireland to compete in the World Cup?!

Ciara Crossan — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:38:49 +0000

YES!! It’s true! Ireland will be competing in the World Cup this summer! Well, not exactly. The World Cup in South Africa won’t be seeing any Irish team, but the World Wife Carrying Championships in Finland sure will!!

We participated last year and won 3rd place in the relay race and “Most Entertaining Couple” in the main event, so naturally we are going back again this year to defend our titles!!

We are looking for sponsors to make this voyage to Finland to represent our country in the prestigious sport of “Wife Carrying”!

If you are interested in sponsoring the Irish Wife Carrying Team, then please drop me an email ciara[at]weddingdates[dot]ie or via our Facebook page.

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We Love Rugby!

Ciara Crossan — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:43:01 +0000

Here at WeddingDates.ie HQ, we are chuffed right down to the bottom of our pink cotton socks at the prospect of the upcoming weekend in Kinsale, for the annual Rugby 7’s competition! Not only for the great atmosphere, infamous Heineken tent and plethora of hot rugby males around the place, but this year….we are actually sponsoring our very own team!!

Made up of Irish, English, New Zealanders and even a South African – this is a team to be reckoned with! Today, we took to the sunshine and did a little photo shoot to whet your appetites for what you can expect if you are down in the Kinsale area this May Bank Holiday weekend…make sure you come up and say hello…these guys are NOT shy!

Photo Credit: Peter Sweeney

Kinsale is a top wedding destination in Cork, so if you are looking for inspiration on Kinsale Wedding Venues check out our West Cork waterside Wedding Venues on weddingdates.ie!

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Xposé Live Dublin 2010: The Rundown

Ciara Crossan — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:51:16 +0000

So, it has been a few weeks since Liz and i hit up Xposé Live apologies for not posting sooner. One of the highlights of the night was seeing Stacy Solomon perform and even meeting her at the Green Room afterwards! We got the full VIP treatment which was fab and enjoyed a few Tia Marias while we watched the fashion show and then got to check out the exhibitors. The wedding pavillion was of most interest to both Liz and I naturally and Liz got to talk to a wedding dress designer Fiona Todhunter and Hen Party Planner Jenni from Posh Fizz.

Ciara, Stacy Solomon & Liz

For a full rundown of the whole event in the RDS, including highlights from the fashion show and Stacy Solomon’s performance watch the video:

Liked what you saw?! Then check it out in Cork next month, in the SilverSprings Hotel from 14th – 16th May. See http://www.xposelive.ie/for more details.

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Get the Xposé Treatment

Ciara Crossan — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 08:52:37 +0000

If you are a regular viewer of Xposé on TV3, then you will have heard them talking about their show Xposé Live hitting Dublin this week and Cork next month. I will be checking out the Dublin one this weekend on your behalf ladies, and will post pics and hopefully some video next week after the event.

This year, they have added a special Wedding Pavillion to the show, so I will be having a right nosey around that to see what is hot in wedding fashion and accessories for you guys! Aside from all that, there will be a pamper zone, daily fashion shows and a health and fitness section.

Wedding Make Up is something that every bride needs to think seriously about, as it will differ from your day-to-day make up and the best thing to do is to talk to an expert so at Xposé Live you will have the chance to do just that as well as have a personal consultation with designers – this is a great chance to talk about your body shape and what dress would suit you without committing to going into a bridal shop. A non intimidating way to get the info you need right from the very start!

Entry to Xposé Live costs €20 and tickets can be bought online or at the door. It starts this Friday at 3pm in the RDS and runs till Sunday 6pm. Plenty of time to get around and see everything! Stacey Soloman from X Factor Fame will be performing on Friday and Sunday, so if you are a fan best to go on either of those days! who knows, you might even get to rub shoulders with her!

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Enter The Dragons Den

Ciara Crossan — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:27:44 +0000

Well, tonight is the night….Ciara faces into the infamous Dragons from the Den. Gavin Duffy blogged recently “Ciara Crossan makes one of the better Den Presentations, so good she gets a job offer but will she get an investment? All will be revealed Thursday at 10:15pm on RTE1”

I will post my thoughts on the Den experience over the weekend, but for today at least I am sworn to secrecy! I want to thank everyone on Twitter and Facebook for their lovely comments over the last few days in the build up to the show and if you have any feedback, suggestions, or recommendations – please leave a comment below!

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Ladies Tea Party in The G

Ciara Crossan — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:14:43 +0000

This weekend was the Irish Blog Awards in Galway where most of the irish blogosphere got together in one place to celebrate and recognise the great blogs and bloggers out there. This ‘ere blog got nominated but didn’t make the cut to the shortlist. Bummer. But on the plus side, I didn’t have to worry about an acceptance speech and was able to have that extra Rum & Coke courtesy of Captain Morgan ;)

The awards themselves were great, superbly organised by the King of Blogging Damien Mulley and hosted on the night by the smooth and sexy-voiced Rick O’Shea. Last year we had a wedding, this year…a funeral. For the death of Blogging no less. Complete with coffin, pallbearers (I was one of them!) and an overexcited smoke machine, the entrance to the night was worthy of an MTV awards ceremony stylee.

Congratulations to all of the winners, I was especially chuffed for my pals, Sabrina Dent, Pat Phelan, Sinead Cochrane, Culch.ie and Beaut.ie. I was delighted to see Laura McGonigle recognized for Best Blog by a Politician and she convinced me to register in her constituency because I have recently moved there!

The annual Pre-Event to the Blog Awards is the Ladies Tea Party, organised by Sabrina Dent and this year held in the lip smackingly gorgeous G Hotel. I have been to The G before and *adore* the decor but I had never been to the Linda Evangelista Suite which is so decadent, there are barely words. Zebra head on the wall? check, King Size bed owned by Linda Evangelista herself? Check. Free standing bath with flatscreen plasma embeded in the wall of the bathroom? Check. This suite had EVERYTHING, including a balcony and Galway even obliged us with beautiful weather so we were able to enjoy the view.

As an extra treat this year, the bathroom was set up as a Nail Bar and most of the ladies present got their talons painted for the evening ahead.

Image Courtesy of Jen Davis

Many thanks to all of the lady bloggers who came, chatted, drank and did impromptu manicures. Thanks to L’Onglex the sponsors for the generous freebies of nail varnish remover in gift bags AND for supplying the nail bar goodies, to Curious Wines for the vino

All I can say is….can’t wait for next year. It won’t be Dublin, Cork or Galway….so I wonder where we will be headed and what hotel we will be having the tea party & awards in?! One thing is for sure: Bloggers sure know how to party!

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How did you meet Mr or Mrs Right?

Ciara Crossan — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:35:18 +0000

You’re reading a Wedding Blog, so chances are you are engaged…or at least thinking about it, so come on…spill the beans! I want to hear about how you met the person you are going to spend the rest of your life with, through good times and bad, for richer and poorer and in sickness and in health till death do you part…

Because, though Michael Bublé is prancing around supermarkets exclaiming he “just hasn’t met you yet”; word on the street is that more and more people are meeting through “alternative” means. So, by way of a “Social Experiment” I tried out speed dating myself last night!

A girl I used to work with suggested it a couple of weeks ago, and full of gusto and a New Years Resolution to “try new things to challenge myself” I said yes straight away! As the day loomed large though, this week I was having second thoughts…what kind of people go speeddating I thought to myself….losers? saddos? desperados? Who knows?!! I was worried. So much so, that I nearly bloused out on the 2 girls at the last minute. After a quick call to one of the girls, who proclaimed if all else failed we could laugh about it and have a few cocktails, I resolved myself to go for it.

We met guys who worked in Animal Shelters, Welders, Fishermen, a guy who works for Customs, farmers, writers, landscape gardeners, and a green-keeper! It was the most random selection of occupations you have ever seen! While the girls who were there seemed to be with friends, having a drink or two and a bit of craic; the male speed-daters were taking this very seriously!! A good few of them had traveled for the event, we had guys from West Cork, Waterford, Limerick and even South Tipp! Many of them knew the drill, being regulars at these events.

We all sat around the bar, with our names and a number on a badge. You were given a card with space on it to fill in the guys name & ID number. The girls stayed seated and the guys moved from one to another after the not-very-lengthy 3 minutes! How much can you tell about a person after 3 minutes?? To be honest, probably enough to know if you wanted to have another 3 minutes with them…so it was very effective in helping you put a tick in the columns: Yes/No/Friend. But filling out a little card on a person you had just met felt bizarre to me! We all did compare notes at the end of the night though and had a right laugh – we had all had the same 20 dates! At one of the breaks, my friend Siobhán said to me: “You have a nice one coming your way after this!”

Did I meet some nice people, yes. Did I get some floppy handshakes, yes. Did I have fun, yes. Did I meet anyone even semi-suitable…eh, no! :)

Nevertheless, a fun and harmless evening. It was well run by MysteryDates.ie and I would say to anyone thinking about going to a singles/dating event to give it a lash but keep your expectations low!!

So come on now, I’ve spilled my guts….let me know how you met your significant other – fill out our Poll!

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Fun at the Fair!

Ciara Crossan — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:43:22 +0000

The WeddingDates.ie team were out in force at the Southern Brides Wedding Fair in Silversprings Hotel in Cork last weekend and we had a great time chatting to newly engaged couples and getting plenty of snaps of people behind our poster board!

WeddingDates.ie Stand at the Wedding Fair

We also did a survey with couples and will publish the results soon, and the winner of our champagne prize draw will be announced in next months newsletter, which is going out at the end of this week!

A special thanks to my happy helpers on the day, Paul, Peter, William, Ruaidhri and Chris worked the stand all weekend and not only looked fabulous, but managed to collect hundreds of surveys and email addresses between them! A huge thanks also goes out to Pat Morley from Lapel 1865 for providing the guys with tuxes for the occassion!

My "help" at the Fair...not too shabby!

If you were at the fair and want to check out your photos, you can view them all here and download them to put on your own facebook page or email to your friends!

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Southern Brides – Wedding Fair

Ciara Crossan — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:30:16 +0000

This weekend sees the Southern Brides Wedding Fair take place in the Silversprings Hotel Conference & Events Centre on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th of January 2010. There will be live catwalk shows, dozens of exhibitors and lots of inspiration for the bride and groom-to-be!

We exhibited at this fair last year, and had great fun getting people to pose behind our fun poster board! Don’t worry ladies, if your G2B isn’t planning on attending the fair, I will have a few hunky male models to stand in with you!! ;)

See you all there!

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