WeddingDates.ie

So the results of our Valentine’s Day contest are in, and sadly it seems what Ireland’s women want more than anything is a little more help around the house. This is, apparently, the height of Irish romance in the modern age; out of all out contest entries, the most common response to the question “What do women really want for Valentine’s Day?” was “him to do the dishes.”

Our lucky contest winner is Marlene Linnie of Dublin, who offered up this suggestion for her fiancee:

Clean the house from top to bottom, bring me breakfast in bed and not moan once the whole day so we can just enjoy being together with no worries like finances for the wedding!

We wish Marlene and her other half a brilliant weekend at the four star Blarney Golf Resort and Hotel in Cork. Congratulations!

Our next contest is a weekend away for two at a fabulous four-star hotel: The Malton in Kerry. Spend two night in a newly refurbished junior suites with two nights bed and breakfast and one evening meal. What could be more relaxing or more romantic?

To enter: All you need to do is be a subscriber to Love Letters, our (semi) monthly newsletter – so sign up on our sidebar and add yourself to the draw. (if you are already a subscriber, you’re automatically entered to win.) We’ll pick a winner at random from our mailing list and announce the winner in our next newsletter. Tell your best friends to sign up too, and they can be in with a chance to win as well!

We’re kicking off the first of our monthly newsletter prize draws in style with a fantastic romantic get away for two.

Prize: Escape to the luxurious, four-star Blarney Golf Resort Hotel & Spa. Enjoy two nights accommodation in a stylish guest room, a romantic gourmet dinner for two, and breakfast both mornings. It’s the perfect engagement get away!

All you have to do to enter is tell us what you really wish your partner would do for you for Valentine’s Day. Romantic, funny, off-beat – whether it’s candles everywhere and an intimate dinner for two, a hot air balloon ride in Paris, or getting your name inked on forever, we want to know what would sweep you off your feet and melt your Valentine’s knickers.

We’ll publish the best entries on the blog on Valentine’s Day, and pick one lucky winner of the grand prize romantic getaway. If you’d like us to publish your entry anonymously without your name, that’s fine – just tick the box to tell us so on the entry form. More than anything, we want you to be completely honest as we attempt to answer that age old question: What do women really want for Valentine’s Day?

Click here to enter, and good luck!

Here at the Weddingdates.ie Head Office (also known as the local pub – the “real” office is merely a satellite) we’ve been planning our new monthly newsletter for ages. The one thing we couldn’t come up with is a name, so we foolishly turned to the Internet and asked our online Twitter friends for suggestions.

Here’s just a few of the ideas they came up with:

• Bride to Ride
• Getting Half a Guys Stuff: Part 1
• Veiled Threats
• Bridezilla Monthly
• The Prenup Starts Here

Yes, our friends are hilarious.

In preference to “E-veil” and the like as a title, we’ve gone with the slightly less cynical moniker of “Love Letters” since, well, it’s a letter we write to subscribers every month, it’s about weddings, and weddings are about love. (Yes, they can also be about stress, money, rows and exhaustion, but Complete And Total Panic Monthly didn’t really have the right ring.)

To celebrate the launch of our newsletter, we’re delighted to be partnering with online retailer Curious Wines to offer an exclusive discount on wedding wines, available only to newsletter subscribers. These guys are truly passionate about wine and really know their stuff, so if you want something for your wedding that’s more personal than the standard hotel offerings, take advantage of their free Wedding Concierge Service and let them help you pick out personal wine selections matched to your menu and your budget.

They’ll deliver for free, and even pick up the unopened cases and refund you for what you didn’t use!

We’re also kicking off the newsletter with a cool contest with a fantastic romantic weekend getaway prize, so if you want to get your free swag on, be sure to sign up for Love Letters over on the sidebar.

The results are in! Thank you so much to all the Irish brides (and grooms) who helped us with data for this survey. Over 100 of you let us peer into your wedding finances, and we really appreciate it. It would be lovely to have 100 romantic getaways to give out but sadly we only have one, courtesy of our generous and lovely sponsor, The Blarney Golf Resort Hotel.

Winner: The lucky winner of our getaway prize is Christine Duggan of Cork, who’s entry matched a random number draw. Congrats! Stash us in your luggage?

The results of the survey (a PDF with the press release and data) are available for download, but here are the highlights:

• Despite an average price tag of €20,000 not including honeymoon, almost half (49%) of Ireland’s engaged coupled never planned to take on debt to fund their weddings.
• Conversely, 35% have reduced the amount of debt they’re willing to take on or eliminated debt altogether from their wedding planning budgets.
• Only 16% have remained comfortable with the amount of debt they’re planning to take on and made no budget adjustments in light of the recession.

So with almost 70% of couples reducing budgets, where are the biggest budget savings?

• 21.56% are DIYing more elements of their weddings.
• 17.37% are dispensing with optional extras like wedding favours.
• 17.37% are sourcing and purchasing more things online.
• 14.37% are reducing their guest lists to make savings.

Irish brides would also rather chop guests off the list than compromise on food, drink, or (God forbid!) wedding attire, and really: who can blame you? Regardless, it’s certainly possible to have a special, memorable and gorgeous wedding on a recession budget, and we’ll be passing on the tips and looking for yours, too. Thanks again!

At WeddingDates.ie, we’re interested in all things bridal, and of course, all thing bridal budget! Given the state of the Irish economy, we’re keen to find out: is the Irish recession eating into your wedding budget?

The survey takes less than two minutes to complete, and you can automatically be entered to win the fabulous prize sponsored by the Blarney Golf Resort Hotel:

Prize: Escape to the luxurious, four-star Blarney Golf Resort Hotel. Enjoy a Four Ball Golfing Day package, a gorgeous gourmet dinner for two, one night’s accommodations in a stylish guestroom, and breakfast the next morning. It’s the perfect engagement get away!

And really, with all the craziness and stress of planning a wedding, who doesn’t need a four star resort get away? To be eligible for the survey, you simply need to be living in Ireland and be engaged. We’ll select one survey respondent at random as our winner and announce the results on 26 November, 2008. Good luck!