A Luxurious Wedding Hotel In Dublin: The Merrion Hotel

Weddings

Mar 1

The Merrion Hotel is one the most sought-after luxury wedding venues in Dublin. It boasts an intimate city centre vibe with best-in-class dining in an elegant Georgian setting. Lauren, an interior architect and co-founder and director of North Design, and Graham, owner of Coffee2Go and car enthusiast (whom you’ll often see racing around Mondello Park), chose this gorgeous wedding hotel in Dublin to host their dream celebration. They have always loved the Merrion and felt it would perfectly fit the vision they had for their day.

Insights Into Planning A Luxury Wedding In Dublin

I sat down with Lauren to catch up all about her wedding, what it was like planning this event, her experience throughout, and why video was such an important part of the day.

Using her skills as an interior architect, their Dublin city wedding was expertly planned and executed. Lauren offered so many valuable insights into the practicalities of planning a wedding as well as the reasons why they chose certain elements of the day.

Watch the film of Lauren & Graham’s timeless, minimalist, and elegant wedding right here.

What was it like planning your Dublin wedding?

“What was your vision for the day?”

My style is very simple. I wouldn't necessarily follow trends, so I didn't want it to be something that you're seeing loads of on Instagram. So I suppose that was very much reflected in the day that I wanted to have.

I want to look back on it and hopefully, someday we'll have a family and they'll look back on us and it will be beautiful to them.

“How did you choose the Merrion Hotel, of all the Dublin city wedding venues?”

We'd always loved the Merrion and it’s very much a venue that suited us and our vision for the day and how we wanted the day to be.

What were the important elements to you about the day?

“What were the key things when planning your wedding?”

The videographer and the photographer were so important to me. I suppose it comes through my work and what I do — the visual aspect. Some girls would be about hair and makeup but I was video and photography, so booking those early on was really important to me. I wanted to get those key suppliers and people booked in.

What I would say to my friends when they're planning their wedding is to itemise everything and try to assign a budget for everything — purely because there are so many things that you have to consider. If, from the very beginning, you both know what you want out of your wedding, you always have that to refer back to.

I find as you go on and as you talk to people and talk to friends, they're like, “Oh, we got this, we got that”. I think you can kind of get carried away with what other people have done with their day and it almost feels like you have to get these things. Whereas if you list the things that you want for your day, really stick to that and be rigid with it, it helps to form your day.

“How did having a detailed schedule help you when planning your day?”

I'm very much a visual person, so it was a way of seeing how the day was going to happen. It can become so overwhelming but by putting it down on paper, it helps add structure to the day. That's something that just made me feel a little bit calmer that I knew what was happening.

Why was hiring a wedding videographer important to you?

“Why was video important?”

I wanted to watch the video and just be transported back to the day. People had told me that the day would go by in a flash — and it really does. You're super busy, you're talking to people, and you're enjoying the day. Although you try to kind of take a step back and be present in the moment, that doesn't always happen because there's just something else that you have to move on to all of the time.

For us, it was really important to capture the day in essence of how it happened and to watch back and just be immersed back in the day and have all of those feels again.

Why did you choose Dear Oliver as your videographer?

For one, I looked at your previous work and you can tell that every wedding is different and the way that you capture the emotion and each couple — no wedding video is the same.

I kind of instantly knew that you were able to capture that so well through your work.

The style was really important to me as well. I suppose it's timeless, it’s very natural, there’s nothing too staged. You're capturing people's personalities through what you're filming.

Also, I wanted the videography and photography to very much tie in together and have the same feel and flow between the two of them.

What was it like watching your wedding video for the first time?

The first time you watch it, you're just taking it all in.

It's like you remember it, but at the same time there's so much that you just missed — even things like snippets where our friends are talking and laughing. There’s Klara and Nikki dancing to the string quartet, like, I didn't see that.

It's so amazing watching it, but I think the more I’ve watched it, the more emotional I got because it nearly sets in and I’ve watched it a good 5,000 times now…

It's actually really hard to describe, but it's just amazing.

Have you any tips for couples who are looking for a wedding videographer?

First and foremost, I would recommend listing what you want — whether that's two or three points of what's important to you in terms of a video. It could be the style or the person that you're working with.

There are so many out there, so being able to narrow down what you want and then being able to connect with the person that you're going to work with.

And also their work — I really feel that's the key. Research previous videos that they have. Do they evoke emotion in you? Are they connecting with you in some way? Arrange a chat with the videographer that you’re looking to hire because you know if you gel with someone when chatting with them within a few minutes.

It's so important to have someone there with you on the day that, one, you can have a laugh with and two, you fully trust and know that they're doing the job you want them to do and trust in their creative direction.