Small weddings · East Galway
For weddings of a handful of people up to about sixty. No minimum numbers, one table in a panelled Georgian dining room, and beds on the estate for everyone you invite.
Ballinderry Park has no minimum guest number for a weekend wedding, so 12 guests get the same exclusive use of the house and 41 acres as 120. Smaller weddings eat in the Manor House dining room rather than a marquee, up to 44 guests can sleep on the estate, and Galway city is about 35 min away.
The house was built around 1740 and is hired to one party at a time. For a small group that matters more than for a large one: there is no hotel lobby, no other wedding in the next room and no function suite to fill.
Most Galway venues that advertise small weddings are hotels with a private dining room. That works, but your guests share the bar, the car park and the breakfast room with strangers, and the day ends when the room is needed for something else. At Ballinderry the estate is booked for your wedding alone, from check-in to check-out.
A house of this size suits 10 to 60 people. With 30 guests the drawing room is full rather than echoing, conversation carries from the hall into the library, and everyone fits around the fire at the end of the night. There is also no curfew on the music: once the booked DJ finishes, you can play your own for as long as you like, with no late charge.
Triona, our in-house wedding planner, coordinates the day on site. You deal with one person for the menu, the room plan, the timings and the suppliers.
A small wedding uses the same five or six spaces in a natural order: a ceremony outside or in the Stables, drinks in the courtyard or drawing room, dinner in the dining room, and a late bar in the Coach House.
On the lawns under the oaks, by the great London plane tree, in the courtyard or in front of the Manor. If it rains, the ceremony moves into the Stables, which are renovated and heated.
The cobbled courtyard between the Manor and the Coach House in fine weather, or the drawing room, with its fireplace and deep sofas, when it is cold.
The Manor House dining room: teal panelling, portraits and one long mahogany table, lit by candles. Our chef cooks from the house menus.
The Coach House bar has its own stove and a private terrace, so the evening can move across the courtyard while the Manor stays quiet for anyone who wants an early night.
Micro weddings
For a micro wedding of up to 20 people, the Intimate Elopement package gives you one night of exclusive use, beds for up to 20 guests, the Select dinner in the dining room and a cash bar. It is priced live from our current rates, so the figure below is what the quote builder charges today.
Twenty is room for parents, siblings and a few close friends: enough people for a proper dinner and speeches, few enough that everyone sleeps in the Manor House and the Coach House. You can add a second night, breakfast, a prosecco reception or a photographer in the quote builder.
If it is just the two of you, or you are flying in from the US with a witness or two, see our elopement page instead. It covers the legal paperwork and the timings for couples travelling alone.
€197 per guest
€3,930 for 20 guests
Between 20 and about 60 guests, you choose where dinner happens. Smaller parties stay in the Manor dining room. Once the numbers outgrow it, one marquee on the lawn seats up to 75, at €1,400 with tables and chairs, so you are never paying for a hall sized for 200.
The venue fee is €750 plus €15 for each guest, so a 20-guest wedding pays €1,050 and a 40-guest wedding €1,350. Dinner menus are €35, €45 or €75 a head, and you can bring your own alcohol with no corkage.
Guest numbers can change up to 30 days before the wedding, which helps when a small list is still settling.
Costed examples
Two small weekend weddings, priced line by line with the same arithmetic as our quote builder and today’s rates. Everyone sleeps on the estate for two nights.
Select dinner in the dining room, full Irish breakfast both mornings, a prosecco reception and the beer and wine package.
Premium dinner (with a glass of wine), full Irish breakfast both mornings, a prosecco reception, the beer and wine package and a DJ.
Examples only, for a weekend with no date chosen. Your written quote confirms the price for your date, and the quote builder below lets you change any line.
Build your own small weddingUp to 44 people sleep on the estate, so at a small wedding nobody books a taxi or a hotel. The nine bedrooms in the Manor House and the Coach House are all en-suite; the glamping village is heated, with beds made up, and has outdoor toilets and indoor toilets, and an outdoor shower area.
Breakfast is not included in the stay. It is priced per person, and you can add it for both mornings so everyone eats together before going home.
For room-by-room detail, see our wedding accommodation page.
The legal part of an Irish marriage cannot take place at Ballinderry. You complete the civil registration at a registry office, often in the days before the wedding, and hold the ceremony that matters to you here, led by a celebrant.
Lisa Chalfa, an independent celebrant with the Irish Institute of Celebrants, can write and lead it with you. At a small wedding the ceremony tends to be more personal: guests can stand in a half circle on the lawn, and readings come from people rather than a lectern.
Wedding planner
Set your guest numbers, nights, dinner and drinks, and the total updates as you go. Nothing is booked until you pay a deposit.
Questions
Price it in a few minutes, or talk it through with Triona.
