Wedding Ceilidh Venues - Any pitfalls to avoid ?

What type of Venue works well for your Wedding Ceilidh ?

Venues for Weddings are numerous,ranging from the large Country homes,large hotels,Conference Centres and Complexes to refurbished Tithe Barns,dedicated smaller houses and pubs with function rooms to private marquees to village halls (old and new) to standard working-type barns to even the great outdoors.We're well aware that venues are picked for far more reasons than 'will this place work for my ceilidh ?' We'll let others discuss the merits of photo backdrops,standard of dining/meals,general hospitality,accomodation,children's entertainment and so on ! Endless list,isn't it ? On this page,we are more concerned on how matters may affect the dancing.

It's probably worth considering how many people will be there before getting bogged down in any detail.Have a look HERE for further information about 'numbers'. If your beautiful venue is split up into smaller rooms....it may work against your plans for Ceilidh dancing.Think about how many guests may be dancing and allow approx 1 square yard per dancer and about 10 square yards for a 3 or 4 piece band and gear.

We deal with types of flooring HERE - however,here's an extended word of caution about a fairly common trend in hotels particularly.....the dreaded interlocking timber squares ! Quite a number of hotels use these 'squares' as temporary 'dance floors'.These floors are probably fine for Discos.But most of the time they only cover a limited area (often about 15' x 15' if you're lucky) of around 20 square yards (meaning approx space for 20 dancers in Ceilidh-speak).The choice presented is to stick to the floor area or dance in the space beyond the 'squares – that would be OK if it wasn't for the 'step' in levels all the way round the edge of the flooring.This change in levels can lead to accidents,twisted ankles and the like.and we certainly do not recommend them.It's better to remove them and use the wider space available,even if it does mean dancing on a carpet surface.Of course,the hotel may tell you that their 'squares' system works fine for dancing,even for Ceilidh dancing.That either means that they haven't a clue about Ceilidhs (which makes you wonder,doesn't it ?) OR they're fibbing and are more interested in protecting their own carpet !

Drinks and bars can sometimes be worth a bit of fore-thought as well.Meaning – how far away from the dance area is the bar ? We can still picture venues where a room becomes almost deserted because the only bar serving drinks is out through the door,up a corridor and around the corner,about a minute's walk from the dancing area..Might as well be in the next village,then ! Men,particularly,are quite happy to prop up the bar.If the bar is in the same room or,at least,immediately adjacent to the dance area you have some hope of persuading them to join in the dancing.Consider this – you've probably paid more to have 'live' music only to find half your guests aren't even in the room most of the night !

Open sided barns,large gazebos covering the band for outdoor events look great in good weather ! When the weather is either rain or blowing a gale,that lustre very quickly fades – shivering musicians play far less enthusiastically than usual ! Guests head for cover ! It doesn't take an enormous amount of imagination to see the money that you've spent hiring a 'live' band going.quite literally,down the drain.

Apologies if this all reads a bit negatively. But these are the pitfalls which can be avoided if you are already aware and we think it is sensible to point them out because it's a bit too late to alter matters on your Wedding Day.You want to remember the latter end of the day for all the right reasons.

Sound limiters ? If your venue does have a sound limiter,take a look HERE

Thankfully,many venues are ideal for Ceilidhs – decent sized rooms,layouts,safe and sensibly placed electrical points,good cover for guests and performers alike.

And if you are considering organising your own catering arrangements then we would always recommend that you check out some of the more modern village halls.They usually have just about everything you need under one roof and often represent extremely good value for money.Your local district or county Council can usually provide lists/contact details of such halls.