As the planning & ‘Wedding To Do lists’ begin, we thought we would share our Top Summer Wedding Trends of 2016. This includes some of the latest trends and ideas that our wedding team have experienced from Weddings in Donegal at The Redcastle Oceanfront Golf & Spa Hotel.

• 60% of our weddings choose to have their speeches before the meal. Most weddings from Northern Ireland tend to do the Speeches first, while weddings from Donegal, Monaghan, Cavan choosing to have their speeches after.
• One Bride & Groom choose to arrive by helicopter.
• Just under half of our weddings had a Photobooth.
• 50% of our couples choose to give a charitable donation in lieu of favours, with 80% of our weddings opting to not to have favours on the tables.
• Kids goodies bags went down a treat with one third of couples choosing this as a favour for the kids.
• Over half of our weddings had baskets in the bathrooms (for all the last minute essentials) & a sweetie table.
• Pink was by far the most popular colour for bridesmaid dresses.
• One sixth of our weddings had Irish Dancers perform after the meal
• 20% of our wedding receptions had LED Dancefloors and Letters 
• Traybakes have become extremely popular this year at the arrivals reception for the guests
• Post boxes are increasingly popular, with almost one third couples choosing to have one at the reception 
• Bouquets for the Bridesmaids tend to be white with colour in the Bride’s bouquet 
• Half of our wedding couples choose to hire a company to dress the room, the most popular company for this was Look Crafty
• A Signing Board was chosen by one fifth of our weddings instead of Guest Book
• Over 30% of the weddings had a basket of flip flops to help their guests dance the night away!
• ‘The One’ by Kodaline was the most popular first dance song