- Dublin is Ireland’s best county to get married in – coming out on top for 6 out of 7 of the criteria
- Dublin knocks every other county out of the running, claiming ‘the most photogenic county’ title
- Waterford beats Dublin and many other counties as the county with the best average temperature
Planning a wedding is no small feat and comes with countless decisions that need to be made. One of the first and maybe the biggest decisions is the location of your big day. For ease, choosing a location that has everything you need to plan the perfect day within a reasonable distance is favoured by many, but with so many available wedding suppliers that still doesn’t narrow things down.
Fortunately, a new campaign released by made-to-order diamond jewellers, Austen & Blake, has done the hard work for you. Looking at seven different criteria, the campaign has ranked all 32 Irish counties to find out where you should say your ‘I do’s’.
Outranking every other county for almost all of the criteria, Dublin came out on top as the most wedding worthy county in the whole of Ireland, with an overall score of 276.8. The capital boasts 84 official wedding venues, 1493 hotels and 7 different transport options, offering almost everything you need to create the perfect day. The second largest Irish city, Cork, came in second to Dublin for most of the criteria, but beats the capital when it came to average temperature.
Whilst venue, catering, flowers and the like are important, the weather is another huge factor for many when it comes to choosing their wedding location. The average temperature is the only criteria that Dublin fell short for, not even making it into the top five.
The top five counties with the highest average temperature are:
- Waterford – 14°C
- Cork – 13.92°C
- Louth – 13.83°C
- Limerick – 13.75°C
- Clare – 13.67°C
The campaign also looked into the chance of rain in the Irish counties in a bid to help brides stay dry on their big day. Thankfully, Dublin made an appearance in the top five counties with the lowest chance of rain, so whilst it might be a little chilly, there is a high chance a Dublin wedding will be a dry one!
The five counties with the lowest chance of rain:
- Louth – 24.44%
- Kilkenny – 32.03%
- Waterford – 32.03%
- Dublin – 34.23%
- Meath – 34.23%
Photographs are one of the most important things to come out of your big day, which is why Austen & Blake looked into the most photogenic counties. Dublin claimed the top spot with 13,674,868 tagged images on Instagram – significantly more than every other county.
The top five most photogenic counties in Ireland are:
- Dublin – 13,674,868
- Galway – 1,996,657
- Limerick – 739,392
- Kilkenny – 503,452
- Derry – 498,748
These five locations have over 17 million Instagram hashtags collectively, so if beautiful scenery is high on your priority list, then one of these locations is a must. On the opposite end of the scale, Tyrone, Wexford, Waterford, Sligo, and Meath were the least photogenic counties with only 62,000 Instagram tags collectively.
Cork, Galway, Kerry, and Antrim make up the of the top five Irish counties to get married in, all with their own strengths. Cork came second to Dublin for the number of wedding venues (71), number of catering services (4) and florists (10), whilst Galway fell second to Dublin for number of Instagram hashtags, making it the second most photogenic county. Kerry landed a place in the top five by sitting pretty high for most criteria, but in particular, coming second for its number of hotels (1006). Antrim clawed its way into the top five with an overall score of 79, ranking in the top five for two particular criteria, number of official wedding venues and number of hotels.
Austen & Blake’s in-house expert Anthony French speaks on the findings, “By creating this campaign, we hope to take a little bit of the pressure off of couples trying to make one of the biggest decisions about their wedding day. A lot goes into choosing where to tie the knot, which is why we included seven different criteria – those we consider some of the most important aspects of a dream wedding location.”
“Looking at the results, it seems that the counties with the largest populations came out on top, with four out of the top five sitting in the top five for the highest populated Irish counties. What is interesting is that Antrim, currently the 16th most populated county in Ireland, made it into the top five over some of the other more populated counties – proving that bigger isn’t always better!”
“Of course, choosing your wedding venue is a very personal decision and what might be important to one person might not sit as highly on your priority list, so whilst our data shows that Dublin offers up the most options for a number of criteria, other counties might be better suited for other reasons. As long as you are surrounded by your favourite people, in the grand scheme of things, where you get married doesn’t really matter.”
Uma Rajagopal has been managing the posting of content for multiple platforms since 2021, including Global Banking & Finance Review, Asset Digest, Biz Dispatch, Blockchain Tribune, Business Express, Brands Journal, Companies Digest, Economy Standard, Entrepreneur Tribune, Finance Digest, Fintech Herald, Global Islamic Finance Magazine, International Releases, Online World News, Luxury Adviser, Palmbay Herald, Startup Observer, Technology Dispatch, Trading Herald, and Wealth Tribune. Her role ensures that content is published accurately and efficiently across these diverse publications.