Wedding Venue Costs in Ireland: What You Pay Per Head (2026/27)

Short answer: the latest survey puts the wedding meal at an average of €107 per guest, up from €93 a year earlier, and most Saturday venue quotes land between €80 and €150 per head once the drinks reception is included, before any exclusive-use fee.

The venue and the meal are the biggest line in almost every Irish wedding budget, usually about 40% of the total. The quote arrives as a price per head, and that one number hides a lot: what it includes, how many guests you must pay for whether or not they come, how far it falls on a Thursday or in February, and which charges arrive afterwards. This guide works through all of it so you can compare two venues on the same terms.

The average: €107 per guest

The weddingsonline survey of over 1,000 couples in December 2025 put the average guest meal price at €107 per person, with an average of 141 guests. Multiply the two and you get the survey's average venue spend of €15,087, before accommodation and before the extras listed below. That is 41% of the same survey's average total budget of €36,641. A year earlier, the January 2025 survey of 641 couples had the meal at €93 per guest and 154 guests, so guest lists are shrinking a little while the price of each seat rises. Our average wedding budgets guide shows where the rest of the money goes.

An average hides a wide range. For a Saturday in peak season, these are the per-head bands we see in published packages for 2026 and 2027:

These bands are our reading of venue packages and the quotes couples share with us, not survey data. The only surveyed figures are the €107 and €93 averages, and they cover the meal rather than the whole venue bill.

What "per head" usually covers

Most Irish hotels and country houses quote a package price per adult guest that includes:

• The drinks reception. Tea and coffee, a glass of prosecco, punch or a cocktail on arrival, and something to eat: canapés, finger sandwiches, scones or a more substantial grazing table at the upper end.
• The meal. Three to five courses, usually with a choice of main. A menu tasting for the two of you is normally included.
• Wine with the meal. Typically a half bottle of house wine per guest, with upgrades charged by the bottle. Some packages include a toast drink too.
• Evening food. Sandwiches, cocktail sausages, pizza slices or a bacon-bap station for the evening crowd. Sometimes priced per head for evening-only guests instead.
• The room and the basics. Function room hire, tables, chairs, linen, a cake stand and knife, a red carpet, a changing room, and a wedding coordinator on the day.
• The bridal suite for the wedding night, and often a complimentary room or a discounted rate for parents.

What it usually doesn't

• The ceremony room. If you're marrying at the venue, the room for the ceremony is normally a separate charge of roughly €500 to €1,500. Civil ceremonies at venues happen in HSE registrars' hours, which mostly means weekdays; our guide to getting married in Ireland explains the options.
• Drinks at the bar. Guests pay for their own unless you put money behind the bar. A bar tab is the fastest way to blow the budget, so set a limit in writing.
• Evening guests. Anyone invited for the evening only is usually charged a lower per-head rate for the evening food, €8 to €15 each.
• Children and suppliers. Children's meals are typically half price or a flat €20 to €30. Your photographer, videographer, band and planner need feeding too, usually at a supplier rate of €25 to €45 each. Count them in.
• Décor. Chair covers and sashes, centrepieces beyond the venue's standard, fairy lights, draping and a dance floor wrap are all extras, either from the venue or a stylist.
• Extensions. A late bar after 12:30am, where licensing allows it, is charged by the hour, and a second-day party is a separate quote.
• Accommodation. The venue will hold a block of rooms for your guests at an agreed rate, with a release date after which unbooked rooms go back on sale. Guests pay for their own.
• Service charge. Rare on Irish wedding packages but not unknown; ask whether gratuities are included.

Minimum numbers

Almost every venue has a minimum number of adult guests for a Saturday in peak season, and it's the clause that catches couples out. A large hotel might set it at 100 to 150 adults; a country house at 60 to 100; a restaurant or small venue at 30 to 50. If your numbers fall short, you pay for the minimum anyway, or the venue moves you to a smaller room or a different package.

The minimum is almost always lower, or disappears, from Sunday to Thursday and from November to March. A venue that insists on 120 adults on a June Saturday may happily host 40 on a Thursday in February. If you're marrying with a small group, our guide to elopements and small weddings in Ireland covers the venues built for it.

Ask whether children and evening guests count towards the minimum (usually not), and what the final-numbers deadline is. Most venues want confirmed numbers seven to fourteen days before the wedding, and that number, not the number of invitations, is what you're billed for.

Midweek, Sunday and off-season prices

Friday and Saturday account for 61.8% of marriages in the CSO's 2025 figures, and for 71% of the weddings in the January 2025 weddingsonline survey, with Thursday at 16% and Sunday at 4%. That demand is why Saturdays cost the most. Moving the day or the month is the single biggest lever on the venue bill:

• Sunday to Thursday typically brings 10 to 25% off the per-head rate, room hire waived, or extras thrown in (a complimentary ceremony room, an upgraded wine, the bridal suite for two nights). Bank holiday Sundays are usually priced as Saturdays.
• November to March, outside Christmas and New Year, is priced lower again and comes with lower minimum numbers. December weddings before Christmas can be priced as peak because of party season.
• Fridays are now priced close to Saturdays at the most popular venues, and at Saturday rates at some.

Two things to weigh against the saving. A midweek wedding means guests taking leave and, for a civil ceremony, it opens up the registrar's weekday hours, which is a help rather than a hindrance. And a winter wedding means short days: our guide to the best season for your wedding explains what that does to the light and the timeline. Many of the videographers we recommend will tell you February is their favourite month to film, for the empty venues and the low sun.

Corkage and the other charges to ask about

The headline per-head number is rarely the final per-head number. Ask about each of these before you sign:

• Corkage. If you want to bring your own wine, most hotels that allow it charge €10 to €20 per bottle to open and serve it, and some don't allow it at all. Do the sums: at €15 corkage, a €12 bottle you bought yourself costs €27, which is often more than the house wine.
• Cake cutting. Less common in Ireland than in the UK, but some venues charge per slice to cut and serve a cake you've brought in.
• Ceremony room, as above, plus the registrar's or celebrant's fee, which isn't the venue's charge but lands on the same day. The HSE notification fee is €200.
• Menu upgrades. The package main course is the package price. A beef fillet instead of the roast, an extra course, or a cheeseboard adds a few euro per head, which at 150 guests is a few hundred euro per decision.
• Dietary meals. Should be included at the package price; check.
• Speeches before the meal. A few venues charge for holding the meal while speeches run. Our guide to the wedding day timeline explains why speeches before the meal are popular anyway.
• Price changes between booking and the day. If you're booking a 2027 wedding in 2026, ask whether the per-head price is fixed at booking or set at the following year's rates. Get the answer in the contract.
• VAT. Venue quotes are almost always inclusive, but confirm it in writing.
• Deposit and payment stages. A booking deposit of €1,000 to €3,000 is typical, with further stage payments and the balance due in the final week or two, based on final numbers. Deposits are usually non-refundable; check the cancellation and postponement terms carefully, including what happens if the venue changes hands.

Reading a venue quote: a worked example

Take a four-star hotel quoting €105 per head for 120 adults, with the extras that most couples end up adding:

That's about €127 for each of the 120 adults, not the €105 on the brochure. Run the same sums for every venue you're comparing, with your real guest numbers, and compare the totals rather than the headline per-head figure. The venue section of our printable questions to ask every wedding supplier walks you through every line.

Where the per-head price is going

The average meal price rose from €93 to €107 per guest between the January 2025 and December 2025 surveys, a 15% jump in a year in which the overall budget rose 6.5%. Venue prices have moved with food, energy and wage costs, so for 2026/27 bookings expect per-head quotes above the ones your friends paid in 2024 and 2025, and expect the gap between a Saturday and a Thursday to stay wide. Our Irish wedding statistics page tracks the survey figures year by year.

Keeping it down

• Trim the guest list before anything else. Every guest removed saves €107 plus evening food, a chair and an invitation. Ten fewer guests is around €1,300.
• Move the day. Friday or Sunday first, then midweek.
• Choose the middle tier, and add the one thing you care about, rather than taking the top tier.
• Skip evening food you'll waste. Guests who ate at 6pm are not hungry at 10pm; a smaller order is fine.
• Negotiate the room block, not the meal. Venues rarely move the per-head price; they often move accommodation rates and extras.

Questions to ask the venue

1. What's the minimum number on our date, and what changes if we fall short?
2. Exactly what is included per head, course by course and drink by drink?
3. Is the ceremony room extra, and which days can we hold a civil ceremony here?
4. What are the rates for children, evening guests and suppliers?
5. Do you allow corkage, and at what charge?
6. Is the price fixed when we book, and is it inclusive of VAT?
7. What's the deposit, the payment schedule and the cancellation policy?
8. How many rooms are held for our guests, at what rate, and until when?
9. Are there other events on the same day, and who is our coordinator on the day?
10. Where can our photographer and videographer set up, and is there a wet-weather plan for the portraits?

The rest of the budget

Once the venue is settled, the next three lines are the band, the photographer and the videographer. Our guides to wedding bands and DJs, wedding photographer prices and wedding videographer prices give the survey averages and the price bands for each. Our wedding budget planner puts them together: set your guest numbers and per-head price, tick the suppliers you're booking, and it adds up the whole day, including the ceremony room and evening guests.

Venues by county

For named venues and local logistics, see our county guides for Dublin, Kildare and Meath, Wicklow, Cork, Galway, Kerry and Northern Ireland. Our pick of Ireland's top wedding venues and the castle wedding guide cover the best-known houses and castles, most of them in the upper two bands above.

Sources

• weddingsonline, The Real Cost of an Irish Wedding in 2026, survey of over 1,000 couples, December 2025: the €107 per guest meal price, 141 guests, the €15,087 venue spend and the €36,641 average budget.
• weddingsonline, Weddings Cost 3.96% More This Year, survey of 641 couples, January 2025: the €93 per guest meal price, 154 guests, the €34,392 average budget and the days of the week.
• CSO, Marriages 2025: the share of marriages on Fridays and Saturdays.
• weddingsonline, Longer Engagements Are Popular, survey of 1,023 couples, January 2024: the €33,083 average budget.
• HSE, Getting married in Ireland: the €200 notification fee and registrars' hours.