Irate brides lash out at Golfgate as restrictions leave plans in tatters

‘Natural to link this to Golfgate’ ‘The big wedding is over for a while’

BRIDES-to-be have slammed the Golfgate controversy for ruining their wedding plans.

Fáilte Ireland this week issued a new set of guidelines for how wedding receptions should be conducted under Covid rules.

Guests will now have to wear face coverings when not at the dinner table.

Only 50 people will be allowed in a function room or bar, including staff, and the wedding party will be bound by a strict 11.30pm curfew, by which time they will have to leave these areas.

The guidelines also say guests will not be able to share salt and pepper shakers or butter dishes and instead will be provided with individual packets.

Canapés and bread will also be served individually.

The strict new rules come after the Oireachtas Golf Society event in a Co. Galway hotel last week, which has led to the resignation of Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary and EU Commissioner Phil Hogan, for breaching public health guidelines.

Brides took to RTÉ Radio’s Liveline programme, saying they are now considering calling off their big days because of the 11.30pm curfew.

Devastated bride-to-be Ashley Coyne later told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘People are naturally linking this to Golfgate. Even though Fáilte Ireland have said this is not the case, people are naturally thinking that.’ Ms Coyne said she had been planning her wedding to fiancé Jonathan for two years before restrictions hit.

The couple went ahead with a smaller ceremony in March but have been waiting to put on a reception for their close family for months.

The couple were supposed to get married on March 26 and initially postponed it until June before once again moving it to October. She told the Mail: ‘Two weeks ago we decided we’d go ahead with reduced numbers and started sending out invitations on Saturday.

‘I came home from work yesterday and got a call from our venue to tell us that there are new restrictions.’

Ms Coyne said the requirement that the event must be done and dusted by 11.30pm was a sticking point.

‘How can I ask my family to take a day off work, because we had to go for a Wednesday wedding, give a gift, pay for whatever they have to pay to get themselves through a wedding and then you have to be in bed by half 11?’ she said.

‘Could we not just be exempt from the 11.30pm curfew? Our guests, they are our family. They are all older now, no-one was going to be partying at 2am and 3am from the people that we had to reduce our numbers to.’

Ms Coyne said she is now considering moving the wedding to 2021, but as so many other wedding parties have done the same, it might be impossible at their venue.

She added that she feels guilty bringing up this situation in the midst of all the damage the pandemic is causing, but said it is ‘legitimate’ for people to have feelings of ‘disappointment’.

Naoise McNally, of the wedding website OneFabDay.com, said: ‘People are getting very upset that even though they are having a smaller wedding, they have to have masks and all this kind of stuff. It is upsetting people.’

Fáilte Ireland yesterday denied the tightened restrictions were in response to the Golfgate controversy.

A spokesman said: ‘Fáilte Ireland’s operational guidelines for hotels and the holding of weddings specifically, were updated in line with Government public health advice and bear no relation to recent events in Clifden.’

Wedding planner Ciara Crossan, of WeddingDates.ie, said: ‘We need to reset our expectations: the big Irish wedding in the function room till 4am – those days are over for a while and we need to accept that.’