The Craigavad 2022 Review

| Weddings |

| Weddings |

LUCY & PETER We were so thrilled to have the opportunity to have our wedding celebration at The Royal Belfast Golf Club. Having had a small ceremony to officially tie the knot in London earlier in the year, we wanted to bring together all of our family and friends to celebrate our marriage. Loved ones were travelling from as far as New Zealand, Singapore, across the USA – Idaho, Colorado and Virginia, Spain, Switzerland and Belgium, so we knew we wanted a location that shared what a special place Northern Ireland, and particularly County Down. There really is no place like The Royal Belfast Golf Club and the venue did not disappoint our travelling guests. It provided an idyllic setting to host our celebrations and one that made us feel very much at home. The entire day was perfect and with the support of Tracey, Jayne and their teams the plans ran incredibly smoothy. We are extremely grateful to all those that played a part in making our day so special and wish to extend a particular thanks to the Captain, Council and Members of Royal Belfast for allowing us to host our wedding celebrations at Royal Belfast. If only we could do it all again… but three wedding celebrations does feel a bit much!

Tying the knot

T he Royal Belfast Golf Club, situated on the shores of Belfast Lough offers an unrivalled location and venue for a wedding celebation. In 2022 three couples chose Royal Belfast as their wedding venue. Our congratulations go to Rachel & Jun Tao, Lucy & Peter Briggs and Gillian & Stewart Porter. RACHEL & JUN With neither of us being much of a golfer, getting married at Royal Belfast Golf Club was perhaps a less obvious choice than for some of your Members – but it was the best decision we could have made. We ended up organising our wedding in about four months, a timeline that would never have been possible without the experience, flexibility and patience of Royal Belfast’s staff. Tracey guided us through the whole process, offering advice and inspiration from previous events, and was completely unflappable in the face of some of our more unusual requests, including the addition of beer pong on the terrace and a table football table inside! We were hoping to have a relaxed, fun-filled celebration with family and friends, and Tracey and her team truly went above and beyond to deliver that. With many guests travelling from outside Northern Ireland, it was incredibly convenient to be able to have both our wedding ceremony and reception at the same venue, and we were spoiled for space at the Club. Our date was set for the end of March, so we’d been keeping our weather expectations low, but in fact we were

lucky enough to have a perfect day of blue skies and glorious sunshine. Our guests were able to spend all afternoon outside with drinks, canapés and games, and we were delighted that they were getting to see Royal Belfast at its best. Tracey had arranged for us to use a couple of golf buggies to make the most of the beautiful grounds, and we had great fun nipping down to the lough for some photos. We were then treated to a delicious dinner before the band arrived, and the rest of the evening was taken up with more drinks, dancing and a pizza van on the terrace for some late-night snacking. We had the most wonderful day and can’t thank all of Royal Belfast’s staff – especially Tracey, Jayne, Sarah and Gareth – enough, as well as the Members for allowing us to host our wedding at the Club. We hope to make many more visits in the future when we've worked on our golf games a little!

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