350 wedding professionals attended the prestigious Weddings Online Awards event recently and Jonathan Bryans, Commercial Director, weddingsonline said, "We were thrilled to have such a fantastic turnout and to celebrate the wonderful achievements of so many.
"The wedding industry has been hit hard in recent years and there is huge optimism now for what will be the busiest couple of years for weddings in Ireland ever."
The entries were judged by a team of judges: Sara Kennedy, an award-winning digital marketer with extensive knowledge about weddings; Terry Lewis, a former national and international wedding award winner and author of ’12 Habits of Successfully Booked Up Wedding Suppliers’; and Yvonne Dillon Murray, who is from The Wedding Concierge Agency and has over 10 years’ experience working with top Irish wedding brands.
The Diamond Coast Hotel was announced as the winner of the Hotel Venue of the Year - Connacht at the awards and has seen a major investment over the past four years of close to €4 million - which, it said, 'has transformed the hotel into the leading wedding venue in the West of Ireland'.
The hotel has had all of its 99 bedrooms fully refurbished and has had four new luxurious premium suites added; The Bartragh Suite Ballroom has received a full makeover and they have recently refurbished all of their pubic areas including the addition of their new court yard, which is ideal for wedding arrivals or after-parties.
The wedding team at the hotel is led by Mary Clarke who has been at the Diamond Coast since it opened 15 years ago and this is the first time in the 15-year history of the hotel that it has won this award.
Speaking after the awards announcement, General Manager Michael Yates said: "We are over the moon with the award, it is a magnificent achievement for all of our team and it is a testament to the hard work that they all put in and we can now see the full benefit of the major investment in the hotel in the past few years and we are now positioned as the leading wedding venue in Connacht."
