Birmingham Wedding Venues - Craig Y Nos Castle Wedding Venue
Wedding Planning > Wedding themes by Town
Birmingham Themed Weddings, Birmingham Wedding ideas
Birmingham Weddings
Your Birmingham Wedding Reception in a Castle
- it's all yours for your Day
"We only allow one wedding a day in the castle, so
our Castle is exclusively yours for your wedding day"
This sets our castle apart from wedding venues in Birmingham and West Midlands area who may have more than one wedding on same day.
Exclusive Use Birmingham Wedding Packages
in a Welsh Castle
- a stunning Castle Wedding Venue
- a stunning Castle Wedding Venue
Visit on one of our
- Time from Birmingham to Craig y Nos Castle Wedding Venue: 2 hours and 33 minutes
- Distance from Birmingham to Craig y Nos Castle Wedding Reception Venue: 126 miles
Brides and Grooms lucky enough to live in Birmingham will not have to travel too far to get married at Craig y Nos Castle.
Birmingham Brides & Grooms may not realise it, but in Craig y Nos Castle they have one of Wales' premier wedding venues, to which couples will travel from all over the country. Just over two hours from Birmingham!
Award winning Castle Wedding Venue in South Wales for your big day!
See Suggested
for your Wedding Day
at Craig y Nos Castle, South Wales
See our Birmingham
See our Weekend Wedding Package with 60 to 70 day guests and 50 guests staying overnight.
See our amazing two day full weekend VIP Wedding Offer.
See our Last Minute Weddings Offers.
For all our wedding packages, see Wedding Packages Selection for the most suitable wedding package for you.
Why Choose Craig y Nos Castle,
a couple of hours from Birmingham?
All your guests can stay overnight with you on your wedding day. Party late into the night, with no worries about you or your guests getting back home to Birmingham.
Craig y Nos Castle wedding venue sleeps up to 81 guests in en-suite doubles and family rooms.
We're probably the only castle wedding venue where all your guests can stay overnight.
A unique Wedding Venue - the romance of a real Welsh Castle combined with the historic grandeur of our very own Opera House licensed for wedding ceremonies.
Craig y Nos Castle only accepts one wedding a day, so you and your guests from Birmingham will have the run of the whole ground floor of the castle exclusively.
You're not in just one room, you and your Birmingham wedding guests have the run of all our ground floor rooms:
(1) The opera house for your wedding ceremony, where you will be the star of the show, on stage, before all your guests
(2) Welcome drinks in the Nicoloni Room, our main reception lounge (or outside in gardens if weather is fine)
(3) Your wedding breakfast in our 130 seater conservatory with fabulous views overlooking the Brecon Beacons National Park
(4) Evening wedding party and late night disco in our evening function room and music room, with resident's bar.
Should you 'go local',
for a wedding venue
in or nearer to Birmingham,
or can you go further afield
in or nearer to Birmingham,
or can you go further afield
for a more special and unique wedding day?
'Local Venue'
or
'Destination Wedding Venue'?
You may have guests some distance away from Birmingham, who'll need to travel to your wedding anyway, so it won't matter to them so much where you get married.
For guests who live local to you, friends and neighbours and acquaintances and even work colleagues in and around Birmingham, do you want a local wedding venue near Birmingham where all your guests can get to easily? Or are you all happy about sitting a while on the M5/ M50 (or a more scenic route through Wales) to Craig y Nos Castle?
Will you invite
'Evening Only' Guests
or invite everyone for the whole day?
'Evening-only' guests won't travel far. Craig y Nos is more of a 'destination wedding venue', where your closest friends and relatives come to your wedding, and where you invite everyone for the whole day.
When you choose a venue further away from your base in Birmingham, you'll tend to invite everyone for the whole day. Also you'll need somewhere all your guests can stay overnight.
Craig y Nos Castle sleeps over 8o guests. Have most of your guests stay with us. Everyone will party with you late into the night as they have no worries about getting home to Birmingham.
Why not book a two day two night full weekend Wedding - a £28,000 value wedding, yet you as the Couple only pay around £10,300 if you have 70 guests from Birmingham (and from anywhere else!) stay two nights paying for their own B&B.
See more here.
Unlike with a 'local' wedding reception, when you marry at Craig y Nos, you won't have so many guests shooting off early to get home. With more local weddings nearer to Birmingham, a wedding party dwindles around 11-12 as guests leave to go home.
Unlike with a 'local' wedding reception, when you marry at Craig y Nos, you won't have so many guests shooting off early to get home. With more local weddings nearer to Birmingham, a wedding party dwindles around 11-12 as guests leave to go home.
Having everyone stay over at Craig y Nos means your party lasts late into the night. You may as well make a full weekend of it with a 'great escape' to your own castle for the two day two night wedding deal above.
A truly magical and unique
castle wedding venue
Craig y Nos Castle is a popular destination wedding venue for couples all over the UK. It combines the attraction of getting married in a real castle, in your own fairytale castle for either a day or a whole weekend, a historic building (yours exclusively for your wedding) in an area of outstanding natural beauty.
The mountain scenery of the Brecon Beacons National Park guarantees you stunning photo opportunities both inside and outside the castle. The Grade One Listed Opera House makes a fantastic setting for your wedding ceremony. You get exclusive use of the whole ground floor of the castle for you and your wedding guests.
Hosting over 100 weddings a year, Craig y Nos Castle is a truly magical and unique castle wedding venue for Brides and Grooms with reasonable and affordable rates.
Birmingham Wedding Theme ideas,
Wedding Decor and Wedding Gift Ideas,
based on Birmingham's history, style and culture.
Link your wedding theme, wedding decor and wedding favours to the history, style and sense of place of Birmingham. Your wedding theme may be linked to your own past, to key moments in your relationship with each other, your favourite colours, your personal tastes, or you may incorporate elements of your home town of Birmingham into your wedding day 'story book'.
When considering wedding decor you may already have plenty of your own ideas for your wedding. Or maybe you are still looking for inspiration? Reflect the story of Birmingham in your decor, to connect your personal history in your home town's roots, and your family's location in Birmingham. You may get some ideas from the history of Birmingham below, its buildings, street names, or local transport routes etc.
Some facts about Birmingham
you may use in your wedding:
SIZE
of BIRMINGHAM
1. Birmingham in England is the second largest city in the UK in terms of population, at 1,074,300 according to 2011 census.
2. Birmingham's larger metropolitan area (i.e. the suburbs around it as well as the city) is the second largest, with 3,683,000 residents.
3. Birmingham was a medium sized town in the Medieval period but grew in the C.18th with the Industrial Revolution, producing many innovations that laid the foundations of a modern industrial economy.
MANUFACTURING
in BIRMINGHAM
4. In 1791 Birmingham was recognised as the 'first manufacturing town in the world'. It soon comprised thousands of individual workshops, producing a wide variety of specialised products. The exceptional diversity and innovation laid the foundations for modern industrial wealth. The entrepreneurial activity of thousands of mainly self-owned workshops sparked off exceptional levels of inventiveness. Birmingham was known as ‘the city of 1000 trades’. During the key years of the Industrial Revolution 1760 - 1850, Birmingham applied for three times more patents on inventions than any other city. The development in 1776 of the industrial steam engine by James Watt and Matthew Boulton freed the manufacturing process from manual labour and was pivotal to the Industrial Revolution and the wealth that followed. James Watt also invented the letter copying machine, forerunner to the photocopier. The brightness / power of lightbulbs is measured in Watts, e.g. 40 or 60 Watts, after James Watt.
5. Birmingham is now an important retail, events and conference hub with a GDP of circal £60bn. Birmingham's economy is the second largest in the UK and the 72nd largest in the world. It still accounts for 25% of Britain's exports.
6. People from Birmingham are called 'Brummies' from the city's nickname as 'Brum', in turn derived from the original dialect name of the city - 'Brummagem'. The city's name comes from the old English word 'Beormingahām', being settled in the early 6th century by the Beormingas - an Anglian tribe.
WHY 'BRUMMIES'?
6. People from Birmingham are called 'Brummies' from the city's nickname as 'Brum', in turn derived from the original dialect name of the city - 'Brummagem'. The city's name comes from the old English word 'Beormingahām', being settled in the early 6th century by the Beormingas - an Anglian tribe.
BIRMINGHAM MARKET
7. In the Domesday book of 1086 Birmingham was one of the least populated and poorest in Warwickshire, valued at just 20 shillings! This all changed from 1166 when the 'lord of the manor' Peter de Birmingham' obtained a charter to hold a market at his castle, from which a market town was created on the site now known as the Bull Ring. Birmingham established itself as the primary commercial centre for the area. Within 100 years it became a prosperous city of merchants and craftsmen and within 150 years it became the third largest town in Warwickshire. The de Birmingham family remained Lords of the Manor until 1530 when Edward de Birmingham was cheated out of his lordship by John Dudley.
8. By the C16th, Birmingham became a manufacturer of weapons, with manufacturing of arms concentrated in an area known as the Gun Quarter. Birmingham's Gun Quarter still makes more guns than anywhere else in the UK.
BIRMINGHAM'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS
8. By the C16th, Birmingham became a manufacturer of weapons, with manufacturing of arms concentrated in an area known as the Gun Quarter. Birmingham's Gun Quarter still makes more guns than anywhere else in the UK.
10. Birmingham was granted city status by Queen Victoria in 1889.
11. Birmingham suffered heavy bombing in WW2 but was also the base for Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls who described how a Nuclear Bomb could be created in a paper in 1940. John Randall and Henry Boot in the same year invented cavity magnetron, a key component of radar and microwave ovens. Details of these two discoveries were shipped out to America in a black box later described by an American historian as "the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores."
BIRMINGHAM WEALTHIER THAN LONDON up to 1970
12. After WW2, Birmingham's population changed with mass immigration from former countries of the British Empire, now members of the Commonwealth.
13. Birmingham remained the most prosperous city in the UK right up until the 1970's, with household incomes exceeding those of London. But its prosperity declined as Central Government relocated manufacturing and dispersed the City's population to the poorer countries of Scotland and Wales and Northern England. The City became dependent on the motor industry and in the 1980's suffered economic collapse with the recession and increased social unrest.
14. More recently, Birmingham has been redeveloped, with a new Bullring Shopping Centre and regeneration of old industrial areas, including the creation of the International Convention Centre. Old streets, buildings and canals have been restored. Birmingham has become more of a service based economy, with the service sector accounting for 86% of all employment. Today Birmingham has the largest public administration sector employment in Britain. This is a big change from its origins as a manufacturing city and a reflection of how Britain's economy has changed from manufacturing to services.
15. Birmingham is the fourth largest centre for Banking and Insurance (behind London, Glasgow and Leeds). Two of Britain's largest banks were founded in Birmingham: Lloyds Bank and Midland Bank (now HSBC). Birmingham also founded the world's first Building Society, Ketley's, in 1775. Economic growth, while above national averages, is uneven; Birmingham also has two parliamentary constituencies with the highest unemployment of anywhere in Britain (Ladywood and Sparkbrook).
SPAGHETTI
IN BIRMINGHAM
16. Birmingham is home to Spaghetti Junction, the best known motorway junction in the UK. Officially known as the Gravelly Hill Interchange, this famous road network earned its name due to the spaghetti-like appearance from aerial views, created by its many flyovers and slip roads. Constructed in 1970s, Spaghetti Junction covers 30 acres, serves 18 routes and includes 2.5 miles of slip roads.
BIRMINGHAM
MORE CANALS THAN VENICE
17. Birmingham has more miles of canals than Venice, a throwback to the Industrial era.
18. The Birmingham Central Library, opened in 1972, was the largest municipal library in Europe. It was replaced by the Library of Birmingham in Central Square in September 2013.
19. The International Convention Centre and National Exhibition Centre (NEC) account for 42% of the UK's conference and exhibition trade. The Bullring is the UK's busiest shopping centre while Birmingham is the UK's third largest retail centre and is rated as the third best place to go shopping in Britain (London's West End and Glasgow being the first and second).
18. The Birmingham Central Library, opened in 1972, was the largest municipal library in Europe. It was replaced by the Library of Birmingham in Central Square in September 2013.
19. The International Convention Centre and National Exhibition Centre (NEC) account for 42% of the UK's conference and exhibition trade. The Bullring is the UK's busiest shopping centre while Birmingham is the UK's third largest retail centre and is rated as the third best place to go shopping in Britain (London's West End and Glasgow being the first and second).
18. The Birmingham Central Library, opened in 1972, was the largest municipal library in Europe. It was replaced by the Library of Birmingham in Central Square in September 2013.
19. The International Convention Centre and National Exhibition Centre (NEC) account for 42% of the UK's conference and exhibition trade. The Bullring is the UK's busiest shopping centre while Birmingham is the UK's third largest retail centre and is rated as the third best place to go shopping in Britain (London's West End and Glasgow being the first and second).
20. 40% of all UK Jewellery is manufactured in Birmingham's 'Jewellery Quarter'.
21. Birmingham City Council is the largest local authority in Europe with 120 councillors. Birmingham has ten parliamentary constituencies. Within the Birmingham Metropolitan area are the towns of Solihull, Wolverhampton, Tamworth, Lichfield, Coventry, Nuneaton, Warwick, Leamington Spa, Redditch and Bromsgrove.
FOREST 'LEY'
22. Much of Birmingham occupies the Northern part of the ancient Forest of Arden, which still provides the City's dense covering of oak trees. The old English term for a wood clearing was 'ley', and this gives rise to the names of the districts of Birmingham: Moseley, Saltley, Yardley, Stirchley, Hockley. Birmingham still has over 6,000,000 trees, more than any other city in Europe.
23. Birmingham's water supply is gravity fed from the Elan Valley reservoirs in Wales.
24. The following are the consituent towns and villages of Birmingham: Acocks Green, Alum Rock, Ashted, Aston, Austin Village, Balsall Heath, Bartley Green, Bearwood, Beech Lanes, Billesley, Birches Green, Birchfield, Birmingham City Centre, Boldmere, Bordesley, Bordesley Green, Bournbrook, Bournville, Brandwood End, Brindleyplace, Bromford, Browns Green, Buckland End, California, Camp Hill, Castle Vale, Chad Valley, Chinese Quarter, Cofton Common, Cotteridge, Deritend, Digbet, Doe Bank, Driffold, Druids Heath, Duddeston, Eastside, Edgbaston, Erdington, Falcon Lodge, Five Ways, Four Oaks, Fox Hollies, Frankley, Gannow Green, Garretts Green, Gib Heath, Gilbertstone, Glebe Farm, Gosta Green, Gravelly Hill, Great Barr, Greet, Gun Quarter, Hall Green, Hamstead, Handsworth, Handsworth Wood, Harborne, Harts Green, Hawkesley, Hay Mills, High Heath, Highgate, Highter's Heath, Hill Hook, Hill Wood, Hockley, Hodge Hill, Jewellery Quarter, Kents Moat, King's Heath, Kings Norton, Kingstanding, Kitts Green, Ladywood, Lea Hall, Lee Bank, Ley Hill, Lifford, Little Bromwich, Lodge Hill, Longbridge, Lozells, Lyndon Green, Maney, Maypole, Minworth, Mere Green, Moor Green, Moseley, Nechells, New Frankley, New Oscott, Newtown, New Town Row, Northfield, Old Oscott, Pelham, Perry Barr, Perry Beeches, Perry Common, Pype Hayes, Queslett, Quinton, Reddicap Heath, Rednal, Ridgacre, Roughley, Rubery, Saltley, Sarehole, Selly Oak, Selly Park, Shard End, Sheldon, Shenley Fields, Shenley Green, Short Heath, Showell Green, Small Heath, Smithfield, Soho, Southside, South Yardley, South Woodgate, Sparkbrook, Sparkhill, Springfield, Stechford, Stirchley, Stockfield, Stockland Green, Sutton Coldfield, Ten Acres, Thimble End, Tile Cross, Tower Hill, Tudor Hill, Turves Green, Tyburn, Tyseley, Vauxhall, Wake Green, Walker's Heath, Walmley, Walmley Ash, Ward End, Warstock, Washwood Heath, Wells Green, Weoley Hill, Weoley Castle, West Heath, Westside, Whitehouse Common, Winson Green, Witton, Winson Green, Woodcock Hill, Woodgate, Wylde Green, Yardley, Yardley Wood.
BIRMINGHAM
IS NOT ALONE
25. There are 30 other cities and towns called Birmingham in the world.
26. Odeon Cinemas was started in Birmingham in 1930.
BIRMINGHAM TYRES
27. The pneumatic tyre was developed in Birmingham - invented by John Dunlop in 1888, and ownership passed to the Dunlop Company owned by the du Cros family, from which Martin Gover, owner of Craig y Nos Castle wedding venue, is descended.
BIRMINGHAM BOOKS
28. J.R. Tolkien wrote The Hobbitt and Lord of the Rings in Birmingham; the twin towers were inspired by the Edgbaston Water Works.
29. Reverend Wilbert Awdry wrote the Thomas the Tank engine books in Birmingham.
BIRMINGHAM LAP DANCERS
30. Birmingham has the most lap dancing clubs of any city in the UK. It also has the most fat (obese) women in Britain.
31. Birmingham's large residential area, Solihull, gets its name from once being a rubbish dump for the people of Birmingham; it was originally called Soily Hill.
32. Birmingham has 2,000 miles of roads and the highest number of uninsured drivers in the UK.
33. Cluedo was invented in Birmingham.
34. In the late 19th Century, as Queen Victoria travelled by train through Birmingham and the towns to the West of the city, she asked for her curtains to be drawn in her carriage as she couldn't bare to look at the bleak industrial landscape she called the "Black Country". This is how the Black Country got stuck with its name.
35. Birmingham is on high ground. There is no higher point between the ridge that Dudley sits on and the Ural mountains in Russia, 2000+ miles to the east.
Wedding Ideas,
Wedding Table Plans
Wedding Decoration
based on Facts about Birmingham
With so many historical facts about Birmingham to choose from, you are quite spoilt for choice. Here are just a few off-the-cuff ideas I came up with:
(1) Wedding Favours or Framed History and Picture cards or History Plaques based on the products invented in Birmingham - including the atomic bomb, the Steam Engine, the pneumatic tyre, etc.
(2) Wedding Favours, book gifts or similar based on famous authors and books written in or inspired by Birmingham, starting with Lord of the Rings and the Hobbitt, but including Thomas the Tank Engine for the children in the wedding party.
(3) Wedding Table plans based on Spaghetti Junction
(4) Jewellery per the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham
(5) Wedding Table Place names based on the ten parliamentary constituencies - or places - e.g. Solihull, Tamworth etc.
(6) Or use the districts all ending in 'ley' as your table settings, with decorations based on oak trees, reflecting Birmingham's district names all being based on areas of woodland clearance as the old Forest was cleared away for the city of Birmingham.
(7) Go international with your place and table settings, by linking to all the other cities and towns around the world called 'Birmingham' that exist overseas. Possibly including pcitures of the towns and villages and cities in question.
(8) Base your favours on the characters in Cluedo which was invented in Birmingham, or some wedding related event such as a Murder Mystery event or play based on Cluedo game, which was after all, invented in Birmingham.
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Day | Min No's | Wedding Packages |
Sat Fri | 70 60 | |
Sun- Thu | 50 | |
Wedding Package Selector - check which wedding package best fits | ||
Any day | 50 | |
Sun- Thur | 25 | |
Wed only | 40 | |
Any Day | 100 | |
Any Day | 70 | |
Tariffs | ||
Enjoy a Homely Welcome and Friendly Service at Craig y Nos Castle