Struggling to find quirky wedding venue in NW

[bellissimiaow]

My partner and I have decided to get married next year. I've been married before, he's not. My first wedding was in 1997 and was a pretty traditional church affair. For our wedding, we'd like something really informal, non-traditional and we'd love to embrace the whole 'Anything Goes' ethos. We both love live music and have lots of connections with musicians/bands etc so music will play a big part. We love gigs, festivals, films, museums etc and have loads of brilliant, easy-going friends so we just want to provide a great, happy gathering for them.

The problem we have is finding a venue without spending an absolute fortune. We've decided to do away with a formal meal altogether to reduce costs and hopefully be able to invite more guests.

I think it would be a late afternoon, celebrant-led ceremony for all guests (around 100) with informal speeches and toasts but no formal meal. A bit of time for drinks and photos, and then straight on to an early evening buffet/food and live entertainment and music for the rest of the night.

We're currently looking at hiring a tipi but I'm nervous about what would happen if it rained. It would be gorgeous on a late summer evening as people could mill about outside and we could have it in the middle of nowhere with no noise restrictions but we'd also have to actually find a piece of suitable land or grounds which adds to the cost.

We're also looking at quirky venues in or around Manchester. They don't need to be licenced wedding venues as we will be using a celebrant so it can be literally anywhere, but this is making it difficult to know where to look! There's a couple of distilleries that offer wedding spaces that look very cool, and some of the old buildings like the Albert Hall or the Victoria Baths are amazing but too expensive. Some of the historic Manchester University buildings also host weddings which would be great as I studied there many moons ago but to be able to invite 100 people to these kind of spaces is ££££.

Do any NW people have any ideas of largish, quirky spaces that could be used for a big party that wouldn't cost the earth. We really want something a bit different that people will remember rather than the usual hotel/hall but I really need help to think outside the box. Typing in 'unusual wedding venues' into Google still just brings up obvious venues for weddings. What we need really is an impressive space that isn't an obvious choice for weddings but that can easily be transformed and used for one.

Any ideas, or has anyone done something similar?

Plaza Theatre, Stockport- lovely Art Deco building. You can marry on the stage or auditorium

Hallé St Peter’s does weddings but the parking is horrific. Utterly horrific. I think that might be the converted church in Ancoats mentioned? Something to consider for your guests. Gorton Monastery looks gorgeous.

I can imagine a wedding at Brockholes would be fab. It's not too far from Manchester.

@Beamur I know East Riddlesden Hall well. Done a few weddings there and can see it from my childhood home.

You are spot on, it was Gibson Mill. Absolutely gorgeous light from a photography perspective.

@Sugarcube84

I know it’s not Manchester but the Baltic triangle in Liverpool has some lovely places like constellations or camp and furnace.

Came here to suggest this

@madnessitellyou I saw a wedding at Brockholes just yesterday. The venue is fab, the staff not so much. They where wheeling a very large expensive cake over to the suite from the canteen and it got rained on

*were

Alphabet Brewery?

I haven't been personally but have heard that Hobbit Hill near Clitheroe is lovely

I was in Plockton recently & evidently the man that provides the seal boat trips can marry people on his boat !
May be give you an 💡idea

The Palm House in Sefton Park, Liverpool is lovely.

whitebottomfarmestatesltd.co.uk/weddings

I've been to a festival at this venue and it's absolutely lovely. Not too far from Manchester.

Blist Hill working Victorian museum, has a fun fair too

The butterfly house in Lancaster?

Deffo recommend The Old Grammar School in Middleton and it’s really reasonably priced! Also check out Chetham’s School of Music which you can hire for weddings!

Holford estate in knutsford. Looks lovely!

Some great suggestions here, thank you again. Regarding location, I should probably narrow it down a bit as although some of these sound brilliant they are too far away really, as most of our guests live quite close to us so we don't want them all to have to travel too far.

So ideally it would need to be within the triangular area of Manchester City centre, down to Holmes Chapel and over to Warrington. So that incorporates Cheshire country/foresty locations as well as industrial/historical city buildings.

In answer to a pp's question, yes we will do the legal marriage part in a registry office the day before and then on the day a Celebrant will host another ceremony which we can design ourselves and do however we want, but can still incorporate things like walking down the 'aisle' or whatever bits you choose from a traditional ceremony, just in a location of your choice.

Legally speaking this part isn't the 'marriage' but for the sake of all the guests it is really so you can have the best of both worlds.

Just need to find somewhere funky to do it now! As much as I'd love to hire some of these old buildings mentioned, I already know that they're going to cost too much. We wanted to try and keep the budget to £5-£7k and some of these are already quoting more than that just for the venue hire.

Time for a good spreadsheet I think!

I don't think Gibson Mill would welcome the noise of bands and so on, but it's certainly a beautiful setting. You could consider the Trades Club for that part of the evening.

@Sugarcube84

I know it’s not Manchester but the Baltic triangle in Liverpool has some lovely places like constellations or camp and furnace.

Constellations is no more unfortunately. We live locally and it has been demolished 😣.

If you’re prepared to do Liverpool OP, I’d suggest the Bombed Out Church! It’s no longer religious grounds if that’d concern you. It was bombed during WW2 and the shell of the old church now serves as a memorial. For weddings, they put in a false roof and it always looks really cool!

You've basically described what we did for our wedding. We had ours at a country Inn place in Lancashire, but we also looked at the Worsley Court House which was very reasonably priced (although that was 8 years ago!).

@BlueBell50

Plaza Theatre, Stockport- lovely Art Deco building. You can marry on the stage or auditorium

I was going to suggest here too.

Maybe the Silk Museum in Macclesfield?

Smithills country park is a bit out of your triangle. You could look at seven brothers taproom is Salford, Ordsall Hall in Salford (although maybe noise restrictions. Great John St roof terrace £££ black dog ballroom, Deaf Institute, Gorilla, for an extra ff the wall choice, the Veterans Garage at Barton Airport.

Somebody has already said it but I came on to say Victoria Baths.

Oh well, I was going to suggest Lytham Hall or Samlesbury Hall - two stunning and unique venues that are both run as charities so all your money at least goes to a good cause. Or the Blackpool wedding chapel on the prom right under the tower - no-one would forget that in a hurry.

But given your geographical triangle, the best I can come up with is take everyone to Ikea for meatballs.

Have you booked your celebrant yet OP? Asking for a friend (me...I'm the friend...I'm a celebrant 🤣🙌🏼🤣)

Oh and have you looked at www.cheshirewoodlandweddings.com/#gallery

A STUNNING wedding venue that I can highly recommend 🥰👍