31 Quirky, Cool and Unusual Wedding Venues in Birmingham and the West Midlands.

It’s fair to say, that as a Mid­lands Doc­u­men­tary Wed­ding Pho­tog­ra­ph­er I get around a bit, see­ing lots and lots of amaz­ing, awe­some, cool and quirky wed­ding venues in Birm­ing­ham and the sur­round­ing area.

Being tied to just one venue to pho­to­graph wed­dings would, quite frankly, do my head in!!! In fact I work hard to ensure that across the year I’m booked for a vari­ety of quirky, unique and unusu­al Birm­ing­ham wed­ding venues and in the West Midlands.

So I thought I’d share some of this expe­ri­ence with you to help with choos­ing your own awe­some wed­ding venue!!

Just to get straight into it, here’s a list of sug­ges­tions for quirky Birm­ing­ham wed­ding venues and you can read more about each of them fur­ther down.

In the city itself here are 10 Quirky & Cool Birm­ing­ham Wed­ding Venues:-

Unusual / Arty / Culturally Cool Wedding Venues in Birmingham

• The Elec­tric Cinema
• Birm­ing­ham Library
• Think Tank — Mil­len­ni­um Point
• Ikon Gallery — Brind­ley Place
• Kitchen Gar­den Cafe

Historical/Stylish/Urban Birmingham Wedding Venues

• Faze­ley Studios
• Dig­beth Old Library
• The Bond Company
• Fac­to­ry Works, Digbeth
• Birm­ing­ham Town Hall

I’ve also put togeth­er a list of 21 Inter­est­ing, Unusu­al West Mid­lands Wed­ding Venues, all with­in about an hour’s dri­ve of Birmingham:-

Rustic/Chilled Vibes/Outdoor Wedding Venues near to Birmingham

• Over­grown Acres — Not­ting­hamshire Wolds
• Cut­tle Brook — Sami Tipi — Swarke­stone, Derbyshire
• Alcott Wed­dings — Alvechurch, Warwickshire
• Cat­tows Farm — Ash­by de la Zouch, Leicestershire
• Bawdon Lodge Farm — Nation­al For­est, Leicestershire 
• Enchant­i­ng Wood­land Wed­ding at Umber­slade Adven­ture — Hock­ley Heath, West Midlands
• The Hid­den Hive — Swadlin­cote, Derbyshire

Quirky/Unique Wedding Venues in the West Midlands with a WOW FACTOR

• Avon­croft Museum
• Arley Arbore­tum
• Church­field Dairy Farm
• The Fleece Inn
• Blists Hill Museum
• The West Mill
• Sev­ern Val­ley Railway
• Cas­tle Bromwich Hall Gardens

Secret Space/DIY/Make it your own Midlands Wedding Venues

• Old­ber­row House
• Rock Vil­lage Hall
• Springhill Barn
• Ingestre Orangery
• The Cow­shed — Wood­hall Farm
• Deck­er­dence

Now, if you’d like to find out a bit more about them then read on 🙂 I’ve writ­ten blogs for a few of these so just click on the links if you’d like to go and see them, and more blogs com­ing soon!!

Unusual / Arty / Cultural Birmingham Wedding Venues

Electric Cinema

Are you a movie lover? Ever fan­cied being the stars of your very own love sto­ry?! Well The Elec­tric Cin­e­ma in Birm­ing­ham, at the back of Grand Cen­tral, could be the per­fect place for you The old­est work­ing cin­e­ma in the land, this art-deco pic­ture house is quirk­i­ness per­son­i­fied! As cool wed­ding venues in Birm­ing­ham go, this is v cool!

Red & black vel­vet clad inside the audi­to­ri­um they real­ly do a great job of giv­ing you a movie themed wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny. From your names above the door as you arrive ( the lat­est big fea­ture) to a movie post­ed in the lob­by and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to show your own high­lights reel as the reg­is­ter is signed, it’s all there

After this wed­ding the new­ly­weds head­ed off through Chi­na­town to The Loft for a night-club vibe wed­ding party

Birmingham Library

Right in the heart of the city, over­look­ing Cen­te­nary Square, you have the amaz­ing build­ing which is the ‘new’ library (it opened in 2013) Described by some as a wed­ding cake, because of its exte­ri­or appear­ance, it ris­es up from the ground with 10 floors, with inter­con­nect­ing ele­va­tors, esca­la­tors and trav­e­la­tors (it’s all about the ‘tors!!) The sur­prise when you make it up to the top, is that inside this homage to mod­ern design is a piece of his­to­ry. Trans­plant­ed from the ‘old’ library is The Shake­speare Memo­r­i­al room, a wood pan­elled exam­ple of 19th cen­tu­ry civic pride, now avail­able for your wed­ding ceremony

After the cer­e­mo­ny you get the chance to explore both the inside of the library but also the out­side areas/gardens which give amaz­ing views of the city

At this par­tic­u­lar wed­ding they had drinks in the Rep The­atre bar next door and then walked along­side the canal to The Dis­tillery for the party

Think Tank

A Night at the Muse­um for all you sci­ence lovers!! 

Think Tank is at Mil­len­ni­um Point, near Moor Street Sta­tion and is Birm­ing­ham’s Sci­ence Muse­um. Although it’s not licenced, you can have a cel­e­brant led cer­e­mo­ny in the plan­e­tar­i­um, how flip­ping cool is that??!! Then after­wards, you could sip your recep­tion drinks with a Spit­fire hang­ing overhead!!

Ikon Gallery

In a neo-goth­ic for­mer school build­ing is this acclaimed art gallery in the heart of the city, at Brind­ley Place.

With a mix­ture of old and new archi­tec­ture you’ve got a bright and light space, with con­tem­po­rary art as the back­drop to your wed­ding. All in all a pret­ty cool place to get wed.

Kitchen Garden Cafe

This place is a tran­quil oasis, just out­side the City Cen­tre in Kings Heath. 

Home-cooked food, eth­i­cal sourc­ing, Fair Trade tea & cof­fee, plen­ty for veg­e­tar­i­ans & veg­ans, local and sea­son­al. Don’t know about you but I’m lik­ing these vibes already!

Their main venue is The Kitchen Gar­den, with pri­vate bar and out­side court­yard. It’s quirky, rus­tic and fam­i­ly-friend­ly with art­work across the walls. They also have a sis­ter venue called Fletch­ers Bar & Eatery which has venet­ian walls, idyl­lic chan­de­liers and cham­pagne fairy lights.

Historical, Urban, Cool Wedding Venues in Birmingham

Fazeley Studios

In Dig­beth, right across the road from The Bond Com­pa­ny, Faze­ley Stu­dios is a restored Uni­tar­i­an Chapel, a blend of Vic­to­ri­an eccle­si­as­ti­cal archi­tec­ture cou­pled with urban indus­tri­al vibes.

This cer­e­mo­ny was held is a won­der­ful Gar­den Room, light and airy and look­ing out onto the courtyard. 

Then there’s the Faze­ley Room for food and speech­es before back to the Gar­den Room for the party!

Plus, being in the heart of Dig­beth, you’ve got some real­ly cool stuff going on out­side too!!

Digbeth Old Library

From the newest library in Birm­ing­ham we move to the last of the orig­i­nal free libraries in the city, in Dig­beth, right across the road from the icon­ic Cus­tard Fac­to­ry If you want a wed­ding venue that is right in the heart of a hip, vibrant part of the city, then give this place a look!! The whole area just oozes cool and the library is anoth­er light and airy venue space, just off the main route pedes­tri­an route through the area but eas­i­ly missed as you walk past

With all that indus­tri­al funk and graf­fi­ti just around the cor­ner who would­n’t want to have a wan­der, after the confetti!!

The Bond Company

Right next to the Grand Union Canal, in an old Vic­to­ri­an fac­to­ry and with its own wharf, I present The Bond!! This is anoth­er fab space to get mar­ried, once again in Dig­beth (there are a whole lot of cool wed­ding venues in Dig­beth!) Hav­ing the canal at the back real­ly adds anoth­er dimen­sion, just be care­ful not to fall in!!

Factory Works, Digbeth

This is the new kid on the block when it comes to Birm­ing­ham wed­ding venues, but the indus­tri­al space def­i­nite­ly has his­to­ry and char­ac­ter. With­in the Cus­tard Fac­to­ry the inte­ri­or is a blank can­vas with the huge fac­to­ry floor, fac­to­ry gallery and river­side room.

Birmingham Town Hall

Right in the heart of the city, I’ve been to con­certs here but did you know you can also have your wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny at the Town Hall?! Stun­ning inte­ri­or, grade I list­ed, built in 1834, got to be worth a look!

Rustic/Chilled/Outdoor Weddings near Birmingham

If you look a bit fur­ther afield then you’ll find lots more alter­na­tive and cool wed­ding venues in Birm­ing­ham and area.

Overgrown Acres

This is a sus­tain­able tipi wed­ding venue in South Not­ting­hamshire Wolds, which is only an hours dri­ve from Brum (I googled it!)

They’ve got 3 tip­is sur­round­ed by mead­ow and wood­land and are dog-friend­ly (by arrange­ment I think!) with their own ponies, sheep and chick­ens nearby.

Cuttle Brook — Sami Tipi

Here we have a warter­front, DIY tipi venue, right by the Riv­er Trent

Nes­tled in the Der­byshire coun­try­side it’s less than a mile from Sami Tipi HQ and close to Swarke­stone Pavil­ion. In fact, you can hire it for your pre-wed­ding prepa­ra­tion if you want.

Then there’s a lit­tle walk across a foot­bridge over the Cut­tle brook to get to the area where you can have your cel­e­brant led ceremony.

Then after­wards, you could have food vans, mini golf, music and mak­ing merry!!

Alcott Weddings

To Worces­ter­shire now, near the vil­lage of Alvechurch, and anoth­er tipi option. This one is great if you want to go for a rus­tic of fes­ti­val vibe where you can glamp or camp to spend the night there too!

Cattows Farm

A work­ing farm, near Ash­by-De-La-Zouch in Leices­ter­shire with tipi or mar­quee options. 

The fam­i­ly that own Cat­tows Farm have been farm­ing for over 120 years and give you the option to hire a pad­dock for your coun­try­side wedding. 

Bawdon Lodge Farm Weddings

These guys proud­ly adver­tise that they’re ‘Not just a field on a farm’ so give you all the out­door sail­cloth or tipi options but with an event plan­ning team, an alco­hol licence, and wi-fi!!

Enchanting Woodland Weddings at Umberslade Adventure

You want a wood­land wed­ding, right in the heart of the War­wick­shire coun­try­side? You got it! In ancient oak wood­land, amongst a canopy of trees there is a clear­ing. Per­fect for a bless­ing, a tipi and a party

Plus, what this place has to offer to make it even more awe­some, is that there’s an adven­ture play­ground and you get exclu­sive use of it on your wed­ding day!!

Sure­ly rea­son to do a hap­py dance!!

The Hidden Hive

The last of the tipi options I’m going to men­tion is back to Der­byshire and in the heart of the Nation­al Forest. 

It’s sur­round­ed by trees, lakes and nature with roman­tic Nordic tip­is. There’s the option to have lux­u­ry glamp­ing bell tents on side or glamp­ing pods next door at Bee­hive Wood­land Lakes campsite.

Quirky/Unique West Midlands Wedding Venues with a WOW FACTOR

Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings

It’s a museum.…of old build­ings!! We’re talk­ing an incred­i­bly eclec­tic col­lec­tions of his­toric build­ings that have been painstak­ing­ly trans­plant­ed from their orig­i­nal loca­tion and rebuilt here, near to Broms­grove, in Stoke Heath

You can get mar­ried in the New Guesten Hall beneath its four­teenth cen­tu­ry, Grade II* list­ed roof. They’ve also got a Vic­to­ri­an Mis­sion Church, an old wind­mill and the Nation­al Col­lec­tion of Phonebox­es (who knew!)

Arley Arboretum

How does get­ting mar­ried in an Ital­ian Gar­den sound? With lime trees, a dove­cote, foun­tain and pos­si­bly the odd pea­cock, it’s just the most beau­ti­ful place for a ceremony.

Or, you’ve also got the choice of Arley House, for an indoor cer­e­mo­ny, or St Peter’s church, which is part of the estate. 

I’ve vis­it­ed Arley Arbore­tum many times with my own fam­i­ly and it’s sim­ply stun­ning, Over­look­ing the riv­er Sev­ern at the bot­tom of the val­ley and with­in earshot of the Sev­ern Val­ley Her­itage Rail­way you feel like you’re in a real­ly mag­i­cal place.

Then after­wards, after drinks in the walled Ital­ian Gar­den you’ve got the choice of a recep­tion in Arley House, or a marquee/tipi on the lawn in front of the arboretum.

Churchfields Dairy Farm

This is a work­ing dairy farm/cafe in Worces­ter­shire with a fan­tas­tic approach to sustainability. 

A farm that has been in the Davis fam­i­ly for over 100 years and it’s seen 5 gen­er­a­tions take stewardship. 

This is a quote from their website;

“It’s impor­tant to us that we pass the farm on to our chil­dren in a bet­ter state than we found it. In every­thing we do we con­sid­er our envi­ron­men­tal impact, and seek to pro­tect and enhance the farm’s bio­di­ver­si­ty and reduce our car­bon foot­print.”

They’ve got a bio­mass con­vert­er and solar pan­el sys­tem and are involved with The High­er Lev­el Stew­ard­ship Scheme.

So all in all, lots of good stuff going on there.…and they do wed­dings too…YAY!!!

They’ve now got a choice three spaces for your wed­ding, The Old Barn, The New Barn and Cook­shill Field. The last of these gives you the space for a mar­quee or tipi with view fab views over­look­ing the coun­try­side of The Sal­warpe Valley.

The fam­i­ly farm has mead­ows, an orchard and rolling coun­try­side but, at dif­fer­ent times of the year they also have a Fairy Trail, Maize Maze and Pump­kin Patch that can be incor­po­rat­ed into your day.

Did I men­tion that they make their own ice cream too?? Nom, nom!!

The Fleece Inn

When I first looked at web­site for the The Fleece, in the Worces­ter­shire Cotswolds, I was a bit tak­en aback. A pub that’s owned by the Nation­al Trust, don’t the Nation­al Trust do state­ly homes and for­mal gar­dens… but not pubs.….??1

The pub dates back to the ear­ly 15th cen­tu­ry and remained in the same local fam­i­ly until it was bequeathed to the Nation­al Trust in 1977

The pub is in the Cotswold vil­lage of Bret­for­ton, not too far from Eve­sham. In the vil­lage is the 12th-cen­tu­ry St Leonard’s church and the pub itself has a medieval thatched barn, which is licenced. 

The pub gar­den is HUGE — it has it’s own orchard!

You can book the Mas­ter’s Bed­cham­ber in the pub, over­look­ing the vil­lage. Or go for their vin­tage bow top car­a­van for a ‘moongaz­ing glamp­ing’ choice! It’s nes­tled at the bot­tom of their apple orchard and is a minia­ture pri­vate campsite!

Blists Hill Museum

Per­haps when you hear Blists Hill you think ‘Iron­bridge’, but it’s much much more than that, it’s an entire Vic­to­ri­an vil­lage! You real­ly need to check out their wed­ding brochure to see all the dif­fer­ent options they have for wed­dings but they include the Engine Shop, the Fur­nace Kitchen, the For­est Glen Pavil­ion and a tra­di­tion­al pub.

You’ve even got the option of hir­ing the Vic­to­ri­an fairground!

The West Mill

The West Mill is a Grade I List­ed for­mer indus­tri­al mill dat­ing back to the ear­ly 1800’s on the bank of the Riv­er Der­went with views over the his­toric mill weir.

The Cot­ton quar­ter is where you can have your cer­e­mo­ny and the room has exposed brick­work, met­al beams and a unique cast iron ceiling. 

Then you move to The Break­fast Room for your recep­tion where there are orig­i­nal bar­rel-vault­ed arch­es and Geor­gian paned windows. 

Final­ly you head for The Spin­ning Room to par­ty the night away!

Severn Valley Heritage Railway

A wed­ding recep­tion on a mov­ing steam train? Yes please! 

The Sev­ern val­ley rail­way is one of the many her­itage rail­ways that have been set up around the coun­try to pre­serve some of our indus­tri­al her­itage. It runs from Kid­der­min­ster in Worces­ter­shire to Bridg­north in Shrop­shire through some beau­ti­ful coun­try­side and pret­ty lit­tle hamlets.

You can have your cer­e­mo­ny in The Engine House at High­ley, then take a trip along the length of the line for food before dis­em­bark­ing at Kid­der­min­ster for your evening reception. 

Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens

Cas­tle Bromwich is just 5 miles from the cen­tre of Birm­ing­ham but you could imag­ine you’re deep in the countryside.

The 17th Cen­tu­ry Jacobean man­sion and gar­dens are now run sep­a­rate­ly with the walled gar­dens run by a char­i­ta­ble trust

So you’ve got 10 acres of beau­ti­ful­ly restored his­toric Grade II* list­ed walled gar­den, where you can hav­ing your wedding!

It’s not licensed so you’d either have to have the cer­e­mo­ny some­where else or go down the cel­e­brant route. But either way, you’ve got a stun­ning back­drop for your fes­tiv­i­ties and handy access from the M6 too!

Secret Space/DIY/Make it your own Cool Wedding Venue in the Birmingham area

Oldberrow House

A Vic­to­ri­an Coun­try House, with an out­door cer­e­mo­ny and mar­quee recep­tion — anoth­er fab War­wick­shire Wed­ding venue Fam­i­ly owned and run this place is won­der­ful­ly friend­ly and flex­i­ble to give you the day that you want

Although there were some show­ers dur­ing the day it real­ly did­n’t seem to mat­ter. Dry inside the mar­quee and per­fect for an amaz­ing party

Rock Village hall

As vil­lage halls go, this is the business! 

It’s in the rur­al vil­lage of Rock, in the Worces­ter­shire coun­try­side, but with with very mod­ern facilities.

It’s got a ful­ly stocked kitchen with sep­a­rate space have a bar and there’s a decked area at the rear, so def­i­nite­ly very wedding-friendly.

Just along the lane is a 12th cen­tu­ry Nor­man Church, or have the cer­e­mo­ny else­where and then use the vil­lage hall for the party.

Springhill Barn

Now on to a lake­side house in the Vale of Eve­sham, near to The Cotswolds and Shake­speare country.

They’ve got a tra­di­tion­al barn where you can hold your wed­ding par­ty with a huge court­yard outside.

Water, gar­dens, wood­land, plus a great par­ty venue!!

Ingestre Orangery

Def­i­nite­ly a secret space here, hid­den in the Stafford­shire coun­try­side. The Orangery, Ingestre, is a stun­ning build­ing, in a tran­quil loca­tion over­look­ing Capa­bil­i­ty Brown landscapes.

It’s char­i­ty run with wed­dings going to wards the upkeep of the building. 

There’s a church 2 min­utes away or you can have a cel­e­brant led ceremony

The Cowshed — Woodhall Farm

This is def­i­nite­ly a DIY venue, with the 18th cen­tu­ry cow­shed work­ing as a blank can­vas for your wed­ding plans. 

They’ve got seat­ing space for up to 120 and then a sep­a­rate dance barn!

You get the venue from Fri­day to Sun­day too, giv­ing plen­ty of time to get every­thing set up.

Deckerdence

I saved the most quirky, DIY option for last if you’re want­i­ng a real­ly unusu­al and cool wed­ding venue in the Birm­ing­ham area.

With Deck­er­dence you’re get­ting a mobile wed­ding, you find the space and they’ll bring the venue!

It’s a 1967 Ley­land dou­ble-deck­er bus with a wrap around mar­quee. The bus becomes your bar in the cen­tre of the mar­quee and then the upper deck is a cock­tail bar!

So find your­self a field and you’re good to go!!

So there you have it, my round up of 31 cool wed­ding venues in Birm­ing­ham and the sur­round­ing area. 

Hope it’s been of use!! 

If you’re inter­est­ed in oth­er wed­ding plan­ning tips then you could check out these oth­er blogs 

18 Fab­u­lous Bridg­north Wed­ding Venues

70 Ideas for wed­ding entertainment

How to have awe­some wed­ding confetti

Or if you’d like to dis­cuss your wed­ding plans then please get in touch