Newport Wedding Venues - Craig Y Nos Castle Wedding Venue - Weddings in Wales at Craig y Nos Castle

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Newport Wedding Venues - Craig Y Nos Castle Wedding Venue

Wedding Planning > Wedding themes by Town

Newport Wedding Venue ideas, for Weddings near Newport, Wales


Newport Weddings


Your Newport 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 Newpoert who have more than one wedding on same day.

Newport Weddings Venue Craig y Nos Castle

Exclusive Use Newport Wedding Packages
in a Welsh Castle
- a stunning Wedding Venue near Newport

Visit on one of our


  • Time from Newport to Craig y Nos Castle Wedding Venue: 1 hour 10 minutes

  • Distance from Newport to Craig y Nos Castle Wedding Reception Venue: 53 miles

Award winning Castle Wedding Venue in South Wales for your big day!

Newport Wedding Venue Craig y Nos Castle

See Suggested


for your Wedding Day

at Craig y Nos Castle, Nr. Newport



See our Weekend Wedding Package with 60 to 70 day guests and 50 guests staying overnight.



For all our wedding packages, see Wedding Packages Selection for the most suitable wedding package for you.

Newport Wedding Venue Craig y Nos Castle

Why Choose Craig y Nos Castle,
near Newport?

You get Exclusive Use of our castle wedding venue near Newport.

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 Newport.

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 Newport will have the run of the whole ground floor of the castle exclusively.

You're not in just one room, you and your 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 near to Newport,
or can you go further afield
for a more special and unique wedding day?

Room 21 en-suite at Craig y Nos Castle Wedding Venue for Newport Wedding Couples
AB28 Bathroom at Craig y Nos Castle wedding venue for Newport

'Local Venue'
or
'Destination Wedding Venue'?

You may have guests some distance away from Newport, 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 Newport, do you want a local wedding venue near Newport where all your guests can get to easily? Or are you all happy about travelling up the Swansea Valley to Craig y Nos Castle?

AB31 loft room at Craig y Nos Castle wedding venue for Newport

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, 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 coming from Newport will party with you late into the night as they have no worries about getting 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 Newport, 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.

AB21 Bathroom at Craig y Nos Castle wedding venue for Newport

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.


Newport Wedding Theme ideas,
Wedding Decor and Wedding Gift Ideas,
based on Newport's history, style and culture

Link your wedding theme, wedding decor and wedding favours to the history, style and sense of place in Newport.

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 some elements of your home area within Newport 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 Newport in your decor, to connect your personal history in your home city's roots, and your family's location in Newport. You may get some ideas from the quick history of Newport below, its buildings, street names, or local transport routes etc.



Interesting Facts About Newport
and could use in
your wedding theme/ decor/ story

1. Welsh name Casnewydd. Population: 306,844. Third largest city in Wales. It officially became a city in 2002 but gained its first charter as a town in 1314.

2. The name comes from the original Latin 'Novus Burgus', which translates to 'new borough' or 'new town' - a name given by the Normans as there was nothing much there before. It was called Newport-on-Usk on old maps.

3. Bronze Age fishermen settled in the fertile estuary of the River Usk and in AD 79 the Romans built their garrison HQ at Caerleon but there was no settlement of any note in Newport until 1088. Before the Normans arrived, Newport was a motley collection of mud and thatched huts.

4. The Normans arrived 1088–1093, building the first bailey Castle and constructing buildings out of stone. The Welsh language name, 'Casnewydd-ar-Wysg' refers to the 'New Castle on the Usk', this being a later castle, Newport Castle, completed in 1386 to replace the one built by the Normans.

5. Newport remained a small town but for its port which by 1521 was busy. Industries included leather tanning, soap making and starch making.

6. Newport town and port grew rapidly in the Industrial Revolution, due to coal exports.

7. The Monmouthshire canal opened in 1796.

8. In 1830 Newport was Wales' leading coal port, and until 1850, larger than Cardiff.

9. The Newport Rising of 1839 was the last large-scale armed rebellion against mainland Britain's authority.

10. The Alexandra Docks opened in 1875. In 1892 the Alexandra South Dock opened, becoming the largest masonry dock in the world.

11. The Miners' Federation of Great Britain was founded in Newport 1889.

12.  Newport was mainly Welsh Speaking until the 1830's but the huge influx of English workers made it more English than Welsh. In 1896 politician Robert Bird announced, “You will find, from Swansea to Newport, a cosmopolitan population who will not submit to the domination of Welsh ideas!”

13. With the decline in coal exports and the 1930's depression, Newport suffered high unemployment along with neighbouring Welsh mining towns and coal ports. Prosperity returned to the town with the opening of Llanwern steelworks in 1962, the new Severn Bridge and the extension of the M4 in the 1960s.


15. Steel manufacture ceased in 2001 and Newport is today becoming a base for technology companies.

16. There are many ambitious plans for the regeneration and expansion of Newport's residential and commercial areas, though most of these are currently on hold due to economic conditions.

17. Tredegar House was built in 1672. Set in a park of 90 acres Tredegar House is an example of a C.17th Charles II mansion. It dates back to the late C.15th. For 500 years, it was home to the Morgans who became the Lords Tredegar until 1951. The house was then a girls' school and was bought by the council in 1974.

18. Newport became part of the new local government county of Gwent in 1974. but Gwent was abolished in 1996. In 1983 due to population growth Newport was split into two parliamentary constituencies - Newport East and Newport West.


19. Wards and their communities in Newport:


  • Allt-yr-yn ward: Ridgeway, Barrack Hill, Glasllwch, Gold Tops,

  • Alway ward: Somerton, Lawrence Hill,

  • Beechwood: Eveswell,

  • Bettws,

  • Caerleon ward: Christchurch, Bulmore,

  • Gaer ward: Maesglas, Stelvio, St. Davids, Gaer Park

  • Graig ward: Rhiwderin, Bassaleg, Lower Machen, Pentre Poeth, Fox Hill,

  • Langstone ward: Llanmartin, Parc Seymour, Wentwood Forest, Coed-y-caerau, Cat's Ash, Kemys, Coldra, Llanbedr

  • Llanwern ward: Underwood, Whitson, Uskmouth, Summerleaze, Wilcrick, Saltmarsh, Milton, Porton

  • Liswerry ward: Broadmead Park, Moorland Park, Broadstreet Common

  • Malpas ward: Hollybush

  • Marshfield ward: Castleton, St. Brides, Blacktown, Peterstone

  • Pillgwenlly ward: Level of Mendalgief

  • Ringland ward: Bishpool, Treberth, Coldra

  • Rogerstone ward: High Cross, Cefn Wood, Croesllanfro, Mount Pleasant,

  • Shaftesbury ward: Brynglas, Crindau, Marshes, Blaen-y-pant

  • St Julians: Riverside, Barnardtown

  • Stow Hill: St. Woolos, Baneswell, City centre

  • Tredegar Park: Duffryn

  • Victoria: Maindee, Summerhill



20. Newport is sunnier and warmer than most other parts of Wales.

21. The Passport Office for South and West UK is based in Newport.  

22. The headquarters of the UK Office for National Statistics and the headquarters of the United Kingdom Patent Office (now known as the Intellectual Property Office) is based at Newport.

23. In the Sims Metal Management plant at the mouth of the River Usk, Newport has the world's largest industrial shredder for scrap metal and the world's largest car crusher.




24. Newport has ten bridges over the River Usk:


  • Caerleon Bridge,

  • St. Julian's railway bridge,

  • M4 motorway Usk bridge,

  • Great Western Railway Usk bridge,

  • Newport Bridge,

  • Newport City footbridge,

  • George Street Bridge,

  • City Bridge and

  • Transporter Bridge, plus the

  • Twenty Ten Bridge at the Celtic Manor Resort which is a private footbridge over the River Usk.


25. Newport's main shopping streets are: High Street, Newport Arcade, Market Arcade, Commercial Street, Skinner Street, Bridge Street, Upper Dock Street, Market Street, Griffin Street, Corn Street, Cambrian Road, Hill Street, Llanarth Street and John Frost Square.

26. Famous people from Newport include: Michael Sheen (actor) and Sir Terry Matthews OBE (entrepreneur; Wales' first billionaire).

27. The hull of a Medieval 15th Century sailing Ship was discovered in the banks of River Usk in June 2002 during construction of the Riverfront Theatre. The ship was excavated by archaeologists. It is the longest such ship ever discovered. Marine archaeologists date the timbers to 1465. The city council ordered it, the oldest merchant ship ever discovered in Europe, to be reburied so as not to delay the building of the arts centre. After a public protest, the timbers were preserved.

28. The Newport Transporter Bridge opened in 1906 is one of only six operational transporter bridges left in the world. Only twenty were built. It transfers cars across the River Usk in a cradle-like cage. A high level boom allows ships to pass underneath. It acts as an aerial ferry to move goods from one side of the river to the other. A suspended platform is pulled from across via a cable.

It was built because industry was expanding on the east side of the river. With the residential areas then largely on the west side, workers had to walk four miles to cross the river on the town bridge to get to work. A river ferry was not practical due to the ever changing times of the tide and its extreme rise and fall.

A transporter bridge was a cheaper answer than tunneling or building a conventional bridge. It cost just £98,000 to build. Also a conventional bridge would have had to be built quite high up for the tall ships of the day to pass under it, which would have made it more expensive still.

29. Newport once had more than its fair share of rats. In 1920, 16,000 rats were trapped or killed in Newport. Yet in 1923 it was reported that several babies were being bitten in their prams by rats. This situation is now presumed to have improved.



Ideas for your wedding theme
based on the history and past of Newport

Despite being the third largest city in Wales, Newport’s history is somewhat recent and lacking in anything particularly noteworthy as far as wedding ideas go. One is limited to the following:

1. Table names based on place names in Newport. You have the 19 wards and their communities. Name some of your tables after some of the place names to get  a sense of place, so you are bringing Newport into the castle wedding reception room for your wedding.

2. Weddings often need around 8 – 10 tables of 8 – 12 people. As there are ten bridges over the River Usk, you could use each of these bridges as table names. Since there are ten of them this will match what you will need in numbers of tables.

3. More ambitiously, since each bridge will have different architectural features, you could include table centres based around a model of each bridge, according to which bridge name you allocated to the table.


4. You could do the same with the shopping streets, naming your tables after the main shopping streets, which anyone from Newport will recognise. However the bridges are possibly more interesting.

5. The Newport Transporter Bridge appears to be an interesting feature of the town. You could possibly include a replica of it as either your wedding cake topper, with the a model of the bride and groom standing before it, or as a separate display on a chest for cards etc. This will help to ‘place’ you both in Newport via a recognisable landmark specific to Newport. Alternatively, since the Newport Transporter Bridge is necessarily quite tall (this is why it was built – so tall shops could go under it) you could place an icing statue of the bride and groom under it.

6. Storyboards and photographs of brides and grooms through their childhood years to adulthood are becoming more popular. You could place around the board, all the bridges of Newport, or just one on the top of the board. Why?  You might well ask! Well, a marriage is building a bridge between two families, and the many bridges of Newport allow you to present this message along with some interesting aspects of Newport to your wedding guests.



Arrange a viewing of the castle


To arrange a viewing and stay overnight for two nights at half price, (£149 B&B), check our viewing breaks B&B offer.

Or if you fancy just coming on a day trip, book a viewing here.


We have an offer on late availability weddings -



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