Find a handfasting venue that is perfect for you

The first two things you need to decide on, before contacting any wedding suppliers, is a date and a venue for your handfasting, because they all will need to know this to give you a quote.

If you are not sure about your date yet, here is a little something to help you decide in form of a blog I wrote earlier: Deciding on a date for your handfasting.

Once you got either a firm date or a selection of possible dates, you can contact your dream venues. But how do you find a venue for your handfasting that will be perfect?

Well, there is a few things to consider…

Legally binding handfasting or just a ceremony?

The first thing you need to consider when trying to find a handfasting venue is whether you want to have your pagan handfasting to also be your legally binding marriage ceremony. Or whether you just want it to be a nice ceremony with your family and friends.

If you want your handfasting to be legally binding, then how you go about this depends on where you are.

In England and Wales, at the time of writing this blog, there is only one venue where you can legally get handfast. It is the Goddess Temple in Glastonbury.
The temple is an indoor venue. If you were hoping to get handfast in a woodland then you cannot currently do that in England or Wales. But you can in Scotland.

In Scotland and the Republic of Ireland, there is a much greater choice for legally binding Handfasting ceremonies.

I explain the details of what you need to know and how to go about booking a legally binding handfasting in my blog about how to get legally handfast in these 8 countries.

If your Handfasting is to be just a celebration with your family and friends, and you’re happy to do the legal bit separately, ie going down to the registry office to do all that’s required first, then there will be a much greater pool of options to find a handfasting venue in. 

Religious Handfasting 

If you are part of a coven or other religious community and you want them to conduct your ceremony, then check with them whether there are specific requirements about where you can get handfast.

If you’re not part of a religious community, then you can just hire a celebrant who can work anywhere. I will talk about how to choose your celebrant in another blog. 

Indoor or Outdoor Handfasting?

There are a few things you need to consider when deciding whether to have an outdoor or indoor handfasting.

Do you want your whole day to be outdoors? Or just your handfasting ceremony with the reception in a more conventional place?

Start by getting clear what exactly drives your desire to find a handfasting venue that offers outdoors celebrations:
Do you want to tie the knot in an ancient or sacred place like a stone circle? Because you want to get married in a place of myth, legend and folklore? Or you are attracted by its beauty?

Or do you want a place that means something to you personally?

Or is it spending the day under the blue sky that attracts you? 

Outdoor Handfasting

If your main motivation is just being outdoors under the blue sky, you it might be quite easy to find a handfasting venue that ticks all the boxes. You could just rent a field and have a marquee reception or tepee reception with your ceremony in a beautiful part of the field.

If it is an ancient sacred place, like stone circle or St. Nectan’s Glen, check whether you need permission or you might need to hire it?

Is the venue available for hire at all?
If it is on public access land, you still might need permission to have your ceremony there. Check with the landowner, even if that’s the council.

If you require permission to use land this usually comes with a fee so don’t be surprised if you are asked to pay up.

And do you need to go somewhere else for the reception? If so, this could be the rented field with a marquee or a more traditional wedding venue or even a pub that can offer the space you are looking for.

Once you find a handfasting venue, before signing of the dotted line, find out what is and isn’t allowed. For example: are you allowed to light a fire, if you are planning on jumping the fire? Or is your dog/cat/owl/pony/alpaca allowed to come to your ceremony?

Indoor Handfasting

If you don’t fancy playing the weather roulette, then maybe an indoor handfasting is more for you. Or a venue with an outdoor space you can use for the ceremony, should the weather be on your side.

For indoors venues, it’s also very important to ask whether candles are allowed if you’re planning on using them in your ceremony. Not all venues allow open fires, including candles. 

Catering

When you find a venue that seems to tick all the boxes, it is important to check about their catering requirements.

If a venue has their own restaurant, you are likely going to have to use them to supply your food. But even if they don’t, they might only allow caterers from their trusted suppliers list to work at the venue.

This can take a lot of work out of searching for your caterer, but it’s not good if you don’t like their food or they can’t offer what you want. 

Accommodation

When choosing a venue it’s also important to consider accommodation, not only for yourself, but also for your guests.

Is there accommodation on site or nearby for anyone who will not be fit to drive after your reception?

If you hire a field, you could just rent tents for everyone to crash in at the end of the day. …not sure how well our 90 year old granny would have done getting up from a camping mat in the morning, but the children would have loved it. 

Summing up:
find a handfasting venue for your requirements

Whichever venue you go for, make sure it feels right. Because if it feels right, that it probably is the right handfasting venue for you.

Still wondering about the date to get handfast on? Have a look at my blog about choosing a date for your handfasting for some ideas and pointers.

Wondering where those two fabulous places are that I shared photos of in this blog:

The waterfall is at the magical St Nectans Glen, my favourite handfasting venue in a fairy tale woodland.

And the big house is Stoke Place in Buckinghamshire. If you would like to see an example wedding of mine at Stoke Place, have a look at this beautiful summer wedding from a few years back: Stoke Place Wedding.

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Bright blessings,

Handfasting Photographer UK and EU