A Wedding Band for Newport and Celtic Manor

Wedding Band Newport

Newport weddings tend to centre on Celtic Manor - the resort dominates the wedding diary here, with the main hotel, the manor house and the golf club all running weddings under the same brand. The Brotherhood have been playing Celtic Manor weddings since 2015 and the room-by-room knowledge below comes out of that. Outside the resort, the Newport circuit runs up the Usk Valley towards Caerleon and on towards Usk.

The Celtic Manor Resort

Celtic Manor sells under one name but is several different rooms at three different parts of the resort. We’ve played most of them.

The Caernarfon Suite

The grand hotel ballroom - high ceilings, chandeliers, and the room the resort uses for the bigger weddings on its books. Our most-played room at Celtic Manor and the one where the 8-piece and 9-piece configurations of the Brotherhood land most often. Load-in is a service-route carry through the hotel rather than a back-the-van-up-to-the-stage job, so we allow time for it.

The Manor Suite

The original 19th century manor house at the back of the resort, kept as the heritage option for couples who want less ballroom and more country house. Hedleys, the smaller stained-glass room in the same building, suits a more intimate evening - tight on stage footprint, so we typically play it as a 5-piece.

The Rooftop Terrace

A relaxed summer-only space with the Smokehouse barbecue, lawns and terraces. Different energy from the ballrooms; we drop into smaller line-ups for this room - 5-piece Brotherhood or one of our acoustic configurations depending on the booking.

The Chairman’s Marquee

Up at the Celtic Manor Golf Club rather than the main hotel - a permanent marquee with its own private bar and an outdoor patio looking over the Roman Road course. 80-180 for the wedding breakfast, up to around 300 in the evening. Easiest load-in at Celtic Manor by some distance: the lane runs right up to the back of the marquee and the van parks next to the playing area. A different feel from the hotel ballrooms for couples who want the Celtic Manor name with a less formal evening.

More on playing weddings at The Chairman’s Marquee →

Working at Celtic Manor

Music finish at Celtic Manor is set by the resort, not the band - pin it down with the events team as you firm up the schedule. Across the rooms we run our own PA and lighting and use in-ears (no floor wedges, no guitar or bass amps on stage), which matters more in the soft-sided Chairman’s Marquee than in the hard-walled Caernarfon Suite but keeps the front of the stage clear in both. None of the Celtic Manor rooms we play has a fitted sound limiter; the volume sits where the wedding party actually wants it.

Other Newport-area venues

Outside the resort, weddings round Newport tend to head up the Usk Valley. The Priory Hotel sits in the middle of Roman Caerleon, and Cwrt Bleddyn is ten minutes up the A449 towards Usk - both run as country-house weddings on a smaller scale than Celtic Manor. North-west of the city, up the Sirhowy valley, Maes Manor Hotel at Blackwood is a Grade II listed country house with a standalone ballroom and no sound limiter - a different feel again, valleys grandeur rather than resort. East of the city the A48 runs out towards Chepstow, and The Rock & Fountain Inn at Penhow has a barn behind it doing proper wedding numbers. We’re based in South Wales, so any of these is well inside our local area - no travel supplement, gear-loaded and ready by call time.

The Rock & Fountain Inn, Penhow

A village inn on the A48 with The Lodge behind it - a recently fitted-out, double-height barn let on exclusive use, with its own bar, its own entrance and room for up to 150. It’s a different proposition from the resort and country-house end of the Newport diary: less formal, all on one level, and the whole evening happens in one room rather than migrating between three. For us it’s also about as easy as access gets, with the van going straight round to the back of the barn.

More on playing weddings at The Rock & Fountain Inn →

This is our home town

Newport is where the band is based - the directors live in Malpas and up at Wyllie, and Celtic Manor has been on our calendar since 2015. That is not a marketing line, it is a practical one. A Newport wedding means no travel cost in your quote, setup times we can be genuinely flexible about, and a band that can be on site early without anyone making a day of it.

It also means we know these rooms rather than guessing at them. The Caernarfon Suite is a carry through the hotel’s service route, not a drive-up. The Chairman’s Marquee up at the golf club is the opposite - straight off the lane. The finish time at Celtic Manor is set by the resort rather than by us or by you, so it is worth pinning down with their events team early, because it decides where the first dance sits in the evening.

We run in-ears rather than floor wedges and DI the guitar and bass, which keeps the stage footprint small enough for the hotel function rooms and the volume sensible for a room with a limiter on the wall.

The 5-piece Brotherhood - two vocals, guitar, bass, drums and keys - is the lineup at most Newport weddings. Six-piece adds sax for more lift through the funk and soul end. Eight and nine-piece with brass is what the Caernarfon Suite is actually built for. Our acoustic lineups cover ceremony and drinks reception.

Other areas we cover

Newport weddings often overlap with the wider Monmouthshire and Chepstow circuits, and we play weddings across the whole of South Wales more broadly. If yours isn’t on the list, tell us where it is.

Book your Newport wedding band

Planning a wedding at Celtic Manor or anywhere in the Newport area? Check our availability for your date.