A South Wales Wedding Band

South Wales wedding band

The Brotherhood are a South Wales wedding band - five to eleven pieces, playing weddings across the region since 2015. South Wales is the patch we work most: Celtic Manor as the home base, Hensol Castle and St Tewdrics on either side of the M4, the Brecon Beacons barns up the A40 to Abergavenny, Fairyhill out on the western Gower. The venues below are the ones we’ve played enough times to write usefully about - load-in, room shape, what the dancefloor actually does at 10pm. Where a venue has its own page on this site, the link goes through to the detail.

Most couples comparing wedding bands in South Wales are working from a shortlist of venues rather than a shortlist of bands, so that is how this page is arranged.

Premier South Wales wedding venues

The Celtic Manor Resort, Newport

Celtic Manor sells under one name but is several different rooms at three different parts of the resort: the main hotel ballrooms, the manor house at the back, and the golf club up the lane.

The Caernarfon Suite - the grand hotel ballroom, high ceilings and chandeliers, configured for the bigger weddings the resort runs. Our most-played room at Celtic Manor.

The Manor Suite - the original 19th century manor house. Period feel, smaller capacity, runs as the heritage option for couples who want less ballroom and more country house.

The Rooftop Terrace - relaxed summer-only space with the Smokehouse barbecue and lawns. Different energy from the ballrooms; we drop into smaller lineups for this room.

The Chairman’s Marquee - up at the golf club rather than the main hotel, with its own bar and an outdoor patio looking over the Roman Road course. 80-180 for the wedding breakfast, up to around 300 in the evening - a different feel from the hotel ballrooms for couples who want the Celtic Manor name with a less formal evening.

Load-in varies room by room. The Chairman’s Marquee is straight off the lane; the Caernarfon Suite is a service-route carry through the hotel; the Manor Suite is somewhere in between. We allow for it.

Hensol Castle, Vale of Glamorgan

A 17th century castle on a 650-acre estate with a 15-acre lake, fifteen minutes off the M4 west of Cardiff. Exclusive-use, one wedding a day. Ceremony and wedding breakfast inside the main castle, evening into the Courtyard Hall where the glass-side wall opens onto the courtyard and the energy carries between inside and out late into the night.

More on playing weddings at Hensol Castle →

Llanerch Vineyard, Vale of Glamorgan

A family-run vineyard hotel in 22 acres of vines at Hensol, a few minutes from Hensol Castle and fifteen off the M4 west of Cardiff. Calon Lodge seats 50-150; the bigger Woodland Marquee takes up to 200 and has an installed Outline PA with delays down the room - so the dancefloor stays even front to back. The one thing to plan around is the 10pm limiter step-down, which we build the running order around.

More on playing weddings at Llanerch Vineyard →

St Tewdrics House, Chepstow

A family-run Italianate manor a few minutes off the M48 on the Welsh side of the old Severn Bridge. Exclusive use of the house, lodge and grounds; the Courtyard reception room holds up to 150 for dinner and flips for the evening party. Nine bedrooms across the house and lodge for the wedding party to stay over.

More on playing weddings at St Tewdrics House →

Sugar Loaf Barn, Abergavenny

A 250-acre working sheep farm with a barn that takes the whole wedding day - ceremony at one end, dinner round the same room, dancefloor in the evening. No fitted sound limiter, no neighbours, built-in festoon and wagon-wheel lighting that already does most of the visual work. Around 180 in the evening.

More on playing weddings at Sugar Loaf Barn →

Sant Ffraed House, Abergavenny

The old Llansantffraed Court, rebuilt by the Oldwalls Collection with a purpose-built glass pavilion at the back. Three miles south of Abergavenny off the A40, in-house catering from the same chef team as Fairyhill, on-site accommodation for 56.

More on playing weddings at Sant Ffraed House →

Fairyhill, Gower

A Georgian mansion rebuilt as a wedding venue by Oldwalls Collection, on a 24-acre estate at Reynoldston on the western Gower. The K Room is the glass pavilion at the back - up to 150 for the wedding breakfast, around 300 in the evening. No fitted sound limiter, drive-up load-in, 15 en-suite bedrooms plus apartments and a cottage on site.

More on playing weddings at Fairyhill → - and the Gower wedding band page covers the wider Gower / Swansea circuit including Oxwich Bay and the King Arthur Hotel.

Cefn Tilla Court, Usk

A Grade II* listed country house on a 120-acre estate ten minutes outside Usk. The Glass Room - the enclosed courtyard at the back of the house, glass overhead, walled on all sides - is the evening party space. Drive-up load-in, no sound limiter, on-site accommodation across apartments, rooms in the main house and shepherd huts in the grounds.

More on playing weddings at Cefn Tilla Court →

St Pierre Marriott, Chepstow

The St Pierre Suite is the main wedding room - big, flat-floored, no fixed stage and no sound limiter, for up to around 200. Load-in is straight across a terrace and in through glass doors beside the room. Smaller weddings use the Chepstow Room or St David’s Room, and with 148 bedrooms on site most of your guests can stay over.

More on playing weddings at St Pierre Marriott →

Treadam Barn, Llantilio Crossenny

A 15th century oak-framed barn between Monmouth and Abergavenny on the Offa’s Dyke path - around 100 guests, on-site holiday cottage for the wedding party, run by Eleanor and Leon as part of Treadam Farm. Load-in from the van onto the dancefloor in one carry.

More on playing weddings at Treadam Barn →

Peterstone Court, Brecon

A Grade II-listed Georgian country house at Llanhamlach, just east of Brecon, looking across the Usk to Pen-y-Fan. Exclusive use, up to 150 guests, 12 bedrooms on site - couples often turn it into a two- or three-day house party. The main room takes a full band well, there’s no fitted sound limiter, and when the band sets up at the front the wide sash windows double as the load-in.

More on playing weddings at Peterstone Court →

Dewsall Court, Hereford

Across the Severn and ten minutes south of Hereford. Exclusive use over one or two nights, civil-ceremony licences across multiple indoor and outdoor spaces, and the Wainhouse Barn as the evening party space - 170 dining, up to 200 in the evening. For South Wales couples willing to make their guests do the Severn crossing.

More on playing weddings at Dewsall Court →

New House Country Hotel, Thornhill

A Grade II-listed Georgian country house up on Thornhill Road on the side of Caerphilly mountain, with Cardiff and the Bristol Channel spread out below. Weddings run in the Wyndham Suite or the garden marquee, both up to around 200, with the Glass Pergola for ceremonies. In-house catering and bedrooms on site, a few minutes north of the city.

More on playing weddings at New House Country Hotel →

Maes Manor Hotel, Blackwood

A Grade II listed country house in nine acres of Thomas Mawson gardens on the edge of Blackwood, up the Sirhowy valley. Civil-ceremony licensed, in-house catering, one wedding a day, and a standalone ballroom with its own bar that takes up to around 200 for the evening - no sound limiter and 28 bedrooms on site for guests who want to stay over. A rare bit of listed-house grandeur in the heart of the valleys.

More on playing weddings at Maes Manor →

Newbridge Memo, Caerphilly

A restored miners’ institute in Newbridge, Grade II listed and brought back to its 1920s art deco. The ceremony can happen in a 446-seat theatre with the aisle running down through the auditorium, with the reception moving to a ballroom that takes around 130 seated and 200 standing on a sprung dance floor. Nothing else in South Wales looks like it, and it costs a fraction of the country-house venues.

More on playing weddings at Newbridge Memo →

What South Wales venues ask of a band

The region splits into three kinds of room, and each one changes what we bring.

Hotel ballrooms - Celtic Manor’s Caernarfon Suite, St Pierre, Maes Manor. Fixed timings, a service-route load-in, and in most cases a sound limiter on the wall. These are the rooms where an 8-piece with brass earns its place: there is enough air to carry it and enough guests to need it.

Country houses and glass pavilions - Hensol’s Courtyard Hall, the K Room at Fairyhill, the Glass Room at Cefn Tilla, Peterstone Court. Mostly exclusive-use, mostly no fitted limiter, and the party runs to whatever time the couple booked. The constraint here is floor space rather than volume.

Barns and marquees - Sugar Loaf Barn, Treadam, the Chairman’s Marquee. Drive-up load-in, no neighbours, and a room that already does half the acoustic work. A 5 or 6-piece fills these properly; anything bigger starts eating the dancefloor.

Across all three we run in-ear monitors rather than floor wedges and DI the guitar and bass to the desk, so nothing on stage makes noise except the PA. In a limiter room that is what keeps us under the threshold without playing quietly; in a barn it means the band takes up a metre less depth than you would expect.

The 5-piece Brotherhood - two vocals, guitar, bass, drums and keys - is the lineup at most South Wales weddings. Six-piece adds sax through the soul and funk end. Eight and up with brass suits the Caernarfon Suite and the K Room. Our acoustic lineups cover the ceremony and drinks reception if you want the whole day.

How the evening runs

Three live sets, and where they land depends on the room. We open with a shorter set of around half an hour built around your first dance - more listening than dancing - then two fifty-minute sets that are there to keep the floor full. DJ playlists cover the changeovers and run on after we finish.

What moves is the timing, and in South Wales that splits along the same lines as the rooms. In a hotel ballroom with a limiter on the wall the evening is fixed, and we work the running order backwards from the curfew. At the exclusive-use houses and the barns - Peterstone, Sugar Loaf, Cefn Tilla, Maes Manor - the finish is whatever you have agreed with the venue, so the sets can start later and the last one runs longer. Tell us which of the two you have booked and we will shape the night around it.

Covering the whole day

The evening band is what most couples book first. The daytime is the part that tends to get left to a playlist, and we cover it with the same musicians:

• Acoustic duo through the ceremony and the drinks reception
• Jazz trio over the wedding breakfast and the speeches
• The full band, five to eleven pieces, for the evening
• DJ between the sets and after we finish, included

Booking the day and the evening together means one supplier, one load-in and one sound check, instead of three sets of people arriving at different points of the afternoon.

Other South Wales areas

The venues above are spread right across the region, and each area’s circuit works a little differently:

• Wedding bands Cardiff - Hensol, Llanerch, St Donat’s, the Bay hotels and the Vale country houses
• Wedding band Newport - Celtic Manor room by room, plus the Usk Valley venues out towards Caerleon
• Wedding bands Chepstow - St Tewdrics, the Wye Valley and over the border into the Forest of Dean
• Wedding band Abergavenny - the barn venues under the Sugar Loaf and up the A40 towards Brecon
• Wedding bands Monmouthshire - barn and country-house country from Usk across to Monmouth
• Wedding band Gower - Fairyhill, Oxwich and the stay-over weddings out on the peninsula

Book your South Wales wedding band

We are based in Newport, which puts most of the venues on this page inside an hour and none of them billed as out-of-area travel. Planning a wedding at Celtic Manor, Hensol Castle, St Tewdrics or anywhere else across South Wales? Check our availability for your date.