Wedding Venue: Dudley Limestone Caverns

Of all the venues I’ve shot at over my many years, shooting an underground cave wedding in Dudley Limestone Cavern has to be one of my favourite unique wedding venues in the West Midlands. 

I admit I never knew such venue existed in the West Midlands. So I was excited to be involved in shooting this wedding in this intimate and unique place.

Limestone Caverns

The Limestone Caverns are connected by the world famous Dudley Canal Tunnels, run by Dudley Canal Trust. It connects to a 200 year-old system of limestone mines, branch tunnels.

Couples are able to exchange their vows underground in the Singing Cavern which takes about 20 mins to travel through a tunnel to reach. Why is this part called the Singing Cavern? That’s because after the mining for limestone in the 1700s, the cavern produced a whistling sound of the wind in the cave.

Gaining Access to The Caves

You’re probably wondering about the logistics of getting everyone inside a cavern wedding venue that has only one entrance point and requires a 20 min canal boat journey to get there. Plus, only 1 boat can get through each tunnel at a time.

For this wedding, there were 2 boats in use to ferry people back and forth through the caverns. One for the bridal party and the other for all the guests. The first persons to travel were the groom and his attendants on the “wedding boat”, to make sure everything at the wedding ceremony site was in order. They were closely followed by the second boat with all the wedding guests.

The “wedding boat” then travelled back to the main entrance to collect the bride with her maids. 

So this requires forward planning and good timing to make sure no one was left behind. If anyone did miss the boat, there was no other way of getting to the ceremony. There isn’t a back entrance where someone can sneak in late. They would miss out on everything.

Post Wedding Cave Tour

After the ceremony the bride and groom re-boarded their wedding boat and went on a tour to explore deeper into the caverns. They were given a 10 min head start before all the guests followed the same route in their boat.

The tour took them deeper into the abandoned limestone mines and tunnels under Castle Hill in Dudley.

Along the tunnel route there’s an opening into a serene, open ivy curtained canal basin. This was the perfect place to stop for a short while to allow the couple a few moments alone and and to take in the breath-taking and serene location views.

If you’re interested in seeing it all for yourself, anyone can book a 45 min tour with Dudley Canal Trust.

Alternative Wedding Venue

As more and more people want something a bit different for their wedding, people are willing to travel for miles, often to far flung destination locations in their search for an alternative wedding venue which suits their alternative lifestyle.

It’s amazing to think we can find such an offbeat cave wedding ceremony location right here near Birmingham, and it’s a few meters under our feet.

If you’re looking for that alternative, offbeat and unusual wedding venue, consider this underground cave wedding venue in Dudley Limestone Cavern. You can even book it for your wedding reception.

Are you planning an alternative wedding, or looking for a quirky, unusual wedding venue?

I’d love to talk as I loved this location and would love the opportunity to shoot in more places like this! Fill out my contact form below and let me know what you’ve planned.