Capesthorne Hall is the kind of house that stops conversation when you come up the drive. Turreted, red-brick and enormously romantic, it was begun in the early 18th century for John Ward to designs by the Smith brothers of Warwick, remodelled with a Jacobean flourish by Edward Blore in the 1830s, and rebuilt by Anthony Salvin after a fire tore through it in 1861. The result is a Grade II* listed building of three storeys and four-storey turrets, sitting in 100 acres of gardens and parkland with lakes, a bridge of around 1843 and an 18th-century icehouse still in the grounds.
It remains a family home. The Bromley-Davenports and their forebears have lived on this site since Domesday times, and that continuity tells in the rooms — these are not conference suites dressed up, but a family’s drawing room, saloon and gallery lent to you for the day. The Drawing Room, with its chandeliers and Italian paintings, holds up to 100 for a civil ceremony; the Queen Anne Room seats up to 80 for the wedding breakfast; and the Saloon, with its doors onto the terrace, is where the drinks and canapés happen and where the cake is cut. William Smith’s private Chapel of the Holy Trinity stands beside the house for couples who want a blessing.
For larger weddings there is the Lakeside, a permanent pavilion with a starlit canopy and chandeliers looking out across the formal gardens towards the water. It takes up to 160 for a ceremony and wedding breakfast and up to 180 in the evening, and comes with exclusive use, tables, banquet chairs, a surround sound system, free parking, the run of the 100 acres for photographs and the South Tower Cottage for your wedding night. Worth knowing: hiring the Lakeside on its own does not include access to the main hall. Outdoors, there is a lakeside gazebo reached along a tree-lined avenue that makes a natural aisle, and a smaller woodland dome above a secluded pool, with an indoor contingency always set up in case the Cheshire weather has other ideas.
Where the band plays
The Lakeside is the natural home for live music. It has a dedicated dance area beneath the starlit canopy, the ceiling height that a marquee-style structure gives you, and the bar and the band in the same room so nobody has to be herded anywhere. Sound behaves kindly under canvas, which flatters a horn section and keeps the first dance from feeling brittle. Weddings based in the hall itself are a more intimate affair by nature, and the historic rooms suit a smaller line-up — a trio, a soul duo or an acoustic act during dinner — rather than a full stage set-up.
How the evening unfolds
Days here tend to sprawl pleasantly across the estate: vows in the Drawing Room or out by the lake, photographs among the gardens and bridges, dinner, and then everybody funnelling towards the dancefloor. Evenings generally carry on to around midnight, which comfortably fits two sets and an encore, and because there is parking beside the Lakeside the load-in and the get-out are refreshingly painless. As with any private estate, it is sensible to confirm the finish time and whether live music is expected to stop before the bar does when you sign your paperwork.
Bands available in Cheshire and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in Cheshire.
- Cheshire Wedding Bands
- Cheshire Events Bands
- Tribute Acts in Cheshire
- Wedding DJs in Cheshire
- Corporate Entertainment in Cheshire
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.