Unique & magical weddings at the Roman Baths & Pump Room

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Introducing the Roman Baths & Pump Room

Rooms

Virtual tour

Planning & catering

Real weddings

Venue history

Wedding Couple beside the torchlit Great Bath

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A Tall Long Legged Bird

Wedding reception in the Pump Room, Bhavesh Chauhan Photography

Wedding couple by the Roman Baths, Amy Sanders

Introducing the Roman Baths & Pump Room

One of the most iconic and unique wedding venues in the country, the award-winning Roman Baths & Pump Room is perfect for elopements and both intimate and large ceremonies and receptions.

The enchanting venue offers unprecedented photo opportunities and the chance to exchange your vows in an ancient monument. With the perfect combination of beautiful outdoor space, protected from the elements, and spacious historic rooms, this venue offers both variety and atmosphere.

Whether you would like a small, informal Sunrise wedding, or a vibrant evening reception and party, a wedding at the Roman Baths will provide a truly romantic start to your married life.

The Roman Baths is an inclusive, gay-friendly wedding venue. It excels in many areas and has recently won Wedding Venue of the Year in the Bristol, Bath & Somerset Tourism Awards 2022/23.

PERFECTLY SUITED TO

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Small, intimate & elopement weddings

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Medium to large weddings

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Wedding receptions & evening parties

WITH CAPACITY FOR

capacity

Ceremonies: 2 – 160 guests

capacity

Seated receptions: Up to 160 guests

capacity

Evening parties: Up to 300 guests

Rich Howman Photography

Rich Howman

Freya Steele Photography

Amy Sanders Photography

Bhavesh Chauhan Photography

A Tall Long Legged Bird

Amy Sanders Photography

Elan Images

Emma-Jane Photography

Rich Howman

Emma-Jane Photography

Kate Hopewell Smith Photography

James Davies

Bhavesh Chauhan Photography

Amy Sanders Photography

Sunrise ceremonies

£1500 inc. VAT

Sunrise wedding ceremonies at 8.30am are perfect for a more intimate occasion. They are held at the water's edge, with full view of the magnificent Bath Abbey. Although outdoors, the venue is not weather dependent, because the ancient paving surrounding the Great Bath is protected by the soffits from the Terrace above.

If you would like to continue celebrations, the adjoining Pump Room Restaurant is the perfect breakfast venue with its delicious food, stunning surroundings and music from the Pump Room Trio. Numbers for breakfast are limited to a maximum of 40 guests. Alternatively you are free to celebrate in another location and Bath has a fantastic selection of restaurants.

For those that prefer to keep things simple, a morning ceremony can be the start of a fantastic elopement wedding package.

capacity

From 4-160 people

Sunset ceremonies

From £3000 inc. VAT

In the evening, after the museum closes to the public, the Roman site offers an unparalleled setting for a wedding ceremony. As with Sunrise ceremonies, Sunset ceremonies take place at the water's edge, but may be immediately followed by a drinks reception. After exchanging your vows, you can indulge in the magic and romance of sipping Champagne with your husband or wife beside the torchlit and steaming waters. Celebrations can then continue upstairs, with dinner on the enclosed Terrace, followed by dancing in the magnificent Reception Hall with its soaring vaulted ceiling. Alternatively, for larger celebrations, you may hire the elegant Pump Room for your reception.

capacity

From 40-160 people

Wedding receptions

£3000 inc. VAT

If you’ve married elsewhere, you can hire the atmospheric Roman Baths for an evening wedding reception or party. Guests may arrive from 7pm, and enjoy drinks and perhaps canapes, before moving to either the Terrace and Reception Hall or Pump Room.

capacity

From 40 to 160 people

View of the Terrace, Amy Sanders

Speeches on the Terrace, Amy Sanders Photography

Dining on the Terrace, Albert Palmer

First dance in the Reception Hall, Albert Palmer Photography

Reception Hall bar, Martin Dabek Photography

First dance in the Reception Hall, Rich Howman

Cutting wedding cake in the Reception Hall, Rich Howman

Dinner on the Terrace, Elan Images

Capacities & pricing

From £2,540 Inc. VAT

Available from 7pm (September to mid-July).

capacity

Up to 80 guests for dinner (Terrace)

capacity

Up to 160 guests for a party (Terrace & Reception Hall)

Pump Room

This breath-taking room is much as it was when first opened in 1795; the unique spa water still flows from the fountain overlooking the natural hot spring and now a crystal chandelier sparkles from the centre of the room.

This elegant room is a perfect location for a wedding breakfast or catered party. It can be hired independently from 6pm or 8pm (depending on time of year) and it is a perfect accompaniment to a ceremony or drinks reception around the Great Bath.

The Pump Room has a stage for live music and large dance floor for your guests. The adjoining King's Lounge, overlooking the hot spring, makes a convenient location for a bar, for a night you will never forget.

The Pump Room, Amy Sanders

Wedding reception in the Pump Room, Amy Sanders

Pump Room wedding, Bhavesh Chauhan

Entrance to the Roman Baths & Pump Room

First Dance in the Pump Room, A Tall Long Legged Bird

Outside the Pump Room, Amy Sanders Photography

Pump Room party, Richard Greenly Photography

Pump Room fountain

Pump Room

Capacities & pricing

From £2,800 Inc. VAT

Available from:

8pm March to December
6pm January and February, and in other months by special request

capacity

Up to 160 guests for a dinner and dancing

capacity

Up to 200 guests for dinner

Afternoon tea in the Drawing Room

The Drawing Room

Ceremony in the Kingston Room, Alistair Freeman

Kingston Room ceremony

Capacities & pricing

From £600 Inc. VAT

Available from 8am to 6pm.

capacity

Up to 40 people for ceremonies or receptions

Venue information

Whilst you concentrate on finding outfits and tweaking your guest list, we will complete a full venue and catering schedule to ensure that everything runs smoothly on the day. This will include:

Bespoke table plans and room layouts
Timings to guarantee your guests love every minute of the day
Supplier liaison to answer their queries without you losing sleep
Accurate guest numbers noting any guest requirements
Full menu planning with dietary requirements

We can also:

Help make suggestions for décor and how to make your wedding unique
Recommend trusted suppliers, from florists to photographers, string quartets to magicians
Help in any other way we can with our in-depth knowledge of Bath and the surrounding area

Included in the venue hire

Included as part of your venue hire fee: AV for speeches and ceremony music; staging for your band or DJ; easels for your table plan; all furniture; security staff. On the day, a dedicated Function Manager will make all the announcements and ensure that your wedding runs smoothly.

Included in catering

Included in Searcys catering price: white table linen; silver cutlery; white crockery; glassware; a dedicated Banqueting Manager; catering staff. Searcys can also include silver five arm candelabras as table centres at a very competitive price if you wish.

Last Minute Events

We often have late availability and are experienced at managing weddings with short lead times. Don’t hesitate to contact us with your requirements and we will do our best to help. A short lead time still equals a perfect wedding!

Location

Our city centre location means we are easily accessible via public transport (both train and park and ride bus) and within a short walking distance of various long and short stay car parks. Bath also boasts an enviable selection of hotels, B&Bs and self-catering accommodation, suited to a variety of tastes and budgets, all just a stone's throw away.

Favour Gifts

We are happy to make suggestions for favours from the Roman Baths gift shop. On larger orders, we can also offer a discount – please ask for details.

Wedding catering

Searcys is the official caterer for the Roman Baths & Pump Room, welcoming guests with classic British dishes that focus on seasonality and local produce. The catering company brings a contemporary twist to timeless favourites, alongside extensive Champagne and wine lists and paired with world-class service.

We love a good celebration at Searcys, and with a proud heritage of over 170 years of continuous quality, we’ve got all the expertise to make your special day an unforgettable one. For those who wish to host their wedding at The Pump Room, Searcys’ many decades of experience with some of the grandest weddings in the country mean nothing will go unmissed. You’ll have a dedicated banqueting manager on the day, and a wedding coordinator to help with the planning of your special day. The wedding breakfast will be served on white table linen and napkins, and all special diets will be catered for.

Searcys in-house chefs have created – and tested - a variety of menus, from decadent three-course dinner menus to lighter wedding breakfasts following a morning ceremony. Some of our most popular dishes include our succulent roast fillet of beef, tender canon of lamb and lemon and mustard-crusted cod, all served with a variety of fresh heritage vegetables. Vegetarian options include sweet roast pepper tart with halloumi and a spiced sweet potato and fennel filo parcel.

Searcys wine lists feature plenty of sparkling and non-sparkling choices highlighting the best of British and world wines, including our most popular Searcys cuvée, English sparkling and Grandes Marques.

Our prices include*:

Wedding coordinator to help with the planning of your special day
Dedicated Banqueting Manager on the day
White table linen and napkins
Use of 14” cake stand and cake knife (round or square)
Menu tasting for the bride and groom (further details apply)
All special diets catered for
Full bar facility (minimum spend applies)

Name	Details
2023 - 2024 Searcys Wedding Brochure	PDF, 3 MB	Download
2023- 24 Searcys Autumn/Winter Events Menus	PDF, 13 MB	Download
2024 - 25 Searcys catering FAQs	PDF, 74 KB	Download

Booking your registrar or celebrant

Bath & North East Somerset Council Register Office

For legal marriages and partnerships it is your responsibility to give notice of marriage to your local authority and to book your ceremony with Bath & North East Somerset Council's Register Office. Please be aware you must also organise for two witnesses to be present at your ceremony.

Tel: 01225 477234
Email: [email protected]
beta.bathnes.gov.uk/get-married-or-form-civil-partnership

You can also book your registrar online

Wedding Celebrants

For a personal approach you could hold your legal ceremony at the register office and have a separate celebrant led ceremony. Celebrants who regularly work in our venues are listed below:

Josie Lamb, Humanists UK
Maxine Ward Celebrant
Tara the Celebrant

Roman Baths history

The water we see in the Baths today fell as rain on the Mendip Hills many hundreds or even thousands of years ago. It percolates deep down through limestone aquifers, heated by the earth's core and raising the temperature to between 64 -96 degrees. Under pressure the heated water rises to the surface at 46 degrees along fissures and faults through the limestone beneath Bath.

By the first century AD this part of Britain was occupied by an Iron Age tribe called the Dobunni. They believed that the hot spring was sacred to the Goddess Sulis who was thought to possess curative powers. In AD43 the Roman armies invaded Britain and by AD75 they had built a new religious spa complex around the thermal spring and the settlement then grew as a centre for health and pilgrimage. It was named Aquae Sulis meaning ‘the waters of Sulis’. To keep good relations with local people the Romans were sensitive to their gods and goddesses and the goddess worshipped at the temple here was known as Sulis Minerva combining Celtic and Roman elements.

The Romans built the baths using the 1.3 million litres of naturally-heated water that rose to the surface naturally each day. The baths combined healing with leisure and water was channelled through the baths using lead pipes and lead lined channels. Even the baths were lined with lead. People came from far and wide to bathe in the waters and worship at the temple.

In the fourth century, barbarian raids from Northern Europe and Ireland and political instability in the Roman Empire made trade and travel increasingly difficult. The number of visitors to Aquae Sulis declined, and at the same time flooding from the River Avon resulting from poor maintenance meant black mud began to cover everything. The Temple buildings collapsed and the roofs of the baths eventually crashed into the growing swamp.

By the twelfth century the King’s Bath, formed within the shell of the Roman reservoir chamber, was enclosed within the precincts of the post- Roman monastery. Medical practice promoted bathing in the thermal waters to cure ailments as belief in its power re-emerged in the legend of the prehistoric Prince Bladud: in the ninth century BC, it was said Bladud contracted leprosy but was cured by the thermal waters of Bath.

In the late seventeenth century doctors began recommending drinking the water as a remedy for internal conditions and the first Pump Room, opened in 1706, placed drinking prescribed quantities of the water at the heart of the emerging spa culture.

In 1878, the city surveyor architect Major Charles Davis, worried by a leak from the King's Bath spring, decided to explore the ground around it. In doing so he found Roman remains and by 1880 had uncovered large parts of the Great Bath. The site was opened to visitors in 1897 and throughout the 20th century was progressively extended, notably with the east baths in the 1920s and later when the Temple Precinct was excavated beneath the Pump Room in 1981-83. A new learning centre will be opened up for the public in an area of Roman remains to the south of the site, where several underground vaults and tunnels lead into some currently inaccessible remains from the Roman bath house and town.

Pump Room history

The practice of drinking the thermal waters of Bath only began in earnest in the later seventeenth century. It became necessary to install a pump to allow patients to have access to the water directly from the spring and in the first years of the eighteenth century a doctor, William Oliver, persuaded the Bath Corporation to erect a building where the drinkers could be sheltered. This is the origin of the first Pump Room completed in 1706. As the popularity of the spa grew in the 18th century the Pump Room could no longer accommodate the fashionable crowds and invalids so extensions and improvements were made to the building.

In the later eighteenth century, as more and more families came to Bath to take the waters, the Pump Room needed further work. In 1784 a lavatory was installed but then An Act of Parliament was obtained establishing Improvement Commissioners to improve the city centre and the architect, Thomas Baldwin, was appointed by them. Baldwin built New Private Baths adjacent to the Pump Room and in 1790 began work to build an entirely new one. Despite delays arising from Baldwin’s personal bankruptcy and dismissal, the project was completed by a new architect, John Palmer, in 1795 when it was opened by the Duchess of York. The wider scheme re-ordered the local streets, sweeping away medieval alleys and before his dismissal Baldwin completed Bath Street connecting the Pump Room to the two smaller springs known as the Hot Bath and the Cross Bath.

The Pump Room continued as a fashionable meeting place to promenade and take the waters. Jane Austen observed people and fashions from within the Pump Room, which features in her two novels ‘Northanger Abbey’ and ‘Persuasion’.

In 1897 John Brydon built another extension to the Pump Room which housed a Concert Hall, the present day Roman Baths Reception Hall, undoubtedly the finest Victorian interior in Bath. Mary Shelley stayed at 5 Abbey Church Yard which was demolished to make room for the Reception Hall and it is thought that this is where her novel Frankenstein was written.

During the Victorian and Edwardian periods, the Pump Room was heavily furnished and during World War II it became a restaurant and fortunately escaped damage in the Baedeker air raids on Bath in 1942. Many interesting historical figures have visited the Pump Room and taken the waters including Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Buffalo Bill and Haile Selassie, not to mention present day royalty and celebrities.

Today, the Pump Room is a very popular venue for day time refreshments, and is also used for special occasions, corporate hospitality, concerts, weddings and as a favourite rendezvous for both local people and visitors to the city.

Explore Bath's world heritage

Other things to do in Bath

Unique & magical weddings at the Roman Baths & Pump Room

One of the most iconic and unique wedding venues in the country, the award-winning Roman Baths & Pump Room is perfect for elopements and both intimate and large ceremonies and receptions.

Watch our Roman Baths wedding film.

What could be more romantic than exchanging your vows amid the flickering torchlight and rising steam from the waters of the Great Bath?

The Terrace was built by the Victorians to view the newly discovered Great Bath.

This breath-taking room is much as it was when first opened in 1795; the unique spa water still flows from the fountain overlooking the natural hot spring and now a crystal chandelier sparkles from the centre of the room.

These intimate rooms with period decoration and an attractive outlook to Bath Abbey are perfect for smaller, private celebrations.

Take a walk through the magical Roman Baths & Pump Room using the virtual tour below.

Allow our friendly and experienced wedding team to organise a relaxed and magical wedding.

Included in the venue hire

Included in catering

Last Minute Events

Location

Favour Gifts

Looking for inspiration? Check out other recent weddings at the Roman Baths for venue and styling ideas.

#RomanBathsWedding

Discover the rich history of the Roman Baths where the continuous gush of hot mineral water, bursting from the ground, has always been a subject of wonder.

Explore Bath's world heritage

Explore Bath's world heritage

Other things to do in Bath

Unique & magical weddings at the Roman Baths & Pump Room

#RomanBathsWedding

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