BRIDES-to-be will soon be able to say yes to a new Stourbridge wedding venue as £1.2 million restoration work on a landmark building nears completion.

The Grade II-listed former Lye and Wollescote Chapel is currently undergoing substantial work to turn it into a new registration office for civil ceremonies.

Built in 1879, the building is made up of two Victorian Gothic-style chapels, which will house the registration office in one and a stylish new venue in the other.

The refurbishment, carried out by the West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust, is well under way and Dudley registrars – who will lease the buildings – have said they can now take provisional bookings for weddings at the new venue from April 8.

The new Wollescote Suite, which features much of the former chapel’s original Gothic architecture, will hold marriage parties in the region of 40 people, with couples having the options of a live web camera and souvenir DVD, choices of music and vows.

Costs for a civil wedding in the suite are £260 for a Friday ceremony, £360 Saturday and £525 for Sunday marriages.

Councillor Judy Foster, cabinet member for corporate and customer services, said: “We are looking forward to opening this unique and stunning ceremony venue thanks to the restoration work which has preserved a slice of local history.

“Brides-to-be can make provisional bookings for weddings next year when the Wollescote Suite will be ready from April 8.”

The former Lye and Wollescote Cemetery Chapel, wihich saw one become redundant in the 1970s with the other closing in 1993 following a fire in the building, is a rare surviving example of a cemetery chapel and following the renovation will be renamed The Thomas Robinson Building after the original architect.

Dudley Council, which supported the build alongside grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund, will also use the building for citizenship ceremonies, naming ceremonies, civil partnership ceremonies and wedding vow renewals.

An open day is planned by Dudley registrars on March 19 for couples to see the venue and meet wedding exhibitors.