WEDDINGS take place nowadays in hotels, castles, football stadiums and even on the Yorkshire Wheel, but you will be amazed by the latest prospective venue.

The York Maze, near Elvington, has applied to City of York Council for permission to stage civil marriages.

Owner Tom Pearcy says while the ceremonies cannot take place in the maize maze itself - because the law does not allow weddings out in the open - they will be held in a barn only yards away.

"Then if the husband and wife are fed up of each other, they can quickly go in the maze and lose their partners!" he joked.

He said he got the idea after a couple from the Pocklington approached him last year to ask if they could marry in the maze.

He hoped they would be able to have their wedding there this summer, if the proposal won permission.

The idea was to present an all-year-round "barny and farmy" rustic venue for weddings, with children able to see farm animals throughout the year, and guests young and old able to go round the maze during its season from mid-July to mid-September.

He said the maze was set to move this year from its traditional location alongside the A64 and near the Grimston Bar roundabout, because university campus expansion plans might eventually force it to leave the site.

He had applied for permission to relocate it to Dunnington Lodge, situated on the B1225 road from York to Elvington, where the barn was already built.

He said the 27-acre maze, part of a nationwide maize-maze phenomenon, was the biggest in the world.

It had proved a massive hit with families since it opened five years ago, with more than 50,000 visitors last year.

Details of the Maze's weddings application can be seen at the council's Guildhall reception. Anyone wanting to object should do so within 21 days of April 20.


Other unusual venues...

Other unusual locations where you can get married in York include:* Inside a special pod on the Yorkshire Wheel.

* At a variety of hotels, including Middlethorpe Hall.

* Among the locomotives at the National Railway Museum.

* In one of York's historic buildings - including the Treasurer's House or Bedern Hall.

* At ASDA's Monks Cross store.