Easy as pie: Bang the Drum Brewery offers as an unorthodox alternative for wedding magic 

Ever wanted to combine delicious house-made sweet treats alongside in-house beer at a brewery for an unforgettable wedding?

Bang the Drum Brewery in San Luis Obispo has you covered.

"We love our space; the layout, the vibe, and the patio surrounded by redwood trees makes it feel like you are stepping into another world," Bang the Drum owner Kimberly Hancock said.

Bang the Drum, located at 1150 Laurel Lane in SLO, offers both an indoor and outdoor area for prospective wedding planners to set up the perfect casual space for their event.

"We've used the term fancy/not fancy to describe both the venue and ourselves at Bang the Drum," Hancock said with a laugh. "There are so many wedding venues out there, and we tend to attract those couples who want a beautiful venue with a little more laid-back feeling."

click to enlarge

• Photo Courtesy Of Kimberly Hancock
• INDOOR OUTDOOR Bang the Drum offers a variety of options for weddings, including a spacious indoor bar area and a garden patio.

They offer catering options for, of course, in-house beers, but also specialty pies.

"We have our house-made pies, pretzels, sides, and desserts all available for the reception after the ceremony," Hancock said. "Our wedding guests are welcome to enjoy our venue and bring in outside food or catering."

Wedding planning can be stressful—from scheduling vendors to budgeting the cost to ensuring the venue fits the couple's needs. Hancock saw this firsthand when some friends checked out the brewery space during its construction in 2019.

"A couple of friends of the brewery had seen the space and our plans to build it out and asked us if they could be the first wedding, [as] we were imagining our space as a wedding venue," she said. "Unfortunately, COVID ruined those first plans, but we were ready to roll once that was over, and other couples inquired about the space soon after."

In spring 2022, the venue officially hosted its first wedding. Since then, Hancock said, they've tried to maintain the same casual energy of that first wedding to reflect the brewery's typical patrons.

click to enlarge

• Photo Courtesy Of Kimberly Hancock
• CHEERS TO ALL Bang the Drum Brewery serves as a wedding venue for people of all races, genders, and sexualities.

"Usually, the type of people who want to have their wedding at a brewery—specifically, Bang the Drum—are the type of people we love," she said. "Chill, fun-loving people who like to celebrate life."

Part of maintaining that laid back energy is being flexible with what the wedding planners feel the event needs to be.

"We do not have a set space for the wedding ceremony and have had people do many different versions based on what is important to them," Hancock said. "We are fairly flexible here, as long as it's legal and safe."

She said most people who have their weddings at the brewery make use of the building's distinctive design to merge the outdoor redwood garden patio area and casual bar hangout area inside.

For rentals of only the garden patio, which has a 90-person capacity and offers a more private ceremony space, outside food or drinks are not allowed as a catering option. For rentals of the entire brewery space, including the patio area—a 270-person capacity—outside food and/or drink catering is allowed.

"A physical element of the entire space that we think makes Bang the Drum unique is how well the inside ties into the outside patio," Hancock said. "The roll-up door and full window walls create a perfect flow, and the natural lighting is pretty spectacular."

While the location is important, Hancock added that Bang the Drum's dedication to creating an inclusive space—on top of being what she feels is decently priced—is just as valuable.

"We are a queer-friendly venue! As long as you are a kind human, we are more than happy to go out of our way to make your day special," she said. "It is important for us that anyone can come in and feel comfortable and supported, whether they are grabbing a beer or celebrating a special day."

It's part of what she said makes the brewery special as a whole and why she hopes to continue doing weddings far into the future.

"We have put so much hard work, intention, and love into this place. ... We are flexible everywhere we can be, and we love thinking outside of the box to make each event unique to the people involved," Hancock said. "It is our favorite thing to help create/run an event with people who appreciate our space as much as we do." d

Reach Staff Writer Adrian Vincent Rosas at [email protected].