Last week I disappeared for a long weekend in North Devon for my dad’s wedding.
Based at the incredibly stunning Buckland House, close family and friends were there from Thursday through Sunday, while the main wedding shindig was on the Saturday night, with over 100 guests.
This grand country estate now turned self-catering accommodation has 17 bedrooms and is set within 280 acres of gardens, fields and woodland, and even has a swimming pool and its own lake!
I’ve been so excited to see this place since my dad told me about it last year; it’s a truly stunning site, and I was super lucky while I was there to get the opportunity to take some drone photos of the house and gardens.
Inside the house was absolutely spectacular, with huge high ceilings, a grand stair case, two plush living rooms and several other reception rooms as well as a couple of games rooms too – phew! But the best area was definitely the ballroom, with double height ceiling, domed skylight and mezzanine balconies creating a viewing platform of the space below.
The whole place was to be completely transformed on the Saturday night, although every room was already decorated with luxurious finishings and rich colours (and plenty of red!) to fit in with the theme of the party – MOULIN ROUGE!
On the Thursday night, it was an evening just for close family with a fancy evening dinner planned. We all dressed up in posh dresses and dinner jackets, and sat down for a three course meal that had been prepared in the house’s kitchen by a local hired-in caterer.
Greeted with champagne and delicious entrees, it was the perfect start to the weekend and a way for the families to get to know each other a little better.
My chosen starter was the fried goats cheese (yum!), while others had mussels. I’ve realised I didn’t take a photo of my main course, but it was a delicious vegan thai curry!
For dessert there was a vegan option, which was delicious; a chocolate torte made with coconut.
On the Friday, Miranda and I spent the day exploring the nearby towns (in search of food and internet signal, mainly!!) and messing about on the boat at the lake…
Turns out, neither of us know how to row and we were doing it backwards the whole time…
Oh well, it was still fun and beautiful! (If not a little bit horror-movie esque…)
Saturday came around and the house was alive with friends and family helping to set up each room and decorate the place. It was all starting to look like a movie set!
Greeting guests at the door was one of these (^ I have tried so hard to Google what these are called but no result is coming up … please let me know in the comments if you know the word!) to get people in the spirit, and of course, everyone was in good humour and wore fancy dress too…
I’m not a big fancy dress person, I’ll admit… so I stuck with a red feather boa and black gloves to create my outfit. Meanwhile Miranda did the correct thing and brought a mask for the theme.
So many people put in a great effort with their costumes though! It was great to see the burlesque theme really coming into play.
With champagne flowing, there were loads of things going on throughout the party. From a kids performance showcase, a resident accordion player, magician and even a casino set up in the games room!
It was a great night and well worth the effort everyone put in to create it and make a great Moulin Rouge atmosphere! And what an incredible venue to fit with the theme… I don’t think I’ll experience another wedding quite like it.
