Foodies who’ve found love might be interested in the new wedding offering at Atholl Estate, home to Blair Castle in Highland Perthshire.
Clachan by Ballintaggart is their new three-night wedding package, which will be centered around an 18th-century farmhouse barn.
Self-catering accommodation will be at Clachan Farmhouse and Cottage, which sleeps 12, and the wedding event takes place in the atmospheric barn, with space for 30 diners. It will be catered to by the experts from Ballintaggart Farm and The Grandtully by Ballintaggart.
On Saturday February 26, couples can visit the space on an open day event, with half hour slots throughout the day. Ballintaggart will be serving a couples canape board that will feature pea and chive croquettes, venison carpaccio and smoked salmon, which will be cured with their own gin, made with botanicals sourced from a mile’s radius of their farm. There will be no overcooked salmon en croute and tepid soup.
“I’d say foodies is our niche - we’re offering restaurant quality food that echoes what we’re doing at Grandtully”, says Ballintaggart’s owner and founder, Rachel Rowley. “Our food is very seasonally driven, and we’re offering something genuinely bespoke and premium, for those who’d rather spend their money on food rather than flowers or styling”
If couples say I do, as part of the wedding planning process the team at Ballintaggart will give them a questionnaire, asking them, among other things, about their favourite restaurants and other dishes they’ve enjoyed at weddings. They’ll then tailor a menu for them, which can be as smart as what might be served at Grandtully, or something entirely personal.
“Deep fried Mars bar is usually the last thing we’d do, but a couple once asked for it as they’d had it on their first date, and it worked perfectly for them,” says Rowley.
However, don’t request avocados, as they try to be as carbon neutral as possible, sourcing as much as they can from local producers.
As part of the Clachan by Ballintaggart package, the events team are also reviving a few traditions, with decorations that can be made from juniper sprigs - the Atholl Highlanders’ clan plant - and the revival of handfasting, which involves tying the betrothed couple’s hands together with Murray tartan.
