Celebrations

Most people who propose here want the same two things: somewhere that looks like nowhere else, and no one else in it. The woods give you both. Twelve acres, one party staying at a time, and a handful of places that were built to be lit.

Faun’s Hideaway is a cave, and it takes candlelight better than anywhere else here — the photographs here are of it hung with lights and greenery. The lit arch at its entrance is the other thing people ask for by name, and the treehouse deck at dusk needs almost nothing doing to it at all. Tell us which of those you have in mind, or send us a picture of what you are imagining and we will tell you honestly whether we can make it.

We are used to keeping a secret from one half of a couple. We can have the setting lit and ready while you are out for the afternoon, put a chef in the kitchen for afterwards, and stay out of the way entirely once you are back. If you want it photographed without a stranger standing in the trees, say so early and we will work out where a camera can go.

Anniversaries tend to want the opposite of a party. A table for two in the Pavilion, the fire lit, the hot tub heated for the evening and nobody else in the woods at all.

The wood-fired tub takes a few hours to come up to temperature, so it is worth telling us before you arrive rather than on the night. The same goes for a chef, a cake, or flowers waiting in the room.

If you are marking a particular year and want the place dressed for it — a colour, a theme, something from the year you met — that is what Amanda does.