Château d'Oche hosts weddings and private celebrations spread over several days, for groups who want the whole estate to themselves, with up to 44 guests sleeping on the grounds. The château stands in Saint-Priest-les-Fougères, in the Périgord Vert area of northern Dordogne.
Weddings and receptions
The château is booked exclusively: for the length of a stay, the house, its courtyard, gardens and grounds belong to one group. Celebrations are planned over days rather than a single evening. Three-night stays take priority, especially for weekend weddings. Two-night weddings are possible on rare occasions, most often on weekdays, and longer stays are welcome. The owners keep the number of weddings each year deliberately low, so dates are limited.
Every wedding runs either with a full-service planner or with the château's own essentials package, called Oche, Ever After. The package covers planning help, coordination on the arrival day, the wedding day and after the wedding, and setup support. It also includes furniture, tableware and basic styling, two bouquets, one buttonhole, 30 bud vases and two floral arrangements for the ceremony, festoon lighting around the château, the pond and the dancing area, simple table lighting, and a DJ with speaker and microphone until the end of the evening. Event cleaning and departure cleaning are included.
Rooms and capacities
The courtyard is the main setting for receptions and long dinners in the evening light. Guests also use the gardens, the pond and a dancing area lit at night. Indoors, the salons with their fireplaces, the grand staircase, the chapels and the tower are part of the stay. The official site gives no seated or standing figure for the reception itself, so the full guest list, including guests staying elsewhere, should be stated when enquiring.
Accommodation
Up to 44 guests can stay on the estate, and nearby partner accommodation takes the rest. Most of the principal rooms and suites belong to three independent gîtes, each classified five stars. The Gîte du Palais has four bedrooms for up to nine people with step-free access. The Gîte du Château has five bedrooms for up to eleven people, with some ground-floor rooms suited to wheelchair users. The Cottage has one ground-floor bedroom for two. Further arrangements are available for larger groups.
Catering
The château does not cook for events: couples choose their own caterer, from a relaxed meal to a gastronomic dinner. The package includes bar hire with two bar staff for up to four hours a day and a coffee bar with pastries on the wedding morning. Hosts supply the drinks, with no corkage charged for quantities agreed in advance.
History and setting
The foundations of the château date from the late 15th century. From the 17th to the 20th century it belonged to the Barons d'Oche, then to the Bourdery family. The artist Louis Bourdery, known as the Daydreaming Knight, is tied to the house, and his daughter Blanche, born at the château, painted parts of the chapels and the grand staircase. The estate later became property of the French state and served as a summer retreat linked to the Ministry of Finance and Industry.
Getting there
La Coquille railway station is less than ten minutes away. Limoges airport has direct flights from several UK airports, including London Stansted, Manchester, Bristol, East Midlands and Leeds Bradford. Bordeaux and Bergerac airports are alternatives, followed by a drive through the countryside.
