Weddings are an amazingly special time, but can quickly become the most stressful event you’ll ever plan. From setting the date to choosing the venue, invitations, the table seating plans and menus, the cake, and so much more. The growing ‘to do’ list can often spark fantasies of eloping!

But on a more serious note, at Granny Mouse Country House & Spa, your wedding planning couldn’t be any easier!

Considered one of the most romantic wedding destinations and overseen by some of the top culinary artists in the country, this beautiful country venue is close to both Durban and Johannesburg and easy to access for all your guests who’ll be looking forward to time out from the city.

You, too, can look forward to the peace and quiet of the country, thanks to the great team that will work tirelessly behind the scenes to create a wedding feast that is sure to both surprise and delight. We have a pastry chef to sculpt your perfect wedding cake and wine experts to make sure that your guests are served up the perfect vintage for your special occasion.

In our experience, the most important element that contributes to the success of a wedding reception is actually the food. Believe it or not, people tend to go home remembering if they enjoyed what they ate long after whether or not Great Aunt Agatha’s outfit really was made from your grandmother’s old dining room curtains!

In light of this, we’ve created a number of wedding menu options that include everything from appetizers and hors d’oeuvres to the main offering and desserts.

We offer two wedding packages – the Ruby Wedding Package and the Emerald Package.

Both menus feature some delectable options.

Canapés include (but are not limited to) (V) puff pastry squares topped with caramelized onion & herbed cream cheese, crostini with liver pate and caramelized onion, smoked salmon mousse in pastry cups finished off with slow roasted tomatoes and cucumber ribbons and prawn and spring onion cakes topped with lemon and chili mayo.

Examples of plated dishes, beginning with starters, are a mouthwatering (V) mushroom fricassee and beetroot preserve with a white wine and thyme syrup and crispy garlic ciabatta; Springbok salad, slow roasted tomato, red onion, herbed goats cheese mousse, micro greens and pan seared prawns, chili, coriander and soy rice noodle salad with lemon and sesame seeds.

Marvelous main dishes that will be making you want to take home our culinary artists, include (V) risotto provonce, olives, herbed tomato sauce, peppadew and pecorino cheese, grilled sole served with sautéed mixed vegetables, artichokes, slow roasted tomato with capers and herb sauce and slow cooked lamb shank, infused with herbs and tomatoes, served with herbed cous cous and Mediterranean vegetables.

For those sweetie lovers, it doesn’t get better than this – amarula panacotta with honeycomb and raspberry compote, crème brule with cardamom and orange compote and chocolate peanut tuile and deconstructed Eton mess, strawberry jelly, black pepper meringue, chocolate soil and tonka bean ice cream.

If a buffet is your thing, an example of what we can provide includes our world famous roast leg of lamb infused with rosemary and garlic and served with mint sauce; (V) penne pasta bake mixed with tomato, peppers, red onion, mushrooms, parmesan cheese and finished off with basil pesto and mixed seafood cooked in white wine, garlic and herbs (mussels, prawns, hake and calamari).

All of the above is accompanied by roast mixed vegetables with thyme and garlic, cous cous with paprika, sundried tomato and garlic as well as our heavenly baked cauliflower and broccoli with cheese sauce. We also serve cold creative accompaniments such as baby potatoes mixed with caramelized onions, homemade mayonnaise and herbs, wild rice salad as well as penne pasta salad mixed with basil pesto, olives, tomatoes and goat cheese.

To complete this offering, desserts include mini orange crème brûlée on spiced shortbread, assorted ice creams with a selection of toppings – without forgetting our chocolate brownies with butterscotch mousse.

Granny Mouse is the perfect place to, quite literally, “Eat, Drink and Be Married”. We look forward to making your wedding experience a truly scrumptious one!

It comes as no surprise that our staff at Granny Mouse Country House and Spa know the importance of choosing the right type of music to create the perfect wellness setting and optimize the treatments that we provide.

We all know that music evokes emotions and that different people respond to different tunes – but research has highlighted how common themes within music exist across personality types and shows that, in general, most music will evoke the same responses.

According to General Manager, Sean Granger, “In our environment, this translates into optimizing music for relaxation, well-being and therapy, and we follow some simple elements to ensure that we hit the right note.”

• Pitch:We ensure that the pitch isn’t too high as this can startle clients. If too low, the pitch can make people feel gloomy – so it’s important to find a perfect balance.
• Volume & Dynamics:A mid volume with no large variances is connected to energetic emotions. The last thing we want is having our client tapping his or her feet and not relaxing to what should be ambient sounds!
• Sounds: We ensure that we play soft, gentle, warm, rising and flowing music to ensure total relaxation.
• Rhythm:It is always safe to have music that is regular and predictable. We would rather not have any surprises or complexities that draw our clients to engage them, so we choose relaxing tempos, nothing too fast. In fact, we even try to match the tempo to the heart beat that we would want our clients to have at particular touch points. Another rule – little or no percussion in our treatment rooms.
• Composition:We ensure our choices are simple, predictable and optimistic. Music played must not have conflicting or sudden key changes, as it will have our clients thinking that the session was over!
• Instruments:We believe that the most soothing music is largely acoustic. This natural sounding music usually includes instruments such as harps, guitars, flutes, and even wooden marimbas. If there is percussion, we make sure drums are played gently. It’s not band practice.
• Complexity;Less is best, and predictable compositions, no conflicting melodies or sudden shifts in key are perfect for the spa.
• Tempo:We at Granny Mouse know that the right tempo is important to wind our clients down and get them ready for treatments and set the pace within the treatment room itself. We only begin to increase the tempo to help awaken clients once the treatment is complete!