My parents thought I was crazy when I said I wanted a destination wedding. Their first thoughts were of Paris, Italy, or some exotic destination. Lucky for them I am an outdoors kind of girl and wanted to have my wedding day somewhere that was intimate, and close to nature.

A few years back, I went to Sugar Hollow Retreat for a church trip and it kept coming to mind when I was thinking of destinations for the wedding. I loved the mountains, I loved the area around Sugar Hollow and I finally decided to give them a call to see what could be arranged.

Jim and Marty were wonderful in all the help they were able to provide. We were able to set a date and set aside the entire retreat for our wedding party.

We wanted the wedding to be a casual affair and wanted to focus more on the ceremony and reunion of friends and family that we haven't seen as opposed to the glitz and glamour so many weddings focus on today.

We also rented the facility from a Thursday to Sunday with the ceremony planned for Saturday afternoon at sunset.

The weather was warm (end of May) and inviting, the attire casual. My bouquet was of wildflowers, and we had small candle lanterns and Christmas lights for the evening decorations. Again, nothing fancy, just festive.

We had a short ceremony that was performed by a close friend of the family who was an ordained minister, and members of my family who happen to be excellent bluegrass players provided the entertainment.

We kept to food simple - a pig pickin' with a lot of home-style side dishes that were brought by family members and stored in the great lodge. We thought a large cake was an extravagance we didn't need and instead splurged on gourmet cupcakes - which made the trip much easier than a cake would.

For me, it was the perfect wedding; low-stress and low-key. Getting to spend the extended weekend with family and friends in such a beautiful place like Sugar Hollow Retreat made the time together priceless.

This couldn't have been pulled off without the help of Jim and Marty. They were available to help with questions about logistics, questions about items that we should probably try to procure from home (instead of hoping to find them once we got there).

So, a great big thank you to Jim and Marty for helping to make my wedding day perfect. We loved being at Sugar Hollow and hope to make a trip back with our friends and family soon.

Margaux Ostenblat