Olivia & Marcel Wedding
Olivia & Marcel’s Wedding - May 31, 2025
Venue: Sky Retreat
Photography: Ashlyn McKenna Photo
Florals: Shady Grove Gardens
Coordinator: Wooded Wilds Events
Catering: Coyote Kitchen
Cake: Layers of Love
Beauty: Miss May’s Chair
Entertainment: Mixology
A Bride with a vision…
When I first saw Olivia’s mood board during her initial inquiry with me, I was SO excited to work with her. She’s got an amazing eye for design, and she absolutely NAILED it on the day of her and Marcel’s wedding. Ashlyn (the incredible photographer behind all these images) and I joked all day that they are making us look good because the overall aesthetic of this wedding was absolutely amazing.
Not only did this wedding represent their relationship so well, but it was also so touching to witness their fervent love and commitment to each other. Their relationship goes WAY back and all of their friends and family were genuinely so excited to celebrate their unity and marriage. This was such a fun wedding group and the energy everyone brought to their big day was astounding to be a part of.
They also had the BEST taste in music. Avett Brothers, John Craige, Father John Misty, all contributed to the soundtrack of the ceremony. And then when it came to dancing, we had the best tunes thanks to our DJ, Jeff with Mixology. His playlist was SUPREME, full of the best Latin American and pop music. He had everyone dancing throughout the night, it was almost impossible not to.
All day we were looking at the weather radar, it could rain…it could not rain. We procrastinated setting the ceremony space until the very last minute because not only were we pushing our luck with the upcoming storm that was supposed to hit later that evening, but the winds were also INSANE. I feel like every time I have done a wedding at Sky Retreat; we are playing a game of chicken with mother nature.
But somehow every time I have done a wedding there, our luck pulls through, and the weather window opens up just in time for the ceremony. We had a perfect hour of sunshine for the ceremony and then as soon as we went inside for dinner, torrential downpour. And then when it was time to go back outside for dancing, we had sunshine and rainbows again. That’s the Blue Ridge Mountains for ya.
This was a challenging wedding for me mainly because one of my assistants wasn’t able to get off work for her other job, so it was mainly just me all day. She was able to come in for a couple of hours up until right before the ceremony began. We were able to finish set-up right on time which took a lot of extra effort since we basically had to tape or Velcro everything down, so it didn’t blow away in the wind.
We had a Boone local favorite cater Olivia and Marcel’s wedding, Coyote Kitchen. They did such an incredible job and went above and beyond! Not only did they provide the most delicious food, but they also served as our bartenders and assisted in cutting and serving the cake afterwards.
I have always LOVED working at Sky Retreat, mainly because their venue managers are the BOMB. Dalton makes working weddings with him so much fun and even brought out my own personal table and chair for me to sit down when I had about 10 minutes to scarf down as much food as I possible could. I could have cried when I saw him pull up a chair for me, especially considering the fact that I hadn’t sat down at all that day and clocked in a total of 35.5k steps (that’s just under 18 miles).
We even had some leftover garland from a wedding they hosted the day before and decided he would put in the extra effort to hang it up for them which really elevated the reception space (you can see it framing the disco ball in the photo above).
This was one of the most beautiful, whimsical, and well-designed weddings I’ve had the privilege to work. It was truly an honor to be a part of it all, but I must give all the credit to Olivia and Marcel. Their imagination, creativity, and visualization of their big day made their wedding as magical as it was.
