PINE PEAKS WEDDING AND EVENT CENTER • 20-21

Winter wedding celebration

BY SHEILA HELMBERGER

What if you could spend your entire wedding weekend celebrating with your friends and family at a beautiful private 80acre gated estate?

With Pine Peaks Wedding and Event Center near Crosslake, owners Priscilla Soos and her husband, David, own and operate a wedding resort that offers a true destination wedding. Secluded away from everything, they make it possible to wake up the morning of your vows and have a cup of coffee and relax instead of running around from place to place picking up items you have rented.

David and Priscilla provide almost everything a wedding couple might need. They furnish tables, chairs, linens, skirting and chair covers in multiple colors. Chair sashes and table runners in 24 colors plus an entire storage room filled with decorations. Most couples don’t have to haul much at all. Set up is done by the wedding party on Thursday and Friday and take down is done by the staff at Pine Peaks on Sunday morning.

The Property

Priscilla gives each couple an extensive tour of the property when they meet – and there’s a lot to see. The property offers a view from every deck and porch of serene beauty. It’s a photographer’s dream of corn fields, rolling hills and flowers. Several sites for the ceremony include your choice of arbors and each is surrounded by wildflower and perennial gardens. There is a bubbling rock with a pond and a fountain through the spring and fall months.

The seasons in lake country can change quickly and sometimes overnight. Raising and lowering tent walls and using heaters and fans, you can create your own ideal temperature and make things as cozy or as open as you’d like.

The Big Day

To ensure your wedding reception meal is as fresh as possible, all meals are prepared on site in the new Pine Peaks kitchen and prep kitchen by Chef Dewey Albrecht. The wedding couple, with Priscilla and Chef Dewey, will work together to create the custom reception menu to wow the guests. Your wedding guests will be served refreshments and custom cocktails at Pine Peaks’ newly enhanced bar complete with a large choice of domestic, imported and craft beers and selection of fine liquors fit for your wedding reception.

We allow customers to bring their own desserts and snacks for their reception,” says Priscilla. Parking spaces are available for many motorhomes during the spring, summer and fall months with power, sewers and water hookups. Delivery, setup and removal for RV rentals can be arranged.

The Retreat House

“Just about every couple uses our retreat house,” says Priscilla. Across a pathway from the event center is a 5,000-square-foot home with five bedrooms, four bathrooms and a loft with four more beds. Typically, the wedding party and a few friends will stay here and have a nice time for several days. The master suite includes a Jacuzzi and a see-through fireplace. Also on site, a twochair hair and makeup salon, a recreation room with a pool table and laundry facilities.

The home features a gourmet kitchen, a screened porch with a fireplace, games, an outdoor sauna and fire pit and a propane fire pit in the screen porch.

Priscilla and David know your wedding is more than just one really big day. It’s a weekend affair and the house is available to rent to couples from Thursday through Monday. Rooms for your guests are readily available in and close to Crosslake, Pequot Lakes, Pine River and Jenkins, just a few miles away from Pine Peaks with shuttle service available to and from the reception. There are over 300 VRBO rental homes in the Crosslake area for those guests who would like to stay for a few days.

Extras

After the rehearsal, just move your wedding party into a space in the pavilion and have your groom’s dinner right there. Woodfired pizzas can be made, or you could grill burgers or steaks for the wedding party, offering a nice laid-back evening before the big day.

There is no doubt Pine Peaks offers a few extras that other venues can’t. Your entire list of To Dos such as rehearsal dinner, hair and makeup, beautiful wedding photos and videos can be done onsite as well as the “I dos” with a beautiful onsite inside or outdoors wedding ceremony.

“We’ve had more than 400 weddings and no two have been the same,” Priscilla says. Nearly 50 weddings are already booked for 2022 and 2023. Unlike many venues, we provide all liability insurances. Call 218 251-8800 to talk to Priscilla for more information and to set up a tour.

Pine Peaks Wedding and Event Center, with a capacity of around 300, has been the recipient of awards from The Knot and WeddingWire as well as The Best Wedding Venue in Minnesota from the Minneapolis St Paul Magazine.

Winter Wedding Discounts

Winter wedding packages are discounted for the months of November through April. Pine Peaks Wedding and Event Center is beautiful during the winter months. Call 218-251-8800 for more information and to set up a tour.