Elegant Summer Open House

While it's always great to have an event on a beautiful sunny day, realistically that doesn't always happen. September 1st we proved that not even a dreary rainy day will keep us from celebrating another great open house at Sundara!

We cannot thank the amazing team of vendors enough for hosting this event with us:

Catering: Blue Ridge Catering

Floral: Creative Occasions Floral

Photography: Kemper Mills Fant Photography

Cake: Fresh Baked VA

Music: Tim Martin 

Linens: BBJ Linens

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The History of Sundara

written by Patricia Trostle, edited by Cari Dones Reichl

It all began in 1984 when my husband Tom and I purchased a home in Franklin County. Although the home was built in the late 1800’s, we would become only the third owners. We chose this house because our eight-year-old daughter, Amanda, had been longing for a horse. Our new home had a small barn and plenty of room for grazing, it was perfect! We quickly settled into country living.

After seeing our children, Amanda and Emily, off to college we began to seek new adventures for ourselves. In 2003, Tom accepted a job in Louisville so we packed up the house and started another chapter in our life. We, however, kept our family home hoping to return here in our retirement years.

Soon after our move, Amanda announced her engagement and her desire to be married at our Roanoke home. After we settled on a July wedding date we began to plan their wedding from a distance.

Amanda and John’s wedding was a beautiful southern garden party. Starting with cocktails under the large magnolia trees continuing with fun and laughter well into the night as we celebrated the lovely couple.

Several months later, we learned that the photographer, Jeff Greenough, had submitted Amanda and John’s wedding to The Knot. Soon after the wedding was published we were contacted by couples interested in hosting their own weddings on our property.

Read the first Knot article about Sundara here:

https://www.theknot.com/real-weddings/amanda-john-in-boones-mill-va-photo

We agreed to try a few events to just see how everything went. As a former high school teacher, I loved the idea of being involved with young people again. So, for three years I travelled from Louisville for each wedding. With business quickly taking off we made the decision to return home and settle back into country living.

One day I began reading a book, to this day I can’t remember the name of the book, however one thing stuck out to me. The book referred to a Hindi word “sundara” meaning ‘beautiful’ and in that context, specifically, ‘a beautiful place in life’. When it came time to name our new business, Sundara was my most obvious choice as it was a beautiful place in my life and many others.

Since we opened our doors in 2003, we have had numerous weddings published in local and national magazines. And have been honored by The Knot, Virginia Living Magazine, The Roanoker, and nominated for the Small Business of the Year Award.

Along our journey we have learned the value of supporting our community and neighbors; by participating and hosting many events for The Roanoke Symphony, Healing Strides, March of Dimes, and the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy we have found a way to give back for all that has been given to us.

Now entering our 14th year in business, and already looking ahead to a promising 2018 we must thank our wonderful clients and staff for supporting our dream and helping us create such a successful and meaningful business.

Cheers to many more wonderful years at Sundara,

Patricia Trostle

Best of 2014- Wedding Dresses

I am so excited to be writing the Best of Series once again! It was so much fun last year looking through wedding pictures and this year, we received even MORE pictures. You girls tried your hardest to crash my computer but it prevailed. I will be investing in an external hard drive very soon.

To kick start this series, and the most romantic weekend of the year, we are going to begin with wedding dresses. Can I just say, we have the most stunning clients. I mean, seriously girls, you rocked it in these pictures.

1
Rabiah Khwaja Gohar Photography
2
Clockwise: Bret Winter Lemon Photography | Lori Hedrick Photography | Laura’s Focus Photography | Chelsa Yoder Photography
3
Clockwise: Rachel Bowen | Lori Hedrick Photography | Kemper Mills Fant Photography

4
Clockwise: Brinn Wills Photography | Rabiah Khwaja Gohar Photography | n/a | Sam Dean Photography

5
Clockwise: Kemper Mills Fant Photography | Marissa Joy Photography | Sam Stroud Photography

6
Clockwise: Kemper Mills Fant Photography | Sam Dean Photography | Sam Stroud Photography

7
Clockwise: Lindsey Schaffer Photography | Kemper Mills Fant Photography | Cricket Powell | Laura’s Focus Photography | Lori Hedrick Photography

8
Clockwise: Kemper Mills Fant Photography | Sam Stroud Photography | Sam Dean Photography

9
Clockwise: Lori Hedrick Photography | Sam Stroud Photography | Kemper Mills Fant Photography | Cricket Powell | Kemper Mills Fant Photography | Jen Fariello Photography

Keep checking back every Friday for more of our Best of Series!