Camp Wandawega Weddings: Q+A

9 min readSep 22, 2022

So you decided to get married at Camp Wandawega? CONGRATS! You’re about to have the most gorgeous + fun + special weekend ever. BUT, maybe you’re feeling a little nervous about the DIY aspect, shower situation, mosquitoes, + more… don’t worry you’ve come to right place! 🥰

ICYMI:
*This post is part of a 3 part series for people getting married at Camp Wandawega [or currently in the process of considering Camp Wandawega as their wedding venue!] + how to navigate getting married at camp. Spoiler alert: IT’S AMAZING!🥰
👉 [Part #1] 5 Reasons You Should Consider Getting Married At Camp Wandawega
👉 [Part #2] Camp Wandawega Weddings: Q+A
👉 [Part #3] 20 Fun Ideas For Your Wedding At Camp Wandawega

Camp Wandawega Weddings: Q+A

#1] Do you need a wedding planner to work with Camp Wandawega? They don’t require a wedding planner, but I highly recommend one. We worked with Cloth + Flame who is an “all in one” pop up venue company. They provided the food, tables, flowers, major decor, etc. We also hired a “day of event planner” who helped with the weekend’s logistics + made our lives so much easier!

#2] What did guest accommodations look like at Camp Wandawega? Check out this page for photos of the accommodations! All of the lodging is unique, which makes it so fun + special. We assigned rooms ahead of time!

#3] How was the bathroom + shower situation for guests? I was very worried about the shower situation at Camp Wandawega! They have a total of: 4 inside camp showers, 2 inside showers at the Hillhouse, + 2 outdoor showers. Showers schedules were a free for all 🙈. We had 4 hours of “getting ready time” built into our schedule Saturday afternoon + had someone make an announcement well before the wedding over the intercom encouraging people to start thinking about showers! I’m sure there were people that bathed in the lake, lol. We created a “Glam Lounge — see below” that had mirrors, outlets for hair dyers, etc. (*The Glam Lounge was then converted into the Cocktail Lounge at night.) Also, we brought in 3 portable restrooms for the entire weekend.

#4] How much is the venue? Did your guests have to pay for anything, too? This was from 2020… so definitely check in to see the current rates:

“Our current venue fee is $22.5K for an exclusive weekend rental, Fri-Sun, two nights. Or $15K for two weeknights. (You can also opt to add the adjacent Wandawega Hillhouse to your agreement to account for another 6 guests if desired. ). Please note, we simply lease the property as a landlord — we do not provide any event services ourselves. You’re welcome to use whichever event services company, caterer, bartenders, etc. that you’d like. We do not have an indoor reception hall, so we require you to arrange for an event tent.”

Camp Wandawega doesn’t have any “rules” about much guests need to pay for the rooms around wedding — it’s just a total price (15K or 22.5K) + you can distribute it as you want. For our wedding, guests who stayed on site paid $125/night for their lodging.

#5] What are other costs to consider as a whole? Aside from the Camp Wandawega fee [above] that covers the grounds + lodging [sleeps 66] — everything else is DIY. Treat Camp Wandawega as any other DIY wedding… I definitely recommend using a “wedding checklist.” Ultimately, this is why we chose to work with Cloth + Flame because they took care of the majority of the logistics. For the people who stay on site — you’ll want to figure out what to do for all the meals [+ any activities]. There are so many way to go about it, so choose what feels authentic to you!

#6] Is the Hillhouse a “must” in your opinion? For us, it was 100% worth it to add the Hillhouse. This is where I showered + got ready (it was so comfy!). It can sleep 6 guests, so we had a few people stay there with us, too. I actually got ready in the Hillhouse a lot of the time solo — I really wanted that ME TIME + quiet time to soak in all the feels. Not to mention… the Hillhouse is absolutely gorgeous 🤩.

#7] Does Camp Wandawega have a “max capacity” for the guest list? 150! On site sleeping capacity [at the time] was 66.

#8] Where did non-camp guests stay? We reserved rooms at a nearby hotel [Hampton Inn] + used a school bus [Durham School Services] to shuttle people to + from camp Friday + Saturday! There are also a couple of Airbnbs near Camp Wandawega… but not many!

#9] How did you manage the parking situation? Good question! Camp Wandawega definitely helped us with parking. This is what we did:

We were pretty strict on parking because we didn’t want any cars in the photos [since there’s parking very close to the chapel 👀].
Everyone who stayed at camp, parked at the Hampton Inn, so their car was there the entire time!
As mentioned above, we had a school bus [Durham School Services] provide free transportation for guests Friday + Saturday night.
For Saturday morning, everyone who stayed offsite we said, “Feel free to drive to camp for the morning activities, but we ask that you please move your car by 130 PM.”
There were a couple cars on Sunday who helped shuttle camp people back to the hotel to pick up their cars

#10] Were there mosquitoes? Nope! Well I at least didn’t get bit or notice any… we sprayed the camp a couple days prior to our wedding. Camp Wandawega connected us with the person they typically use!

#11] What was it like to feed campers non-wedding meals? Who coordinated that food?

Friday Night: Food Truck from Banzo [*highly recommend!]
Saturday AM: Our day of wedding planner set up a breakfast bar with food from Costco that we brought in [bananas, RXbars, nut butter, granola, yogurt + lots of cold brew 😉]
Saturday Lunch: Cloth + Flame catered a BBQ
*Camp Wandawega has quite a few picnic tables on site — we set them all up on “Picnic Hill” with string lights + simple decor, which was a great place to eat non-wedding meals!
*Camp Wandawega has a few kitchens where you can store food. They will go over all of this when you go on your tour!

#12] How did you manage water + ice for guests? We encouraged everyone to bring a water bottle + had bottled water in a cooler if needed. There’s a community kitchen at camp for you to fill up water, too! On Saturday night for our reception, we had Cloth + Flame handle the water. We also insta-carted ice for the ice baths we did + refreshments. We had like 2,000 lbs of ice lol + it was only $200 👀

#13] I’m nervous about rain — what were your backup plans? Camp Wandawega requires you to rent a massive tent that covers their tennis court as a contingency plan, so that all activities/ceremony/etc would be able to be under the tent in the case of rain. We didn’t really think about it at all to be honest. Cloth + Flame had a back up rain plan for us + we trusted that it would work out + that if it rained, we’d make the best of it!

#14] Is there a strict “end time” on the wedding night? Weekend quiet hours start at 1030 PM… meaning the DJ [or any amplified music] needs to stop at that time, but you can transition to an acoustic set by the bonfire.

#15] Can you share advice on getting the most out of the weekend + enjoying the whole camp? I recommend creating an itinerary with organized activities that feel authentic to you. There truly is SO much to do at Camp Wandawega… swim/beach, canoeing, hiking, shuffleboard, volleyball, cards, ping pong, campfires + s’more, + archery [a crowd fav], + more. We created a bucket list [see below!] to encourage guests to do *all the things* 🥰.

We also created a few pop up “intentional moments” — #1] Converted the airstream to a “Whiskey Lounge”, #2] Polaroid station [+ private concert!] in the Treehouse, + #3] Hammock Lounge

#16] How helpful is Camp Wandawega throughout the wedding planning process? They were truly SO helpful. We were mainly in contact with Ashley [Co-director of Camp Wandawega] — she answered all of our questions right away + was alway happy to jump on a call/zoom. They also require you to share vendor information, etc — so they are in the loop about things. They also will have at least one person on site to help with parking, starting the bonfire, etc. We were so lucky to have Joe with us during our wedding weekend — he was amazing!

#17] Is there anything you learned that you wish someone told or recommend you? Ohhh YES. I learned so much! [Stay tuned for a longer blog post w/ wedding advice — applicable to wherever you get married! ⚡️] I think my biggest learning: Be as communicative as possible with your vendors, event planners, + anyone else helping out at the wedding about deadlines + deliverables. I was a very “chill bride,” but this unfortunately led to so much work happening at the very last minute. I wish I would have spoken up about my needs + have been more specific [deadlines, timelines, etc], so that I could have had a more relaxing couple of weeks leading up to the wedding.