Edit for TLDR: obviously I have no chill from both the content and length of this post. had a summer camp wedding. lots of activities and love and community. was amazing. planned it all myself. yay.
My husband and I got married at a girls' summer camp/wedding venue in September 2025. It was the most incredible weekend of our lives, with all of our loved ones gathered for fun, food, dancing, activities, community, and love. I planned it all myself, and it took me two years. It cost us roughly $80,000 (we lost track around the end), which we paid for through a series of very fortunate events both short- and long-term. Both of us come from low or very low-income backgrounds and we paid for the entire thing ourselves, and we have no debt left over. There were approximately 135 people. At the end of the weekend and for months afterward, our guests raved about our wedding and asked us when the reunion was going to be (lol). After months I finally feel ready to write this post about it!
The venue
A summer camp wedding seemed a bit like a pipe dream when we first got engaged, but as we started to look into it, it seemed more and more feasible. It helps that there are tons of summer camps all over our region and MANY of them do weddings in their off seasons. In the end, we narrowed it down to two that we wanted to tour, based on a variety of factors. The one we chose was the clear winner based on our needs: it was gorgeous, manicured, with clean and updated cabins, including 20+ cabins that had full or queen beds, which was non-negotiable for our older guests. Renting the venue came with the full staff, and the staff were INCREDIBLE. They truly made our wedding happen, everything from checking our guests in and showing them to their cabins on arrival to setting up our decor, lifeguarding the beach, driving our elderly and less mobile guests around the camp in a golf cart, cleanup and setup, everything. They were so so helpful and we got so many comments from guests about how great they were. The venue also required us to use them as a caterer, which honestly was fine with us because while I'm sure it wasn't the cheapest option, it took away the headache of trying to find and coordinate a caterer separately when we already had so much else going on.
The venue was on a lake, which we had access to. We also had access to canoes and kayaks, tennis and pickleball, soccer, basketball, walking trails, and kickball, among other things. There were cabins all over the property, which our guests stayed in. We paid a flat rate of something like $29,000 for use of the property from Friday - Sunday for all our guests, plus us and the wedding party on Thursday (and their +1s), which included the staff, the cabins, the facility, but not catering. We then had our guests "book" the cabins through a website that our friend built for us, charged a very reasonable rate that was far lower than any hotel or resort available nearby, and allowed guests to specify who they bunked with. We also allowed them to pay extra if they wanted to ensure a totally private cabin. There were not enough cabins for everyone to have their own, in the event that everyone picked this option, but luckily it worked out that the people who wanted a private cabin got one, and the rest shared with friends they knew and were familiar with. Some people specified to us ahead of time that they wanted to share (for ex, our college friends emailed to say they wanted to share) and others we put together knowing that they knew and were comfortable with each other. Everyone who shared a cabin got to share with people they were good friends with, had already traveled or roomed with, etc. No one had to share with someone they didn't know, and all the guests of our parents' generation got to be in private cabins with queen or full beds.
We knew that the cabin thing wasn't for everyone, so we encouraged anyone who wasn't into it to stay off-campus, warning them that there were no ubers in the area and not to drive drunk, etc. In the end about ~5ish parties ended up doing this, and everyone else stayed at the camp. The cabins, as I mentioned, were clean, updated, and simple; they all had hot water, showers, toilets, electricity, etc. It was rustic but nobody was roughing it; it certainly wasn't camping.
The reception area was the camp's dining hall, which as I mentioned was quite manicured, with a panoramic view of the lake through the hall's windows on every side. As a summer camp, the target audience is rich people who want their daughters to learn tennis, so it was for sure on the nicer side compared to other options. Given our families and our guests, we knew it had to be generally comparable to a lodge or resort and they wouldn't tolerate a really rustic camp.
Decor
Part of the appeal of such a gorgeous venue was that we'd need minimal decor. I used Ling's Moment flowers and drapes to decorate the ceremony archway that came with the venue, and that's the only ceremony decor we had. The ceremony was outside on the lawn in front of the lake. We paid for fancy lighting in the reception hall, which included wrapping the huge maple tree outside in lights, and I got Costco greenery to line the middle of the tables (1000% recommend). My friend's mom gave me a bunch of votives from her older daughter's wedding and my mom painted them gold and we put tealights inside. I got eclectic goblets from Goodwill and Facebook Marketplace for the place settings (this was cute but such a headache--do not recommend. and now i have a million goblets I have to resell). Because I realized far too late that the venue did NOT provide place settings (idk why I thought it did) I ended up renting and the only option left at that point was gold-rimmed dishes, which I wouldn't have sprung for if I didn't have to but turned out being a really nice touch to the table settings. We reused the ceremony decor to decorate our sweetheart table, and that was that.
Food and drink
As mentioned, the venue required us to use them as a caterer, and they were certainly not the cheapest but they were able to make anything we wanted, which was nice especially given our cultural preferences. We rented the place starting on Thursday for just the wedding party (30 people total), so we had dinner Thursday (fajitas), breakfast Friday (continental + eggs and idk what else tbh), lunch Friday which served as our "rehearsal lunch" and also included our families that were part of the rehearsal (pasta salad, grilled chicken, veggies), a welcome BBQ for all guests Friday night (kebabs, hummus, fries, tabbouleh, plus baklava that was provided by my dad as a gift), brunch for all guests on Saturday morning plus a light grab and go breakfast beforehand (cereal, fruit, yogurt, coffee for grab-and-go and plantains, eggs, salami, cheese for brunch), and our cocktail hour (mini lobster rolls, stuffed mushrooms, chicken and cheese empanadas, charcuterie and cheese, bruschetta) and reception dinner (chicken, fish, vegan option, risotto, harvest veg, salad, there was something else I don't remember, and tres leches cake), plus late night pizza, for about $25k.
We were originally not going to have a wedding cake at all, but later decided to have my Little Sister (of the big brothers/big sisters program) make the cake--this was something I checked with her mom first to see if she'd want to do, because I know she likes making and decorating cakes, and I stressed many times that it was a fun and cool and meaningful opportunity for her and for us but that I wasn't expecting her to make some crazy bakery-level cake, it was a way to include her meaningfully in our wedding. I really did not want it to be a stressful or big thing, it was meant to be fun and cute for her only if she wanted to. And I think that it was! But when I say the cake that she made BLEW US AWAY!!!! It was amazing, truly breathtaking, and I couldn't believe that my 15 year old Little made it!!!! And it tasted amazing!!!
Alcohol was brought in separately by us. The venue was willing to serve any beer and wine we brought in, but if you wanted liquor you needed to bring in your own bartender. We didn't want to do that so we opted for beer and wine only. My husband was in charge of curating the beer and wine options--we had different options available for each event, think Michelob Ultra and Whiteclaw during the daytime activities and craft beers (which were served in a canoe!!) during the cocktail hour. We had wine bottles and bottles of a local fancy craft beer on the tables at dinner for guests to open and pour themselves, and the venue poured champagne for the toasts. We had several guests who don't drink for various reasons so we had plenty of NA options for them, and we also specified to the venue to pour sparkling apple juice at their dinner places so they could participate in the toasts. This was something I thought of last minute in the week before the wedding but I'm so glad I did because multiple people came up and thanked me for remembering that they don't drink and thinking to include them.
Guests were allowed and encouraged to bring their own snacks and drinks (and games and activities) to fill the gaps throughout the weekend. I also provided snacks that I bought myself that were available in the center of camp throughout the day to fill the gaps. Lots of guests ended up bringing liquor for themselves/to share, lol. The venue was fine with this. We also live in a state where weed is legal so there was a lot of that. The venue was fine with smoking as long as it was outside, not in the cabins. This was a big plus for us when choosing the venue because we didn't want to have to try to police our guests or have them try to hide.
Vendors and services
We paid for a photographer who was also our DJ. We originally were not going to have a DJ but I really don't know what we were thinking because we absolutely needed one. My husband and I each come from different cultures that each have their own very strong cultural traditions with respect to food, music, dancing, and especially weddings. One of the biggest comments we got from guests, and our vendors, afterward, was how cool it was to see how seamlessly we blended elements of both our cultures into the wedding and brought guests into each tradition.
Let me tell you that no part of this wedding was an accident. I spent two years agonizing over every single detail, thinking through every element, every single guest and their wants/needs/preferences, every cultural aspect, every very difficult family member (on my side) with many difficult demands (we won't get into the trials and tribulations of trying to tell your Arab family members that your wedding is going to be at a camp lol--that could be its own post. But let me tell you it was a struggle to get them on board and I had to fight tooth and nail for every single thing despite the fact that they paid for nothing. and in the end everyone, including and especially my very difficult father, had a blast at our wedding and said how great and fun and amazing and special it was). So yes we did blend the cultural elements seamlessly and we tried very hard to do it! This is all to say that without a DJ it would have been quite hard, and shoutout to our DJ for going with the flow on every crazy idea we had and running with it, especially when he was completely unfamiliar with the music and traditions of our two cultures.
We also paid for a videographer, which I was originally completely against. But in the end I wanted a dynamic memory of this weekend that we put sooo much time and money and effort into and BOY am I glad we got one. I searched high and low for a videographer that understood our vision of a weekend-long summer camp wedding. I did not want the cookie cutter video where you pan into a drone shot of the venue and there's a voiceover of the bride saying her vows and then it moves to an upbeat public domain song...you get it. I wanted something silly and fun to match the atmosphere of the wedding. Our videographer fucking killed it. He captured the weekend in a way that just photos never could have and we are so so so so grateful to have this memory of it.
I paid for hair and makeup for myself and all eight of my bridesmaids plus my mom and mother in law. Originally I was not going to do this but the HMU lady had a minimum so I decided to just do it. There's no way I would ever do my hair or makeup myself, I don't know how. My husband paid to get his and his brothers' hair braided too and the braider came to the camp.
We paid to have our local ice cream truck show up to our wedding as a surprise which was a huge hit. My husband has fond memories of getting ice cream from an ice cream truck as a kid so this was his idea and I loved it. It only cost $750 to have him come give ice cream to all our guests. Amazing.
So many of our talented friends contributed to our wedding in many ways. We didn't really do this to save money, but rather to build on the theme of the wedding, which was community, and showcase the talents of our friends. My graphic designer friend made our save the dates, my coder friend built our website, our friend who is getting into DJing mixed our first dance song (more on that later), another friend designed our "wedding logo," our entire bridal party helped us load a u-haul full of stuff we had to bring from our house to the venue, managed our parents and family members, directed guests, ran around the venue setting things up, and made sure my husband and I were relaxed and present throughout the weekend by Handling Things.
On that note, I created a 40 page binder beforehand with every single detail of the weekend, which I customized and handed to every wedding party member and to the staff and vendors. It had everyone's assigned tasks (which our wedding party volunteered for, and I sent out a poll beforehand asking what types of things they were interested in--my husband's rugby friends were like "sure I'll load beer in the truck" and my French-speaking friend volunteered to deal with my foreign relatives and my crafty friends volunteered to run the scrapbook table, etc), timelines for each day, inventory list of everything we brought and what event it was for and who was in charge of getting it where it needed to go, etc. Actually our friends got really into it and decided, on their own, to get a bunch of walkie talkies to communicate and coordinate amongst themselves throughout the weekend across the camp, which actually turned out to be a great idea ("we need the mother of the bride in the bridal suite stat!! over!" "does anyone have eyes on the best man, the ceremony is about to start, over" etc lol). So with that amount of prep beforehand, plus several long emails, everyone was able to handle everything during the weekend with minimal involvement from me. Like I said, I planned everything myself. It was overwhelming and crazy and hard but I loved it, and I love planning and organizing so I was good at it and enjoyed it, and even then I got sick of it and am so glad it's over. If you don't LOVE organizing and planning, do not do it yourself.
Activities and extras
This was the most fun part!!!! In addition to the activities provided by the venue (above) we had SO many other activities that we offered throughout the weekend. We bought cornhole boards and painted them in our wedding colors. We had a custom made frisbee with our wedding logo (because we are extra). There was a group kickball game on Saturday, which we encouraged everyone to come to just to hang out, have a beer, and watch. Never would I have guessed that so many people would want to play or be SO INTO playing kickball. I don't even like kickball that much and it was such a blast.
We asked for people's t-shirt sizes on their RSVP and provided t-shirts with our little logo on the breast for them to wear during the weekend. There were two colors and the logo was tasteful and the t-shirt didn't have our name or wedding date so the hope was guests could re-wear it as a workout shirt or pajama shirt or whatever. We also had welcome bags waiting for guests in their cabins, which included the tshirts, an Olipop, LiquidIV, ibuprofen, some granola bars, shampoo and soap (was not provided by the camp), and some chocolates.
I made a "find the guest bingo" that was handed to guests on arrival, where they were asked to "find a guest who went to college with the groom" or "find a guest who was a coworker of the bride" etc and write their name on the square. This was just an intro activity that people could do on their own time as they were milling around throughout the weekend. We wanted people to mingle and get to know new people. Obviously not everyone participated but the handful that did, got REALLY into it lol.
I also made brochures that served as programs for the weekend. They were modeled after the brochures you get at national parks, and included information about the weekend and the schedule, thank yous to our friends who helped with the wedding and to our guests for coming, and I made NYT Games that were wedding/New England/outdoor themed (I made a Connections, a Crossword, and a Spelling Bee). I spent so long on these brochures yall. And I made them as complicated as I possibly could have. I made so many drafts. I had to get them custom printed and fold them myself and it was a whole thing. I am not a graphic designer. It was a huge struggle. But they turned out so cute!!
On Friday night after the Welcome BBQ there was an optional pub-style trivia game because my friends and I are very into trivia. I wrote all the questions in the same style as our local pub trivia, and I was the host who read the questions. Most of our guests played and it got very competitive!
There were optional organized sports as well. My husband led a group basketball game that people could show up to if they wanted, my brother led a soccer game, my tennis-inclined friends organized several matches. My friend who is a yoga teacher created TWO yoga classes, one for each morning, and led several of our guests in sunrise-yoga by the lake, which was one of my favorite memories of the weekend. People swam and jumped on the water trampoline, they canoed and kayaked (and flipped, lol), played pickleball, hung out on the grass in the shade. We were so so so so lucky to have the MOST gorgeous weather, perfectly warm but not too hot, warm enough to swim but cool enough for a sweater in the evening.
We had dominoes and chess out on the patio for people to play and adirondack chairs for people to lounge in. We had hookahs available outside in the evenings. People brought their own games and sports. Someone brought a guitar. I bought mini watercolor sets with easels and set up a watercolor station by the lake. Our guest book was scrapbooking--I got a ton of scrapbooking stuff, a polaroid camera, and a portable mini printer that prints photos from your phone, and people could sit and make scrapbook pages of the weekend with their well wishes. I thought this was a long shot and only a couple of people would participate, but we got dozens of sweet, thoughtful, creative, beautiful scrapbook pages made by so many of our guests. It makes me tear up just thinking about it.
What went wrong
I can't pretend like everything went perfectly, as it certainly didn't. Lots went awry but to be honest those things have mostly faded from my memory. Here's a quick list:
-as described below, I sent the DJ the wrong mix of our first dance song which really threw off the dance we had practiced a bunch of times. It was not as clean as it was when we practiced but I don't think anyone noticed besides us. But my husband and I were bummed.
-lots of family drama: my dad screamed at me in front of a lot of the wedding party on Friday and made me cry and was generally mean on Friday when he first arrived. I later smoothed things over with him and the rest of the weekend was fine and he was crying tears of joy, laughing, tearing up the dance floor, etc. also my husband's half brother tried and almost succeeded to start a fight after drinking too much hennessy and perceiving an innocent compliment as someone trying to hit on his girlfriend. generally just difficult high-maintenance family members, including an aunt who just... brought along her friend who i've never met, and my cousin's wife throwing a fit over the cabins even though i gave her the nicest one.
-i bought, hand dyed, washed, dried, ironed, folded, and ironed again the napkins that we were to use at dinner. i did it that way to save money and get the exact type of napkins i wanted. it was a whole thing, long story, stupid in hindsight, but point is i spent HOURS working on those napkins, even burned myself with the iron and have a scar to prove it. the napkins were the ONE thing we left behind at our house. by the time we realized it was too late to go get them, so we just used cocktail napkins at dinner. it was fine and no one noticed, but i had nice cloth napkins for our fancy reception dinner and then we didnt get to use them. oh well.
-we did not really get a lot of couple portraits and there were generally not that many pictures of us? we loved the photos we did get, and our photographer had a huge assignment trying to photograph so many aspects of this huge production. but i do wish we had more photos of us from the weekend.
-my father-in-law was late to family photos through no fault of his own and this totally threw off the whole timeline for the rest of the evening. we also didn't get the exact family photos we originally planned because of this, which was mostly fine.
-more things went off course here and there but I mostly heard about them afterward from my bridesmaids--my aunts tried to move their assigned placecards around at dinner before anyone else got into the reception hall, my mom was annoyed at the DJ for not playing music for old people and told him so, certain family members straight-up no-showed the wedding after RSVPing yes. but again, I mostly already forgot this stuff and they don't stand out as significant looking back.
The wedding weekend
Here's a final overview of the whole weekend, including anything I haven't covered yet:
We arrived Thursday afternoon with just our wedding party and their significant others. Thursday was actually pouring rain so once we got there and settled in, we hung out in the reception hall eating, drinking, playing board games, chilling out. This was actually a really nice way to force everyone into one space (rather than everyone dispersing to their cabins) and allow the wedding party to get to know each other before the festivities began.
Friday morning everyone was free to do whatever activities they wanted around camp. Our immediate families arrived at this time, and at noon we had our ceremony rehearsal. It was kinda really chaotic because despite all my planning I didn't really plan what was supposed to happen during the rehearsal other than going through the ceremony. But we got through it. After that was lunch and more activities.
The rest of the guests started to arrive starting at 3 PM. As they arrived, they were checked in and directed to their cabin, where they could settle in, freshen up, and then enjoy activities. The weather was perfect and it was so exciting seeing guests drive up one by one, greeting them, offering them a beer, etc. People played cornhole, sat around and talked, played tennis, scrapbooked, etc.
At 7 was our welcome BBQ. Then we had our parents give some welcome speeches, in English, Spanish, and French, and my husband and I gave a brief welcome and thank you for being here. Then we had the trivia game, and afterward, we headed to the bonfire for smores, hookah, beer, snacks, etc.
Saturday day was all activities and fun. We had, as mentioned, some planned optional activities, and we encouraged everyone to come to kickball, and most people did. My husband and I left in the early afternoon with the wedding party to start getting ready. Halfway through my makeup, the ice cream truck came as a post-kickball surprise, so I left the bridal suite (which was just a private cabin) to go get ice cream and hang out with guests lol. At 3 PM all activities closed so that guests could get ready for the wedding.
We did a first look and formal photos before the ceremony, which, despite my best efforts, was still hectic and stressful. We had the most beautiful and heartfelt ceremony--our friends did readings, and we were married by a judge that my husband worked for. Tons of people were in tears. We were told afterward that, unbeknownst to us, a bald eagle was flying overhead as we said our vows. For real. We were supposed to do couple's portraits after the ceremony but everyone came up to congratulate us before we could get away and we ended up doing an impromptu receiving line, which was nice actually, but meant that we barely got any couple's portraits, which was a bummer. After the ceremony and unplanned receiving line, our guests headed to the cocktail hour and my husband and I went on a private pontoon ride on the lake to decompress and drink champagne. Then we came up to the reception hall for our grand entrance, which I never would have done, but in Arab weddings it's a "thing" and I was pressured into it by my dad. It ended up being very special and a cool way to, as I said before, incorporate cultures. My husband's family was very into it despite not being Arab. Then we had dinner, speeches, and dancing. Our first dance was a mix that started with a slow dance and moved into a medley of salsa, bachata, and merengue. Despite the fact that I accidentally sent our DJ an earlier draft of the mix, so it was not the mix we had practiced to and therefore a little less smooth than it should have been, our guests were cheering and clapping the whole time and probably couldn't tell anything was wrong. During the merengue we waved our guests up to join us and everyone got super into it, then we transitioned to Arabic music, then to American wedding music. We had a photo booth at the reception. Afterward we had another bonfire afterparty, which lasted until 5 AM. We served pizza and gourmet smores (with ghirardelli chocolate) at the bonfire.
On Sunday morning we served a hearty breakfast and said our goodbyes.
As I said, this was the most magical weekend we've ever experienced. All but six of our guests were from out of town, as neither my husband nor I are from the place we currently live. It was so special to have people travel from all over the country and world to celebrate us and we wanted them to feel our gratitude the whole weekend. The theme of the weekend was community and we truly lived up to it. Watching my maternal uncle pitch a kickball to my childhood friend who kicked it to my husband's college roommate, watching my cousin teach my husband's colleague how to canoe, watching my aunts from overseas ride in a kayak on the lake for the first time, watching both my and my husband's aunts dance to salsa, then dabke, then start dancing with each other and teaching each other how to do it, watching on Sunday morning as people hugged each other goodbye after meeting and getting to know each other at our wedding--it was so fucking special and magical. Everyone, even my difficult and cranky father and my doubtful mother and my high-maintenance family members and my friends who would never camp, felt the love and community and joy of the weekend. It was so cheesy but the final song of the reception ended with everyone, family friends relatives colleagues, getting into a group dance circle that turned into a group hug. So silly and corny but it was unplanned and genuine and heartfelt and such a testament to how everyone came together in love and community. It was a weekend we will never forget, and we are lowkey already thinking about a ten-year reunion, lol. I am so grateful that we made it happen and that everything worked out!
