Wedding in the middle of the woods?

My friend had her wedding in the woods. It looked magical but it was traumatizing! The mosquitoes, ants and ticks were all over us. First it was too hot then too cold and we were forced to stay because there was no transport out of the forest until 3 am. I recommend a venue.

My best friend got married in the woods but she rented a camp as well.

My nephew is renting out an entire camp for his wedding this September. The ceremony will take place in the chapel (it's a Catholic kids camp) and guests are welcome to stay for free in the bunk houses.

@FutureMrsE that's me! I did get married in the woods. We were lucky enough to have a nature center that doubles as a wedding venue near where we live in NY. The "ceremony" space is used for weddings so that worked out well. Trail was paved and easily accessible and they did provide wheelchairs for those who needed them (only my grandma used one). It was a lot of work though. Setting up a woodland ceremony site was terribly difficult and we had to bring in all of our rental items such as tables, chairs, etc. It wasn't buggy (maybe time of the year or where we live?) But it was a lot of work. Prepare for long nights worrying about rain and the possibility of paying for a beautiful ceremony site only to have it rained out. Also it was EXPENSIVE getting all the rental equip. out even though the nature center let us use their indoor space for reception. Honestly, having an all inclusive venue is so much easier and probably comparable in price. Happy Planning! And I must say, my pictures are AMAZING

I suggest a county or state park that hosts events like this but will give you the setting you are looking for.

Congrats by the way!

People have already brought up the ticks and bugs stuff.

I just keep making frowny faces and thinking about the possibility of poison ivy or other such poison plants that I'm highly allergic too. I get super stressed in wooded areas because everything suddenly looks like poison ivy.

We are having our reception at a lakeside resort in the woods. not totally what you are looking for, but we will get the cool woodland wedding photos at least! there is a ceremony site at the hotel as well. perhaps you could consider looking for somewhere like that?

OP where are you located? The camp I found is in Michigan and it's absolutely gorgeous plus I have it all weekend. I definitely recommend researching different camps in your area. Ours is a YMCA camp.

We have done many of these, but there ARE a couple of things to keep in mind.

You're looking at Labor Day Weekend. This may present a problem for camps and parks that rent out space.

Making a setting too inaccessible may make your wedding not possible for some of your relatives.

Bugs, ticks, other crawly things, poisonous plants

Getting equipment there will be really expensive. And you probably can't leave it there, so that adds to the delivery/pickup fee.

Electricity is key.

To be honest, most of our 'woody' weddings have been for the ceremony only, then a venue for the party.

Depending on where you are, there are lots of actual venues in the woods, including mine. My ceremony is literally on the top of a mountain in New Hampshire and then the reception is in a barn over the border in Maine - all in the White Mountains.

The reception is secluded off of some backroads with forest all around the property. They even have a ceremony site on the property that's in the woods and is beautiful.

www.hardyfarm.com

I would try looking around for venues like that first, as like others pointed out, doing it in the middle of nowhere is going to be hard to get stuff and set things up and most likely be pretty costly.

You can possibly rent a community center in an outdoors woody location. I grew up in the Mountains of NC and my sister got married there. It wasn't in the woods but she chose a lake and rented the gazebo and community center for less than $100. It included a huge pavilion with electricity, bathrooms, playgrounds for the kids, a large space indoors for the ceremony in case of rain, the outdoor gazebo which they used instead because of good weather, and a downstairs space where they could serve food. They got married in the fall and the weather was perfect, inexpensive (I know that's not your reasoning for a wooded wedding but such a great bonus!) and people still talk about how beautiful it was 10 years later. It also included chairs and tables which eliminated any rentals.

Good luck! Outdoor weddings are very popular in my neck of the woods, they can be done well!

I was thinking about renting a camp; or several cabins/yurts. Can you talk more about how you did this? thanks!