Camp Puh'tok Reviews

My partner and I came across Puh'tok in the Pines on an obscure website and am so thankful that we found it! It was absolutely the perfect venue for our wonderful campground wedding weekend. Our guests absolutely loved all the different locations and thoroughly enjoyed playing camp games. Elizabeth, the camp coordinator, was extremely helpful with answering our many questions. It was so much fun creating our wedding and incorporating all the unique aspects that we wanted for our weekend.

My husband and I got married at Puh'tok 9/23/23.  Elizabeth was extremely helpful in answering all our questions, taking us on multiple tours, just generally being a wealth of knowledge, and a wonderful person!  Puh'tok is honestly a magical place.  It's so quiet and beautiful literally any time of year.  There are so many different options of where you could do your ceremony and so many gorgeous places to take pictures.  You get to plan every little piece of your weekend and make it exactly how you want it, which was absolutely perfect for us.  Our family and friends LOVED getting to stay in the cabins together.  It really extended the festivities to have everyone in one place all weekend.  We had the rehearsal dinner on Friday and the Farewell Brunch on Sunday both onsite.  We had Tropical Storm Ophelia on us all weekend and everyone still had the best time.  Definitely a unique and incredibly fun wedding experience!

Camp Puh’tok was an absolutely amazing venue for our wedding. We were looking for something that would lend itself to a lot of customization, room for our guests, and beautiful foliage for the autumn date (11/5/22). On all accounts, this was the perfect venue for our event! Our theme was kind of an enchanted forest. We had the ceremony set in the Council Ring and the reception at the Thunderbird Lodge. However, since you rent the place for the weekend, we were also able to have our rehearsal dinner in the Hacienda on Friday, and the brunch on Sunday.

We were able to arrive at the venue on Friday afternoon and start setting up, hauling our gear in, an getting everything in place. Saturday was a blast, filled with lots of photos and food and dancing. It was awesome! Everyone’s favorite parts were the colors of the foliage, the uniqueness of the venue, and the comfortable intimate vibe. We also included a firepit unity component to our ceremony in the Council Ring, which was a huge success. There was also a cozy firepit outside for the afterparty by the cabins.

Camp Puh’tok is such a hidden gem in Baltimore County, and the staff who help run it are also just as kind and wonderful. We worked primarily with Elizabeth, the event coordinator, and she was always quick to get back to us on any questions we had. She is so knowledgeable about the grounds of the campsite and all the events they host, too. We also loved meeting the owner when he passed through a couple times - he was always friendly and kind.

All in all, this was a fantastic place to host our wedding (or any event)! We can’t talk it up enough. Camp Puh’tok was a great venue.

We planned to get married at Camp Puh'tok in September 2020. Due to covid, we unfortunately couldn't have the wedding we originally planned. We opted to cancel rather than reschedule due to all of the uncertainty. Puh'tok was incredibly understanding and flexible. They were one bright spot in a terrible situation. Thank you, Puh'tok!

When my husband and I were envisioning out wedding, we wanted to have a 3-day weekend wedding in the outdoors. Thankfully, Camp Puh'tok came highly recommended by two friends and when we saw it for the first time, we fell in love. It's extremely popular, so we booked it for more than a year ahead, but that just meant we had more time to save money and plan our weekend wedding festivities. Lindsay and Chris were both amazing to work with. We had about a million questions (more and more as the wedding date was fast approaching), but Lindsay and Chris were quick to respond via email. The camp ground is the perfect setting for a DIY weekend wedding since it's truly a blank slate. They don't have any vendor requirements, which helped us work within our budget. We invited our guests to stay at the cabin, which even in November, everyone was super warm and cozy. We paid extra to have archery and zipline activities the morning of the wedding. The camp staff were friendly and knowledgable and made sure all of our guests (including us) were safe and had a blast! We took advantage of the fire rings and had a huge bonfire Friday and Saturday night, which the camp staff helped supply the wood. We used the council ring with it's built in seating for our ceremony and used the tables and chairs already supplied for our reception and meals throughout the weekend. All and all, we are so impressed with camp puh'tok and cannot recommend it enough. It was truly the perfect location for us and our guests to let go of responsibilities and to relax in the outdoors. If you are looking for a laid-back wedding location that is perfectly nestled in the wood for you to design your DIY wedding, then Camp Puh'Tok is your venue. (Photography credit: Cameron Zegers Photography)

We were looking for a venue where we could host a weekend-long wedding celebration and house all of our guests. Camp Puh'tok came up in our search and could not have been more perfect! Lindsay was incredibly responsive to all of our questions, accommodating with our requests to bring multiple friends, family and vendors out to see the site, and friendly all the while! Camp Puh'tok offered us a blank space to create the weekend that we wanted and throw a kick-ass party.

We highly recommend this space for folks who don't mind a little more DIY work (it's a summer camp when it's not a wedding venue, so you have to do some decorating if that's what you're wanting) and really want a space that allows everyone to come together for a weekend. Thank you Lindsay and Camp Puh'tok!

We had our rehearsal, wedding, and post-wedding brunch at Camp Puh’Tok. And, many of my friends and family stayed in the cabins. Preparing for the wedding, I kept asking myself “what was I thinking having a wedding at a kid’s camp”. But, after all was said and done it was worth all the work! I could have never imagined our wedding being held anywhere else, but at Camp Puh’Tok. It was perfect, rustic, different, and unique. Exactly what we wanted! Just a word to any bride and groom to be…if you plan on having a wedding at a camp, make sure you understand that you (or a wedding service co. if you have the big bucks) will have to do EVERYTHING. They are of course a camp catered for kids. Not weddings! But, I personally liked having that flexibility and freedom of designing how to set up the decor of the dining hall, cook our own rehearsal food, and having everyone around you for an amazing weekend celebration. The camp staff was very helpful and even went beyond their service in accommodating our unique needs such as transporting hay bales for us and allowing us visit the camp multiple times for planning. Thanks Camp Puh'Tok!

We had our ceremony at this location and we also decided to stay here with family and friends before and after the event. We had a phenomenal time...got everything we needed!

As big DIY'ers, Camp Puh'tok was PERFECT for our wedding. We used it for the whole weekend and added things like archery and pool time for our guests to enjoy. Lindsay (the camp's point of contact) is extremely helpful and answered all questions we had about camp. We chose to have our ceremony in the Glen, and dinner in the lodge with our band and dancing outside in front of the trading post, which we used as our bar. It felt pricey but we did have it for the WHOLE weekend, and were able to bring decorations and things to camp the week before as well. It was also really nice to be able to choose our own caterer with no limitation and bring in our own alcohol. If you choose this venue, signage is VERY important as the grounds are so large, and I highly recommend having at least a day of coordinator, the cost will be worth not having to stress. We LOVED having our wedding here and only wish that we had come as kids!

I highly recommend Camp Puh’Tok for a wedding venue, especially if you are looking for a way to incorporate the outdoors and want to spend more than 4-5 hours with your guests. The fee is inclusive of Friday- Sunday and is about the same price as a lot of venues for just a few hours. All your guests can stay for free in glorified cabins (electricity, heat/a/c, bathrooms) while still having the feel of backpack camping. There is a limit of about 120 people for the nice cabins but lots more without electricity or bathrooms, and pretty much all the cabins are set up with at least 8 bunks so everyone gets real comfortable with each other! Staff, especially Lindsay, is incredible to work with in terms of exactly what is available on site to use (from paper towels and trash bags to firewood for late night bonfires). However, be prepared to do a lot of work yourself or hire either a wedding planner or same-day coordinator because there is no staff there for the weekend (I rated quality of service a little lower only because there is no service during the actual weekend so I felt it was not applicable). You are responsible for decorating, set-up, clean-up, making signs for parking, etc. It is A LOT of property, which is what makes it so great but is tough to use all of it for the festivities and photography because there are so many options (we used the photographer for 2 hours before the ceremony and still only covered a portion of the property). There is also a pool, which is perfect for down time for guests- but you have to use a lifeguard so plan accordingly. We got so many compliments from guests- they loved how unique it was and that it has a more relaxed feel. Above all, we grew very attached to the venue, in a way that I don’t think is possible at a traditional hall/mansion, etc. We visited a half dozen times leading up to the wedding in preparation, and can’t wait to go back to visit because we miss it so much.

Real talk: If you want to get married at a children's summer camp, you need to also want to be outdoors, a little dirty, and adventurous. If you're just looking for a rustic and beautiful site with the support of an experienced wedding venue, Camp Puh'tok is not that place. But if you want to have a fantastic weekend with your friends and family, a kick-butt party in the Thunderbird Lodge, and a sweet little cabin to sleep off your late night bonfire beverages, Camp Puh'tok is perfect in every way.

We had 130 people at the Camp and used nearly everything that comes with a full weekend rental. It's a bit pricey but comparable to anything else in the area and worth the value of being able to bring in your own food and drink and have all of your wedding attendees in one place. And it's great to know that your event rental helps pay for kids to go to camp (over 25% are there on scholarships). I only mark the flexibility a 4 because, as a camp for kids, there are a few hoops you've got to jump through like getting extra venue insurance and respecting the need to keep the grounds pristine, etc...

If you're thinking of planning a wedding here, feel free to read about how we did it at davekunes.org or reach out on Twitter at @niksushka to talk. It was a TON of work but we had amazing coordinators who made it worth it and were told by over half of our guests that this was the best wedding they'd ever been to. We even converted my high-heels in every situation mom! Big thanks to the Camp and Lindsay for being so great to work with.

My husband and I met at camp puh'tok when we were campers years ago and it was this reason that we decided to have our rehersal dinner, ceremony, reception, late night s'more's party and sunday brunch at the camp! Be prepared to do a lot yourself, as this is not a cookie cutter wedding venue but it was 100% wirth it! Not only was it meaningful, but it was so unique and we were able to have a fantastic wedding on a very teeny budget. The bridal party stayed the night before for a cowboys and indians crab feast (at a REAL fort no less!) and we were able to provide post wedding accomidations for all of our guests (about 85% took us up on the deal!) Our ceremony was in the open air tribal circle and we held dinner in the dining hall. With some imagination and elbow grease you can have a wedding NO ONE will ever forget!