Do people actually stay over at camp wedding? and pay?

It's fine to have a destination wedding where some/all of your guests will need to pay for overnight accommodation. But I would avoid any venue that you need guests to pay in order for you to afford it. Your venue costs are yours to pay; guests should be able to choose their own accommodations and pay for them directly (that is, not to you).

Even if you decide you don't mind charging your guests to come to your wedding, the logistical headaches this will cause won't be worth it. How to figure out how many will come, how many will pay, how to collect money, how to pay up front for something you can't afford and then hope you get reimbursed later, etc.

It sounds like a headache to sort out... we had a small wedding originally planned at a camp ground. The general feedback was that guests would hang out late but most wanted to stay at a nearby hotel.

For a destination wedding, it is always courteous for the bride and groom to help make accommodation arrangements (such as by asking a hotel if you can get a group booking discount and providing that to the guests). Other than that, unless you are going to pay for the guests’ accommodation, it should be at the discretion of the guests where they want to stay – this gives your guests flexibility in choosing how long they stay for, where, what is in their budget etc.

As others have said, there are two flaws to your plan; (1) it will involve a lot of tedious planning and coordination and (2) it sounds like you can only afford this place contingent on your guests staying at this location and helping you foot the bill. I can’t answer your questions because imho you should not ask your guests to pay for a portion of the accommodation, they should be left to make their own arrangements.

To answer your last question as far as what my thoughts are on the idea, I would keep in mind some major factors at play here! What if some of your guests only want to attend your wedding but don’t want to sleep over and camp? Would they still be required to pay? what if people back out on the last minute and you don’t have enough money for your venue?
Keep in mind that any time there is money involved with people things can sometimes get messy. Now you’re trying to involve money situations with your entire guest list and that might get hairy. People will start dodging you for money etc. Then you will start to act more like a bill collector to them as opposed to a friend or family member that they care about who’s getting married.

My friend and her wife did something pretty similar for their wedding back in 2015. It was at a beautiful, but very remote, location. The cabins were pretty much the only lodging choice (no hotels for many miles). She basically assigned different cabins to different groups of people and sent a list to the campground. You then booked directly through them and paid them (I didn’t have to give my friend any money). They had a large turnout and it was super fun, but I think it worked out in large part to us all being super young and ok with roughing it. She also didn’t invite anyone’s significant others so it was different groups of friends all staying together (not couples). Now that we’re all engaged/married/some have babies I don’t know if it would work out logistically.

Don't ask your guests to pay for any portion of your wedding.


Also you may offer cabins as an option, but be aware that many people will want a hotel room for comfort and privacy

I think what we would be thinking of is a contribution that's not set- just if you are going to stay, a voluntary contribution. We will have people at all income levels there so not to put pressure on a fixed amount. Easy enough to put a button on a website to click through.

There are a couple hotels in a nearby town and certainly guests could stay there.

We can definitely afford it, but doing this is way over our original budget. So defraying some costs would be much appreciated. Originally we planned to spend $1k for venue plus rentals, we lost original venue and this one would be about the same price once we figured in rentals for one day- but if we spend extra $3k, we get the whole place for 3 days 2 nights with accommodations for up to 115 guests- seems like it's probably worth it?

I will consider what everyone has said though. Important thing I learned is really we should make the decision apart from what anyone would help out with or not- is it worth the extra money to do it or not.

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We decided to get a more minimal package and can add dorm rooms a la carte if wanted, at a sliding scale/donation rate. Also found out people can camp for free if they bring tent/camper setup (we know some people want to do this, we will probably do this ourselves). Otherwise we gave a few recommended hotels.