Real Wedding: Katie + Cameron’s Camp Wedding

To start off the week, I have a super fun camp wedding to share with you guys. This wedding has the most unique (and fun!) bouquet toss I’ve ever seen. I’m also a bit obsessed with the invitations designed by our newest sponsor, Paisley Quill. Letterpress, red edges, vintage stamps and the most beautifully designed wedding timeline you have seen! Thanks also to the amazing Kelty of Steep Street for sharing her photos (all photos by Kelty with the exception of the top two from Paisley Quill).

camp wedding invitations

camp wedding invitations

camp wedding invitations

From Katie, “Our wedding was a little bit summer camp, a little bit renaissance fair, and a whole lot of fun. Our first step of wedding planning was to find a venue that would allow the celebration to last for days instead of just hours. With that in mind we finally found Camp Lane, a symphony of Oregon green nestled along the Siuslaw River. It had everything we were looking for: a commercial kitchen, an historic log lodge, a copse of trees perfect for the ceremony AND a swimming hole, myriad games, cabins and large open fields for camping.”

oregon camp wedding

outdoor wedding backdrop

pinecone boutonniere

outdoor weddings in the woods

flags for bouquet toss

Our wedding had a couple of elements that raised some eyebrows. In particular, the inclusion of a trebuchet (a medieval catapult) got some hilarious response. What does a trebuchet have to do with our wedding? Nothing (though we did make a game of coming up with cheesy slogans like “hurtling toward our future”), except that it was a ridiculous engineering feat for two science nerds to complete together. Among other things, we used it for the bouquet toss and it was fun, unique and very, very us.

untraditional bouquet toss

camp wedding

My wedding dress was an early 1970s handmade creation that I found at St. Vincent de Paul’s. Standing in the musty thrift store dressing room in my knee high sweatsocks, holding the back closed because it wouldn’t zip, I felt like I’d found a dress that would be fun to wear. With its empire waist and ghosty skirt (and once the mutton sleeves had been trimmed to cap sleeves) it had a very Pride & Prejudice feel — very appropriate for one of four Bennett girls.

wedding on a bridge

mason jars at wedding

camp reception dining hall

tree seedlings favors

wedding card table

wedding pie table

The invitations from Paisley Quill were beyond perfect. They absolutely set the tone for our fun, relaxed wedding amid the Oregon trees. The timeline that Molly at Paisley Quill made was so perfect that Cameron’s Aunt Lory recreated it as a quilt — gifting us with a reminder of our wedding that we’ll treasure forever.

wedding quilt made from invite design

camp wedding lodge

Many of our decisions were dictated by a tight budget, but one thing we weren’t willing to compromise on was the opportunity for our family and closest friends to fully relax and enjoy themselves. With that in mind, although we’d bandied around the idea of self-catering, we hired caterers for the dinner on Friday night. We’re so glad we did! The food was lovely and our nearest and dearest were partying with us rather than scurrying around to serve the other guests. We did ask for family and friends to make pies, and did they ever come through! Most people chose to make them when Oregon’s berry season was at its zenith, freeze them, then bake the pies the day before or day of the wedding. The rest of our meals were simple: bagels, cream cheese, fruit and sliced meats with plenty of coffee were laid out for guests on Saturday morning as they came in from cabins and tents to have breakfast by a roaring fire in the lodge. Late that afternoon, our dads joined forces for a barbecue of epic proportions.

All of the wedding décor was DIY. I got to spend wonderful afternoons with my mother-in-law as we sewed napkins and table runners from vintage fabric I’ve been collecting (hoarding?) for ages. All of the flowers were grown, picked and arranged by family members and the bright pinks and oranges of late summer dahlias looked beautiful in blue glassware that my mom and I combed the local thrift stores for. My husband Cameron built our pie stand and made vases out of wood and test tubes (another nod to our shared love of science).

Vendors
Venue: Camp Lane //  Photographer: Steep Street //  Invitations: Paisley Quill

Explore: