Accommodations & Travel
If you have already seen the Itinerary page, you know our wedding vision is to start your summer off with a Northern Michigan vacation! From a beach day to a kayaking trip, these events give you a few days to explore our beautiful home with us. A part of that experience is finding you a great place to stay while you’re in town - which brings us to our second wedding vision!
One of the main reasons we chose our venue was the ability to have our guests stay onsite together. Some of Sara & Christian’s favorite wedding experiences came from multi-day events where most guests stayed at one location. We wanted to create that same experience for our guests as well. Bryan, the owner of our wedding venue, consistently tells us that his venue is not only to unite two individuals through marriage, but to unite two groups of families & friends through the art of gathering in one common space. We believe in this idea so much that it became one of the primary reasons for choosing Nature as our wedding venue.
Our hope is that you consider our venue as your primary place to stay, but we also know it won’t be for everyone. If you would like to look elsewhere, please explore the list of other options below - and decide quickly - as Northern Michigan is a very popular summer tourist destination, making accommodations expensive and hard to find the longer you wait.
Stay at our Venue
When it comes to choosing your place to stay, we hope your first choice is to stay with us at the venue in Maple City. This is where Sara & Christian will stay Thursday through Sunday, it will also be home base for the weekend’s nightly activities. Nature hosts several glamping tents that can accommodate most of the guests attending our wedding. Each of these tents has a beautiful spot in nature with easy access to the main lodge, called the Great Nest. These glamping tents are 18x20ft and contain 2 memory foam mattresses on standard-height bed frames. Bedding is provided by the venue, this includes sheets, blankets, shower towels, and pillows. Portable restrooms are not far from the tent sites, and full bathrooms with private showers are available in the Great Nest.
If you’re ready to book a tent at Nature, please let Sara or Christian know and one of us will send you a direct link to book through as it is now available! If you go to Nature’s website, please know our dates will appear blocked off as they aren’t available to the public, there are still spots left!
When glamping comes to mind, the first questions are often related to weather. Christian & Sara specifically picked the mid-June date for the lowest chance of a weather event, as opposed to late July or August. As for temperatures, see the farmer’s almanac findings from the Maple City area down below:
The past 5-year average high temperature for our wedding day is 85°F
The past 5-year mean temperature for our wedding day is 69°F
The past 5-year average low temperature for our wedding day is 52°F
Book a Motel
The Leelanau Peninsula is home to an un-incorporated lifestyle, you won’t find major hotel brands in this region, you will instead find a long list of boutique motels. The Sylvan Inn and M22 Inn Glen Arbor are both available for our guests. We have arranged a transportation option to and from these motel properties on the evening of our ceremony & reception. If you feel this single room option will be right for you, please click one of the buttons below to book directly on their site.
As Northern Michigan is a popular tourist destination, there’s an abundance of vacation rental properties in the region. For this route, we recommend the traditional Airbnb or VRBO websites, or even try our local Traverse Area Vacation Rentals group. Search in the Glen Arbor area of the Leelanau Peninsula when looking at this option, and book soon as these will disappear fast!
Campgrounds
Nearby for RV’s
If you have access to a RV, finding a nearby campground would be a great accommodation option for our wedding. There are lots to choose from, popular options include the DH Day Campground or Leelanau Pines - however, we would strongly encourage you to first look at Indigo Bluffs RV Park & Resort. This campground is the nicest option and closest to our venue at just 10 minutes away. Indigo Bluffs also has RV’s and small cottages for rent through their website.
The
Homestead
Resort
Probably the priciest option on our list, we would be remiss not to mention The Homestead Resort, with a spa, golf course, and beachfront clubhouse, as an incredible place to stay for our wedding!
Hotels in Traverse City
If the Leelanau Peninsula doesn’t have the right accommodations for you or your group, you can always check out the plethora of hotels located in Traverse City. From boutique lakeshore resorts to the large national brands like Marriott & IHG, there are plenty to choose from! If you go this direction, we recommend finding something on the west side of town as it will be the closest to our wedding venue in Maple City – expect about a 30-minute drive to our venue depending on where you end up staying.
Traveling to & within
Traverse City
If you have not yet arranged travel for our wedding, here’s a few tips for places to travel in and out of. Regardless of which option you select, we would strongly encourage you to book sooner than later. Traverse City is a top Michigan tourist destination during the summer, making it harder to find effective options the longer you wait.
We recognize our home is not the cheapest and easiest place to travel, it makes us that much more grateful and appreciative of the effort each and every one of you is making to get here!
Michigan Airports
Below is a list of three airports you can consider while flying in and out of Michigan. They’re listed in an intentional order, first being the most convenient but most expensive. Third being the most economical but farthest away, and option two somewhere in between. All three airports are serviced by the three major airlines (Delta, United, American) from multiple direct destinations. All three airports also have the major rental car companies located onsite.
1) Traverse City’s Cherry Capital Airport – located in the heart of our town, TVC is a short ride to the venue and is well serviced that time of year.
2) Grand Rapids Gerald R. Ford International Airport – GRR is a 2 hour 45 minute drive to the venue, located due south of Traverse City.
3) Detroit Metro International Airport – DTW is the largest airport in the state of Michigan offering the most flights at likely the most affordable rates, but just know it’s a 4 hour 15 minute drive to the venue.
Lyft, Uber, or Rental Cars?
We must sadly inform you that the rideshare apps have been very unreliable in our area since Covid. Once flourishing in downtown Traverse City, it’s now sparsely serviced, if at all – and they’re even more challenging to get on the Leelanau Peninsula where our wedding venue is. If you’re flying in, we would strongly recommend renting a car or finding some friends to share a rental with, it would be the most reliable way to get around.
If renting a car is a make or break for you, reach out to Sara or Christian and we will ask around to see if there’s an effective carpooling option for you (even from an airport downstate, we have people coming from everywhere!).
Ceremony & Reception Shuttle Bus
For those staying in one of our motel options – the Sylvan Inn or M22 Glen Arbor – we have arranged a transportation option to and from these motel properties on the evening of our ceremony & reception. Details on the Shuttle Bus schedule will be available as we get closer to the big day!
