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Stave Chapel at Green Lake Bible Camp is a sought-after wedding venue
Stave Chapel at Green Lake Bible Camp is a sought-after wedding venue
BY CAROLYN LANGE | WEST CENTRAL TRIBUNE
Kirsten Palen and Jake Schwinghammer met in the summer of 2016 when they both worked as camp counselors at the Green Lake Bible Camp in Spicer.
There, they sang and prayed with campers in the Stave Chapel — a striking structure on a tree-lined hill built in 1940 in the style of an old Norwegian church — that is the focal place of worship at the Lutheran camp.
Four years later, during the pandemic, the couple was married in the chapel.
“It’s where we became friends and fell in love,” said Palen.
“We loved the space so much and the many memories we have there together,” said Palen, who now works as the marketing and development director at Green Lake Bible Camp. They didn’t consider any other wedding venue.
Nate and Chelsey Crary have a similar story.
They met while working at Green Lake Lutheran Ministries about a decade ago and were married in the Stave Chapel in 2012.
Knowing that the chapel is a popular wedding venue and booked well into the future, as soon as they were engaged at Christmastime they called the camp to find out which — if any — dates were open for the next summer.
Stave Chapel at Green Lake Bible Camp in Spicer.
Erica Dischino / West Central Tribune
“It happened there were still two weekends available, so that’s how we picked our date,” said Nate.
By taking advantage of the chapel’s unique design, Nate said he and his wife kept their wedding decorations minimal.
“It’s such a beautiful setting with the stained glass and natural wood,” he said. “There’s just a built-in beauty.”
Getting married in the chapel brought their relationship “full circle,” he said.
History of the Stave Chapel
The Stave Chapel is the “heart” of the Green Lake Bible Camp, said Travis Aufderheide, executive director of Green Lake Lutheran Ministries.
So it makes sense that it captures the heart of so many people in love, who want to begin their marriage there.
“It works incredibly well as a wedding venue and to be part of people’s special day is exciting,” said Aufderheide, adding that about one out of every three or four weddings held in the chapel involve people with a strong history at the camp.
It’s not known when the chapel was first used as a wedding venue, but Aufderheide said it was likely shortly after it was built in 1940, when the camp was just starting.
The iconic blueprint of the chapel was based on a design supposedly “scratched out on the back of a napkin” in a local coffee shop by P.O. “Peter” Nasvik, a St. Paul designer, according to Aufderheide.
According to a collection of histories about American Lutheran church camps compiled by Ralph Yernberg, Nasvik went to Norway in 1930 and took photos of a traditional stave church in Bergen and copied the floor plan and unique details of the building.
With flowers and fountains as a backdrop, Kirsten Palen and Jake Schwinghammer were married in the Stave Church at the Green Lake Bible Camp in Spicer, where the two met while working as counselors.
Photo courtesy of Kirsten Palen and Jake Schwinghammer
The Stave Chapel at Green Lake Bible Camp in Spicer can accommodate 250 people.
Erica Dischino / West Central Tribune
The Stave Chapel was designed and built in 1940 by Peter Nasvik, modeled after the traditional Norwegian Stave churches.
He then waited for “the opportunity to erect the chapel of his dreams in the proper setting.”
That opportunity came shortly after the Green Lake Bible Camp was organized in 1938 and the board of directors decided to build a worship space to augment the outdoor ministry.
They hired Nasvik, whose family continues to be involved with the Stave Chapel, including a 1995 project to move it 40 feet up a hill and make renovations such as adding gardens and water features.
The changes and the continued maintenance of the Stave Chapel is meant to honor the “designer’s eye,” said Aufderheide.
During the summer days, the chapel is filled with a couple hundred kids singing, laughing and worshipping together, said Aufderheide, who confesses he has a hard time visualizing the chapel without someone playing a guitar to lead a round of camp songs.
He said wedding couples bring their own character to the chapel and “make it their own” as they celebrate the “most cherished” moments of their lives.
Pandemic wedding
Kirsten and Jake got engaged in January of 2019 and started planning their wedding for 2020.
The original plan was for a guest list of 250 people, which is the seating capacity of the Stave Chapel. “We knew right away we wanted to use the chapel,” she said.
“We appreciated the memories that we had there ... and it’s beautiful in such a unique way that it fit our personalities,” she said. “There aren’t many other spaces that are similar. So that was really special for us too.”
They planned to have their reception at the Prairie Woods Environmental Learning Center in rural Spicer.
But COVID-19 hit and the couple moved to plan A and then plan B.
“And then we were on plan G and H,” she said, and they started scaling back the guest list based on ever-changing health guidelines.
Nate Crary and his wife, Chelsey, met while working as counselors at the Green Lake Bible Camp in Spicer. They were married in the camp’s Stave Chapel in 2012.
Photo courtesy of Nate and Chelsey Crary
The Stave Chapel was designed and built in 1940 by Peter Nasvik, modeled after the traditional Norwegian Stave churches.
Erica Dischino / West Central Tribune
“We didn’t want to be a wedding where an outbreak happened,” said Kirsten.
They had considered postponing the wedding but decided they had been engaged long enough and “we just wanted to get married.”
In the end, they determined they could have about 30 people in the chapel on their wedding day, Sept. 26, 2020.
They sent letters “un-inviting” guests and asked them to participate in different ways, like watching the ceremony via a livestream or doing something fun on the wedding day and taking photos to send to the couple. “It was nice to know people were still thinking of us,” she said.
The day was perfect, she said. “It was really special.”
She had heard others say their own weddings went by so fast and they didn’t get to talk to everyone, but because of their small crowd “we remember everything” because they had time to spend with everyone.
“It was perfect for us,” she said.
Booked up
While the Stave Chapel is a popular wedding venue for former Green Lake Bible Camp campers and staff, the unique architecture of the interior and the flowers, fountains and stones in the outdoor gardens also make it a sought-after venue by those without a personal connection to the camp.
The chapel is heated and airconditioned but is typically closed from January until the end of April, according to Steph Holme, who handles the registrations for renting the chapel for weddings.
In an average year, there are about 20 weddings held in the Stave Chapel.
By mid-July of 2021, there were 11 weddings booked for 2022 and one is already scheduled for 2023.
Holme said she receives calls a year or two in advance from people asking what dates are available.
She’s noticed a shift in the toprequested months.
In the past, June and July were sought after, but now September and October are the more popular months, she said.
The Green Lake Lutheran Ministries also has a quaint, little white church at their other site, the Shores of Lake Andrew Bible Camp near New London, that is available as a wedding venue from May through September.
The Marble Church at Shores of Lake Andrew was donated and moved to the camp in 2004 from its original location in Canby.
Holme said each year three to four weddings are typically held at the Marble Church at Shores of Lake Andrew, which has seating for 120 people.
Both facilities have a Rondo organ, Yamaha grand piano and sound system available.
For more information about booking either the Stave Chapel at the Green Lake Bible Camp in Spicer or the Marble Church at Shores of Lake Andrew in rural New London, call Green Lake Lutheran Ministries at 320-796-2181. An online form is also available on the camp’s website, www.gllm.org.
