Walnut Woods State Park — Attraction in West Des Moines

We had booked our wedding for 2024 in August of 2023. We met with a nice newer employee for the parks and he explained, no amplified sound but gave the impression "just keep it on the down low and keep quiet". No problem, we weren't going to have a rager, but normal dance music for the reception. Finally it's 2024 and we went out for another tour to take measurements of tables, fireplace mantels etc. Met with a different employee seemed to be head of the DNR, and made it absolutely sound that there is to be NO AMPLIFIED SOUND. Hey, it's in the rules document you agreed to when you sign the rental agreement, but like I said we got the impression that if you contain it, "you're all good". So it's now February, we just sent out all of our invites with WALNUT WOODS STATE PARK on it, and we are just now finding out our impression was completely incorrect. The employee we met with in February also made comments such as "If we never had another wedding here again, I'd be fine with that", "Everyone wants to be the exception, I've shut down weddings, I'll do it again". There was even a couple touring the venue after us with a small bluetooth speaker to show him and they couldn't it pull it out fully before he said no.

Honestly sounds like there was a lot of bad eggs that ruined the wedding experience for everyone, the main problem interfering with campers. Once again, I quote, "These people didn't sign up to be at your wedding, they signed up to be immersed in nature". Fair I suppose but I didn't know a small bluetooth speaker could cause such a reaction. Also I offered to buy out all the campsites or at the very least the ones closest to us, that was a firm no.

Long story short- unless you're having a VERY small wedding, and plan on no music besides "a violinist, or an acoustic guitar" DO NOT BOOK A WEDDING HERE. I would highly recommend they change their verbiage on their website explaining WHAT type of weddings they cater to, because it doesn't cater to the mass majority that want to have any sort of speaker/sound system, or a microphone. The two stars is because it is a gorgeous little site, & the pricing is wonderful, too bad we couldn't have made great...

Our friends came with us a group of 6 campers. Their site #14 had issues with their electricity they plugged into the next site for one night finally after almost 24 hours someone came to look at their electricity. They said it couldn’t be fixed without digging this up and a part is in Nebraska. No other spots available thru sunday. This is BS .. whoever was in the spot before them had to have trouble to. This park the full hookup spots are $38 and just electric is 28$ a night.we have been coming here for 5 years now as a group 3 of the 6 of us has had electricity problems. With this amount of money per night things should be ran better than this. As you enter the campground a big hole with water standing especially after rains. 1 load of gravel would help this tremendously it’s has been this way every time we come. Each time we are afraid to bottom out your camper or vehicle. This is RIDICULOUS. And no showers. Fix your campground. We really like the full hookup spots They are concrete and level. But having our friends have to go home is horrible. It was his birthday celebration also. This is ridiculous for a state park to be ran like this. They are able to fix another site as we speak. We will think twice about reserving here again. It is close to home and we have enjoyed coming here. BUT NO LONGER. of course this was the week that the heat index was over 100 and...

We booked the lodge for a day for our small wedding. It was an awesome venue!

The building is awesome, everyone of ourguests commented on what a cool place it was. The air conditioning worked fantastically, even though it was over 90 degrees and humid all day.

The prices to rent it for the day were very reasonable, and they were very accommodating. We missed the email that told us we needed to submit a security deposit a week in advance, but they were very understanding and let us bring a money order with us the morning of our wedding!

There's quite a lot of rules to follow when using the building, but nothing that stopped us from having an amazing wedding with almost fifty guests, and we didn't even need to use the outdoor seating area.

There's also a full kitchen and 2 bathrooms, plenty of cleaning supplies, and a bunch of awesome solid wood tables and chairs. And the playground is just outside across the street to keep kids entertained!

If you need a unique venue for up to fifty people, I would definitely recommend checking this place out.

Both of us being from Iowa, the historical significance of the building was great as well! We learned the history of it from the park ranger - the building being built in the early 1900s, the fact that it was made from all native lumber - very cool stuff! Even though it's old, it's been modernized quite a bit so it's comfortable...