How To Plan Your National Park Wedding

Deanna Sarene
Sep 2, 2021
4 min read

After having posted images from my wedding in Grand Teton National Park, I received a lot of questions. So I am here to share with you the necessary steps to have yourself a beautiful National Park wedding.

Now, the first step is to think about if this is what you really want. I will say that this negative note is not exactly how I wanted to start this off, but I do think it is vital to mention it. We decided to have our wedding within the boundaries of Grand Teton National Park. We did this with the knowledge that most people won’t be able to make it. There were a handful of people we wished could have made it, but couldn’t afford it or couldn’t swing the date. If this is something that does not bother you too much or affect your plans in any way then let’s move on. If you are expecting a certain person to be there one may want to consider talking to them directly and altering plans for their needs. But this is your day, so make sure you do what will ultimately make you happy.

The most important thing to scout out is where you plan on having your ceremony. We grew up in Florida and I always thought I was going to have a beach wedding, but with my husband not about the sand we switched things up and I knew I wanted to be mountain-side. I have always loved Wyoming since my first visit in 2013.

One of the most photographed areas in the park is a creek side spot called Schwabacher Landing. We initially picked the iconic T.A. Moulton Barn but changed it last minute. I have a few of the top wedding locations in National Parks listed below.

Once you have a location picked out you can go to the Permits and Reservations page of the National Park of your choosing. Our permit cost us $200 and we had the barn reserved for our event and just contacted the office to switch to Schwabacher Landing last minute. Since we got married in May, which is ultimately a slower time for the park, we were able to make that adjustment. Definitely take this into consideration.

I know most people have a date in mind already, but consider your location and how popular the park is going to be at that time. Most people in the visitor’s office can let you know if the location you choose will be a travel destination and when the best times would be to hold your ceremony if you ask them.

Once you have a date and location picked out I then thought about the reception. One usually can’t have chairs, tables, music, etc. brought out to a remote location especially in a National Park so make sure to think about where you would have your reception. There are a bunch of Parks that have cute towns adjacent or within them. We held our reception at a restaurant in the town of Jackson. Since the wedding ceremony was small with only 13 people the restaurant was able to accommodate that number easily and the bill with tip came out to around $500.

We found a local baker who would be able to deliver the cake to the restaurant the day of and an hour before the reception. The cake was everything that we wanted and cost us around $350.

I had bought my dress prior to the wedding and had it with me, same with my husband’s suit. What we didn’t have were flowers. I didn’t have boutonnieres, a bouquet, or arrangements for centerpieces. We found a local florist that had a sale going on at the time where we bought daisies, irises, and plumosas. We then bought ribbon, floral tape, and floral stem wire from the local grocery store and both purchases cost us around $30.

My friend who lived in Boulder (about an hour flight to Jackson) was my photographer. She flew in the day before our wedding to scout the area. I had sent her images of what I wanted and the location, she took amazing landscape photography already and I knew she could make some magic happen for our wedding photos. She charged us about $700 and had the images to us in less than a week.

During that week that we were in Jackson my parents had a cabin and they were polite enough to pay for it. There were plenty of hotels, but a cabin with family was entertaining and fun in the long run. We were happy we had a place with them where we could play games, cook food, and have a few beverages in celebration to keep the party going well after the restaurant closed.

The average cost of a wedding in the U.S. is over $28,000, in Jackson,WY the average is $15,000 and that’s on the low end. It is easy to have a dream wedding at a reasonable price. When I looked into having my wedding I realized that if I were to search “wedding florist” compared to “florist” the prices were drastically different. Be prepared to shop around and find what works best for you.