How to Have an Amazing Wedding Without a Venue
We posted this blog two years ago and it’s remained one of our most popular blog topics! Since we’ve been shooting weddings in National Parks and public land a lot longer now, we’ve got a bunch of new info and inspiration to add!
Getting Married without a Traditional Venue
Many of the weddings that we're part of don't happen at normal venues. Oftentimes we're photographing couples getting married in National Parks, on public lands, at vacation rentals, and in their friend's backyards. You don't have to have a wedding at a stuffy venue to have an inspiring wedding day, and in fact, I think the more stunning places tend to be the ones that are a bit less traditional.
If you decide to forego the traditional venue, it can make things a bit more complex, but these moving pieces allow you to be more creative and have more freedom with how you spend your wedding day (and your money). We spend so much time scouring the internet, looking at google satellite view, reading wedding blogs, searching Instagram hashtags, and scouting locations for our couples' weddings and elopements, and we absolutely love these unique places we find. While venues are great for their convenience and efficiency, I believe weddings can be so special when you find a location that's unique to your story.
Weddings on public lands work especially well when guest counts are lower, like for intimate weddings and elopements. One of the biggest priorities in our work is to make sure we are always taking care of the environment we are in (I’ll talk about Leave No Trace later on this blog). Part of this means making sure that the landscape can accommodate the types of activities we may be doing, and especially the group size. It’s never a good idea to have a large group of people walking around on a fragile mountain meadow, because it can take years for a meadow like that to recover after being trampled down. We always want to be aware of the footprint we may make, so when group sizes are larger, we recommend celebrating at established campgrounds, national park amphitheaters, or private property that is able to accommodate large groups of people.
When we were planning our intimate wedding in Big Sur, I contacted several private venues only to find out they were booked out for the next three years, or their accommodations were really more than what we would need for our small group of 20 people. It felt a bit like overkill to rent out a venue that normally accommodates 100-200 people. I wanted something unique, intimate, a real experience for us and our guests, and I had to get creative for it to fit my budget at the time.
As we searched and scoured, I found this one beach about an hour south of the main Big Sur area and realized it was part of a network of public lands that made up the Los Padres National Forest. It was perfect. It had parking and bathrooms, a stunning trail to a cliffside and another one down to a large, rocky beach. When we visited, it was much less crowded than the famous Big Sur beaches. All we had to do was pay a day-use fee for the cars we parked there and our small group of family and friends basically had one corner of the beach to ourselves. It was intimate and wild, free of schedules and rules. We spent the evening running on the beach with my nephews, picnicking a lovely catered meal, and passing a guitar around while we watched the sun go down over the Pacific Ocean.
We've helped lots of our couples brainstorm ideas for their weddings in less-than-traditional places, and I wanted to offer a few things we’ve learned over the years to anyone interested in planning something similar.
National Park Weddings
Getting married in a national park is one of the easiest and most beautiful ways of having a wedding in a non-traditional place. Most parks require a small fee of usually less than $200 to reserve a permit for the site you want to get married in, and that's basically it. Each park varies in terms of where you can get married, what the rules are, how many guests you can have, and most parks have all this information available on their website which makes it easy to plan!
There are a few benefits to getting married in a national park.
1. You get to give your guests a unique experience in a beautiful place. When one of our couples got married in Zion National Park, they decided to have a morning wedding to allow their guests to spend the rest of the day hiking around the park. It's like giving your friends and family an excuse to get outside and explore somewhere new and inspiring.
2. You have endless opportunities for photos. As a photographer, I love shooting in national parks because we get access to some of the most beautiful locations for photos. Megan & Brandon's wedding at Rocky Mountain National Park allowed us to go after the ceremony up to a spot above treeline and take some photos in an area overlooking the gorgeous valley below.
3. By having your wedding in a national park, you're helping support the National Park System. Permit fees & admission into the parks are what support the preservation of these beautiful places and helps further education about our outdoor spaces!
Most Popular National Parks for a Wedding
Here are a few of the more popular parks in the U.S. to get married in, as well as their permit costs and processes:
Yosemite National Park
$150 permit cost
Submit an application and money order by mail to their permit office up to one year and at least 21 days in advance of your date. Specify which of their approved wedding locations you prefer and any backup options in case your preferred location is already booked.
Rocky Mountain National Park
$250 permit cost
Submit an application by email to their permit office up to one year and at least 7 days in advance of your wedding. Weddings must be 100 people or less (including couple, wedding party, and any vendors). Due to the nature of the fragile environment, most sites accommodate less than 20 people. Once permit is approved, mail $250 check to the permit office.
Grand Canyon National Park
$240 Special Use Permit fee for most sites, $500 for Shoshone Point
Submit an application by email up to one year and at least 4 weeks in advance of your wedding. Check their online calendar to see which sites are available. Specify your preferred location as well as a backup in case it is booked. There are multiple wedding locations along the South Rim which is open year round, and there are a few on the North Rim which is open seasonally.
Zion National Park
$100 special use permit fee
Submit an application and payment online for the site you prefer. Due to the fragile nature of the desert environment, weddings must be 100 people or fewer and most sites require less than 50 people.
Joshua Tree National Park
$120 Permit fee for wedding. Any vendors such as photographers or caterers are also required to have a separate permit in addition to the couple’s wedding permit.
Submit an application by email. Once it is approved, information will be sent on how to submit payment online.
We have a full page of info about how to get married in Joshua Tree, click here for that!
And if you need more inspiration, here are a few weddings we’ve photographed in national parks:
NATIONAL FOREST/BLM WEDDINGS
The difference between National Parks and National Forests is that parks are more regulated, you pay entrance fees, and they are more developed with established campgrounds, visitors centers, and rangers. National Forests can be just as beautiful as National Parks, but there are fewer regulations (and fewer accommodations). They may not be as developed, but there tend to be fewer crowds. Often times they have easily accessible areas around lakes and in meadows, they have large group campgrounds and sometimes amphitheaters. To get an idea of where National Forests are located, when you open google maps, they are the large sections of green, usually around mountain ranges. If you live in Colorado or California, you know that much of your state is National Forest land.
Other examples of public lands that you could have your wedding on would be National Monuments, State Parks, and BLM (Bureau of Land Management). Each of these has different rules and restrictions, but some quick googling can usually answer any questions about the process for getting married there.
Danielle & Cody’s wedding at Sapphire Point in the Arapahoe Roosevelt National Forest near Breckenridge Colorado was a perfect example of the freedom you have when you choose to get married somewhere less than traditional. They got a permit to reserve their ceremony site at the site overlooking Lake Dillon, then we hiked around and took photos in a few places before going back to their cabin for an intimate dinner with the family.
If you're having your ceremony in a National Forest, consider having your reception at a restaurant or venue in town or have a food truck come out to a campground. You can have a picnic with everyone by a lake, or contact a rental company about having chairs and tables delivered. We also know a few amazing elopement planners who can set up a romantic dinner in the wilderness for you and your guests!
Here are a few weddings we’ve shot in National Forests/BLM Land:
BACKYARD WEDDINGS
Several of the weddings we've been part of have been at people's houses, at vacation rentals, and sometimes Airbnb's. Typically this is better for smaller weddings & elopements, but we did have one larger wedding that had their reception in the backyard of their vacation rental in Breckenridge, Colorado. If you're having a smaller wedding and you want all of the amenities (umm...bathrooms...), consider looking into vacation rental houses. Talk with the host to see if they allow events/parties and if there are extra fees for it. And check out this list of the most amazing Airbnb's in each state.
This can be especially fun for elopements. This way you can make your elopement into your honeymoon too and you don't even have to go anywhere. Brandon & Katie got married at an amazing off-grid vacation rental only accessible by suspension bridge. It was stunning.
Here are a few backyard weddings we’ve been part of!
Leave No Trace for Outdoor Weddings
One thing that is extremely important to prioritize when planning a wedding in a National Park or Forest is Leave No Trace, or basically, leaving a place better than you found it. A couple of years ago, Rocky Mountain National Park changed its policy toward weddings in the park and they no longer allow ceremonies in wilderness areas, most likely due to people not following Leave No Trace principles. If you're having your wedding in a national park or forest, educate your guests about Leave No Trace and make it part of the activity of your day to pick up any trash you see along the way, and designate some friends or hire someone to stay and clean up afterwards.
Planning a Wedding on Public Land
Our work is built on real moments in inspiring outdoor locations. We believe that saying your vows in a place that makes you feel small establishes the importance of the commitment you're making with your partner. We want to support for your story, and if that means hiking to the place you first backpacked together, taking your family to your favorite view in California, or renting a house where you and your guests can spend the weekend together, we want you to know it is totally possible and we want to help you make it happen. Beyond just the photos, Nate and I are your cheerleaders, stoke inducers, landscape researchers, and adventure planners. If there’s something you need help figuring out, we are happy to be there. And if we can’t solve it ourselves, we’ll point you to someone who can.
If you’re planning something larger than an elopement (more than about 10 people), it’s important to keep in mind what accommodations you’ll need, and we highly recommend working with a wedding planner for that. While we can help give some guidance, most of our experience is with small weddings and elopements. Wedding planners are amazing and can help you get creative about locations for your wedding, as well as assist with setup and clean up, securing rentals (such as tables and chairs, bathrooms, trash cans). We have a few amazing planners to recommend, who specialize in exactly this kind of nontraditional wedding. Reach out!
We've helped many couples brainstorm ideas for their elopements and have tons of tips to offer. We've become experts at finding secluded locations even in places we've never been. If you're interested in working with us, we would love to help you find an amazing location to tell your story. Let's grab a drink and swap adventure stories.
To see our list of our favorite deserts to get married in, click here!
Cedar & Pines is an adventure wedding photography duo made up of Nate and Megan Kantor, a married couple based in the mountains of Colorado. They believe in honest wedding photography, capturing the small candid moments to the epic landscape views. They love photographing intimate weddings and adventure elopements from the mountains of Colorado to destination weddings in California, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Washington and the ends of the earth.
