Las Vegas Temple Wedding Photography: How the Day Works

Nothing is photographed inside the Las Vegas Nevada Temple. That’s true for everybody, guests included, so there are no pictures of the sealing itself. Everything you’ll have from your wedding day happens outside on the grounds, starting the moment the doors open and you walk out. Plan on about an hour out there if you want the exit and pictures of just the two of you, and closer to two hours if you also want family groups and the wedding party.

I’m McKenzie. I started this business in Las Vegas in 2009 and I’ve photographed weddings every year since 2010, more than 300 of them myself, and two of those were on these temple grounds. A sealing day is put together differently from every other wedding I photograph, so here’s how the photography part of the day works.

What can and cannot be photographed at the temple

Photographs aren’t permitted inside the temple, and wedding photos are taken elsewhere on the grounds. That’s the Church’s own wedding planning guidance, and it covers your uncle with his phone the same way it covers me.

So there’s nothing from the sealing room and nothing from inside the doors. Here’s what you do get:

• your family and friends outside while they’re waiting for you
• the doors opening, and their faces as you come out
• portraits of the two of you all over the property
• family groupings on the lawn, and the wedding party
• the bride on her own, the groom on his own, the rings and the bouquet
• everything later at the luncheon and the reception

Couples ask me whether that adds up to a thin gallery. It doesn’t. There’s a lot of variety on these grounds, the palms and the plaza and the lawns and the building itself, so an hour out there gives you a set of photos that doesn’t look repetitive.

Do you need to arrange photography with the temple?

This isn’t something the Church publishes guidance on for couples, so the practical details come from your photographer and from the temple itself.

When you schedule your sealing, ask the temple whether there’s anything they’d like you to know about photographs on the grounds that day. It’s a courtesy, not a permit, and it takes one phone call. The temple’s number is on the Church’s page for the Las Vegas Nevada Temple, which also carries the current schedule and closure dates.

Ask them one more thing while you have them on the phone: where the sealing party will come out. I can’t answer that from here and neither can any website. Temples don’t all use the same exit and a temple can change which one it uses, so the door is something you find out for the day rather than something you look up. Finding that out is the first thing I do for a temple wedding, and it’s a good reason to hire somebody who has photographed this building before.

When should your photographer arrive?

The usual guidance for photographers is to be at the doors somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes after the scheduled sealing start time, and I plan for the early end of that. My aim is to be on the grounds and set up about 30 minutes in, which is buffer rather than a hard number I’m betting on. Doors can open sooner than families expect, and I’d rather stand around outside a while than walk up while your doors are opening.

Most couples come out later than that. The sealing itself is short, usually about twenty to thirty minutes, and then you’re inside with the family who were there with you before anybody starts moving toward the doors. That’s why the wait outside runs longer than the ceremony does. Photographers who shoot temple weddings put the sealing itself at anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour, depending on the temple and the sealer, and the walk to the doors comes after that.

So the number I need from you is the scheduled sealing start time. I’ll work out the rest of the timing from there.

Here’s how a 10 a.m. sealing usually goes. Your times will shift, because the exit is a range rather than a set moment.

• 10:00 a.m. Sealing begins.
• 10:30 a.m. I’m on the grounds and set up. Family gathers near the doors.
• 10:45 to 11:00 a.m. You come out. The exit, the hugs, and photos with immediate family right there at the doors.
• 11:00 to 11:30 a.m. Family groupings on the lawn, working from a written list.
• 11:30 to 11:50 a.m. Wedding party.
• 11:50 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. Just the two of you, on the walkways, the plaza and the lawn.
• 12:20 p.m. Everyone leaves for the luncheon.

That’s two hours and twenty minutes counted from your sealing time, and that’s the version where you want all of it: the exit, the family groups, the wedding party and the portraits. If you only want the exit and pictures of the two of you, an hour and a half from your sealing time is plenty. If you’d rather have the portraits done before the sealing, a first look on the grounds moves most of that time earlier in the morning. Then you come out of the doors and go straight to your family instead of leaving them to wait through a portrait session.

The exit, and the people waiting outside for it

Some of the people who love you most will be standing outside while you’re being sealed, and they’ll be out there a while. That waiting is worth photographing, and it’s where I start. I photograph the grandparents finding somewhere to sit, the kids running on the grass in clothes they were told not to ruin, and whoever is watching the door for the first sign of you. Those are some of my favorite pictures from a temple morning, and they happen before either of you is outside.

Then the doors open and you come out married, into two lines of people who’ve been waiting for you. They cheer, somebody cries, and the whole thing is over in a few seconds. It’s the one picture that has the two of you, the temple, and everybody who came in it at the same time, and nobody has to pose for it. The exit only happens once, which is why I’m set up and watching the door before it opens.

There’s no visitors’ center at the Las Vegas Nevada Temple, so everyone waiting is outdoors for all of it. Two things make that easier. Send somebody out with water, and pick a shaded place for people to wait instead of the open pavement, especially if anyone is going to be standing a long time.

The family photos afterward go faster if you write the groupings down ahead of time and put one person in charge of the list. Pick an aunt or a brother who knows everybody by name and doesn’t mind being loud, hand them the list, and they can have the next group ready while I finish the one in front of me. I wrote out a wedding family photo list you can copy tonight, with the groupings already in shooting order.

Where the photos happen, and where your family should stand

I use five places on this property, and each one is good for something different.

The doorway. The exit happens here, and so do the first hugs and the immediate family photos. This is where everyone waiting should be gathered by the time I get there.

The paved walkways under the date palms. Between the palms and the older trees along the path, these are the shadiest spots I use on the property. Portraits go here on a hot morning, and it’s where I’d send anybody who’s waiting and needs to get out of the sun.

The round paver plaza in the trees. It sits off to the side, away from the main walkways, so it stays quiet. This is where I photograph the bride on her own, and the slower pictures of the two of you with nobody watching.

The lawns beside the building. There’s room here for a big group to spread out, so the family groupings go on the grass.

The wide lawn where the whole temple fits behind you. From here you get the white stone building, its spires and the gold statue on top, behind the two of you. It’s the photo that shows where you got married, and it’s the first one I make sure of.

Those spots sit on different sides of the building rather than clustered in one corner, so a good part of your time out there is spent walking between them. That’s most of what makes two hours go by as fast as it does.

The grounds are open to the public for self guided walking, and Saturdays are busier than weekdays, so you’ll be sharing the property. That has never caused a problem in a photo. It’s a big place, the good spots are far apart, and usually it just means waiting a minute for somebody to walk out of the background.

Summer changes how I use those five spots. Normal highs here are around 104 degrees in July, with June and August close behind. Late in the morning the sun comes down almost straight overhead. Overhead light puts hard shadows under everyone’s eyes, and it makes a white dress very bright next to a dark suit. On a morning like that, the slower portraits go under the palms, and I keep the open lawn to a few quick minutes.

If it rains, or if the sealing runs long

If the weather turns

There’s nowhere on the grounds I’d count on for cover, so a rainy or windy morning gets handled by shortening the time outside instead of waiting it out. The exit still happens at the doors and we still get through the family groups. Then the portraits of the two of you move somewhere with cover at your reception venue, or to a different day.

Moving the portraits to a different day is a real option, and it’s also worth thinking about if your sealing time falls in the brightest part of the day. I photograph bridal portraits before and after wedding days all the time, at my usual hourly rate, either as a session on its own or as extra hours added to your booking. Some couples do it the day after, still in the dress. If you’d want that session on the temple grounds, ask about it on the same call you make to the temple about photographs.

If the sealing runs long

Count your booked hours from the sealing start time rather than from when you think you’ll be outside. If you book three hours starting at 10:00 and you come out at 11:30 instead of 10:45, a large piece of your coverage is gone before the first photo. Tell me your sealing time when we talk and I’ll tell you honestly whether the hours you’re considering cover your day.

The ring ceremony, the reception and the drive

The two events that usually follow the sealing, the ring ceremony and the reception, both happen away from the temple.

A ring ceremony is a short gathering where you exchange rings in front of the family and friends who couldn’t be inside, and it’s held off temple grounds, usually right before the reception. Some couples exchange rings inside the sealing room instead, and some do both. Tell me which of those you’re planning, because each one is a photographed moment and needs its own place in the schedule.

The reception is elsewhere too. Temples don’t host luncheons or receptions, so the day runs from the temple to a luncheon to a reception, often at a ward building or a hall, and the luncheon in between commonly takes an hour and a half to two hours. The temple is at 827 Temple View Drive on the east side of the valley, below Frenchman Mountain. The drive from there to your luncheon, and then to your reception, is time I’m working but not photographing, so it belongs in the schedule. Send me both addresses and I’ll build the driving time into your timeline.

You’ll also need a Clark County marriage license, and I’ve written out the whole process.

How many hours should you book?

A temple wedding usually lands somewhere between three hours and a full day of coverage, and it’s the reception that decides which one, not the temple.

Three hours covers the grounds properly, with enough left for the drive and the start of the luncheon. Add the reception, with the toasts and the cake and the dancing, and you’re at six hours or more. Coverage usually starts at your sealing time, because most temple mornings don’t have anything to photograph before the doors open. If your morning does have something, like a first look on the grounds or your family gathering somewhere before the sealing, tell me and I’ll put those hours on the front instead.

My rate is $300 per hour when you book two or more hours, and every rate is on my pricing page. There’s a longer piece here on how many hours of wedding photography you need in Las Vegas if you want to work your own day out.

Something else matters on a day where the photos happen in one narrow window. I’m the photographer at every wedding I book, so nobody gets sent in my place. The person whose photos you’re looking at is the one who’ll be standing outside those doors.

If you have a sealing date at the Las Vegas Nevada Temple

I’d love to hear about it. Email me at mckenzie@msweddingimage.com or send me a message, and tell me your date, your sealing time and where the reception is. I’ll help you think the timeline through, whether or not you end up hiring me. Once your sealing is scheduled, I can hold the date for you.

You can see the full set of photos from the two weddings I’ve photographed there on my Las Vegas Temple wedding page.