Welcome to Las Vegas Sign Wedding Photos: What to Know

Yes, you can take wedding photos at the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, and couples get married under it all day long. The sign stands in the median of Las Vegas Boulevard, it is free and open to the public at every hour of the day, and there is a small free parking lot right beside it. The part couples do not expect is how little time you get. There is almost always a line to stand in front of the sign, and Clark County publishes a thirty minute limit for photography there, so half an hour is what you get. Plan the sign as one stop in your day and plan the rest of your photos somewhere else.

I run McKenzie Stewart Weddings. I started it here in Las Vegas in 2009, and I have photographed weddings every year since 2010, more than 300 of them personally. The sign is one of the places I shoot regularly, after chapel ceremonies, in the middle of elopement days, and during proposals.

Ask your photographer about the permit before you book them. Clark County publishes a film permit process that covers still photography on the ground the sign sits on, and the county publishes no exemption for weddings. Whoever you hire should have a ready answer for how they handle it.

Where the Welcome to Las Vegas sign is, and how you get to it

The sign is at 5100 Las Vegas Boulevard South, in the median at the south end of the Strip. It is not in the city of Las Vegas. It sits in Paradise, which is unincorporated Clark County, about four miles south of the city limits. That changes which rules apply to you. Clark County writes the rules for that ground, so the City of Las Vegas photo permit information you find online does not apply to the sign at all.

Parking is free, and there is not much of it. The lot sits in the median right beside the sign. It is first come, first served, and there is nothing to reserve. In my experience, it fills up by the middle of the day. You can only turn into the lot from southbound Las Vegas Boulevard, so if you are driving north from the airport you will pass the sign, turn around at Russell Road, and come back down. There is a separate lane on the far side for buses and limousines, and tour buses use it constantly.

From the lot it is a short paved walk to the sign. Clark County added marked crosswalks with traffic signals in 2015, so someone can also drop you off and you can walk to the sign from either side of the boulevard. Even with the signal, pay attention to where you are standing. This is a narrow median with live traffic lanes on both sides of you.

How long is the line at the Las Vegas sign?

There is almost always a line, and everybody waits in the same one. Groups queue up on the walkway and take turns standing in front of the sign, and each group gets a couple of minutes.

Nobody publishes an official wait time for the sign, so here is what I see when I am out there. Early morning is the quietest stretch of the day, roughly between six and nine, and on a weekday morning you can often walk up with only a group or two ahead of you. Midday is the worst of it, with the biggest crowd and the hardest light arriving together. Evenings are busy again, because the sign is lit and everyone wants that photo. Weekends are busier than weekdays at every hour.

The wait is easier than it sounds. People are usually kind to a couple in wedding clothes and will wave you ahead of them, though I would not build your timeline on strangers being generous. And you only have to wait in line for one photo, the straight on shot with the whole sign behind you. Everything else out there can be shot while you wait your turn.

Do you need a permit for wedding photos at the Las Vegas sign?

You do not apply for anything yourself. Clark County’s rule at the sign is written for the person being paid to take the pictures, so the film permit is your photographer’s question. Your part is one question to ask before you book.

The county’s published rule is broad. Clark County’s film permit FAQ says a film permit is necessary to film any commercial photography, still photography, music video, documentary footage, motion picture or television show in unincorporated Clark County, and that there are no exemptions or exceptions from the film permit process. The sign sits in unincorporated Clark County right of way, so that is the published rule for the ground you would be standing on.

Clark County has never published whether a couple hiring a photographer for wedding portraits counts as commercial still photography. No county page mentions weddings at the sign anywhere, and there is no published exception for personal or family photos either. Nobody can settle that part for you from a website, mine included.

If you want the question settled beyond any doubt, the answer is for your photographer to pull the permit. Here is what that takes.

• It costs $45, paid online.
• The application is due at least ten days before your date.
• It requires a certificate of insurance for $1,000,000, naming Clark County and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department as additional insured.
• It requires registration with the Nevada Film Office, which is free.

None of that is yours to do. It takes a business insurance policy behind it, and it belongs to whoever you hire. So the real decision in front of you is a hiring decision. When you are booking a photographer, ask them straight out how they handle the county permit at the sign. Somebody who shoots there regularly will have an answer ready.

The size of your group changes what is required. Clark County’s FAQ says a project at the sign involving more than five people may require Metro on site, depending on scope. The same goes for anything that takes up space out there, like a crew, lighting stands set up on the walkway, or blocking the path other people are waiting in. If your plan is bigger than a small group standing and taking a turn, call Clark County’s film permit office at 702-455-3933 or email filmadministrator@ClarkCountyNV.gov and describe what you have in mind. That is the only place a definite answer comes from.

When I shoot the sign, I keep it small and quick, and I treat the county’s thirty minutes as a hard limit rather than a suggestion. If you are also planning photos out in the desert, that is a different agency and a different process, and I wrote about desert wedding permits around Las Vegas separately.

Can you get married at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign?

Yes, and couples do it constantly. Everything that makes a Nevada wedding legal is arranged before you get to the sign, so nothing has to happen on site except the ceremony itself.

You need a marriage license, which both of you pick up in person, together, at the Clark County Marriage License Bureau downtown. It costs $102. The bureau is open until midnight every day of the year, there is no waiting period and no blood test, and you walk out with the license during that same visit. It is good for a year, so you can do it the day before. My full walkthrough is in how to get a marriage license in Las Vegas.

You also need an officiant Nevada recognizes. That means someone holding a certificate of permission to perform marriages, issued by a Nevada county clerk. Who can officiate a wedding in Nevada covers who qualifies.

And you need one witness. Nevada requires one, never two. The only rule is that your witness cannot be the person performing the ceremony. If the two of you are flying in alone, you do not have to find anybody. I can be your witness on any booking I am photographing.

Clark County publishes nothing at all about wedding ceremonies at the sign. There is no county page saying a small ceremony there is allowed, and none saying it is not. The county does say that the sign is public infrastructure in the right of way, maintained by Clark County Public Works. It also says that anything affecting the normal flow of traffic on a public street needs a separate special event permit. So keep a ceremony at the sign short and small. If you are picturing guests, chairs, or anything that takes up the walkway, call the county before you plan the day around it.

The best time of day for photos at the sign

Morning is the best time, by a wide margin. The line is shortest, the light comes in low and sideways instead of straight down, and the boulevard is quiet enough that a small ceremony can actually be heard.

Midday brings the hardest light of the day and the biggest crowd, and there is no shade anywhere at the sign. In a Las Vegas summer that means standing in full sun, in wedding clothes, on hot pavement, for the whole half hour.

After dark works too, and it gives you a completely different photo. The sign is lit at night, the neon reads clearly, and the sky behind it goes dark. It is also busy, so expect to wait.

The right hour changes a lot depending on the month. Las Vegas sunsets run past 8 p.m. in late June and fall to around 4:27 p.m. in early December, and in the middle of June the sun is up by 5:24 a.m. So a five o’clock session is late afternoon light in the summer and a night session in December, and a June sunrise session means meeting before six in the morning. Look up the sunset time for your actual date before you set the hour.

What a wedding photo session at the sign is actually like

Plan on half an hour at the sign. Thirty minutes is Clark County’s published limit for filming there, start to finish, and going longer needs approval from Clark County Public Works and Metro.

You can get a lot done in half an hour if you know what you are using it for. Only one shot depends on the line, and that is the straight on photo with the whole sign behind you. Everything else is available while you are waiting your turn: the walk in from the lot, the rows of palms down the median, portraits from the side with the sign over your shoulder, and the back of the sign, which reads Drive Carefully and Come Back Soon. Almost nobody photographs that one. It is usually where I start, so that by the time your turn comes up front, the only photo left is the one that needed the line.

The median shapes what is possible out there. Depending on the angle, up to twelve power lines cross the sky behind the sign. That is why some angles are cleaner than others, and working around them is my job rather than something you need to think about. Traffic moves on both sides of you, buses and limousines pull in and out of the lane beside the lot, and wind off the boulevard does whatever it wants with a veil. Sometimes the wind makes the best photo of the day, and sometimes it is the reason to step back toward the palms and wait a minute.

Dress for the median, because it is pavement in open sun. There is no shade at the sign at all and nowhere indoors to step into. A long dress drags on the pavement, heels are hard work for half an hour of standing on it, and a veil in that wind needs a hand on it between shots. In summer you are doing all of that in full sun, so bring water and wait your turn in the car with the air on. In December you want a coat you can hand off, because the sun goes down early and it gets cold out there once it does.

You will not be the only ones out there. The sign draws vendors selling food and souvenirs, and freelance photographers who walk up to visitors and offer to take a picture for cash. Clark County banned sidewalk vending within 1,500 feet of the sign in 2023, and the county separately prohibits selling services on the public right of way, which is what charging for a walk up photo is. Metro enforced both at the sign that October. So if anyone offers you something out there, you can say no. You already have a photographer, and nobody can charge you for standing there.

Half an hour at the sign gets you a strong handful of photos, the ones everyone who sees them will recognize instantly. The rest of your day’s photos have to happen somewhere else.

How the sign fits into the rest of your wedding day

Most of my couples reach the sign as one stop inside a bigger day. The most common order is chapel first, sign after, because you are already dressed and the sign is a short drive from most chapels. The second is the sign first, then somewhere quieter for the rest of the portraits, where nobody is waiting behind you. The third is the sign at the end of the night, lit, on the way to dinner.

For that quieter part of the day, these cover the options:

• Las Vegas Strip wedding photos for the other spots along the boulevard.
• Where to elope in Las Vegas for the places out of town.
• The elopements page for how an outdoor ceremony somewhere else in the valley works.
• How much it costs to elope in Las Vegas for what a full day usually runs.

Frequently asked questions

Is it free to take wedding photos at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign?

Yes. The sign is free to visit, it is open to the public, and the parking lot in the median beside it is free too. Nobody sells tickets or time slots, and there is nothing to reserve.

Is the Welcome to Las Vegas sign open 24 hours?

Yes. The sign is publicly accessible 24 hours a day at no charge, and it is lit after dark. There is no gate, no ticket, and no closing time.

Can guests come to a ceremony at the sign?

A few can, and they will be standing in the same line as everyone else. There is nowhere to sit at the sign, no shade and no room to spread out, so guests who are not in the photos usually have a better time meeting you afterward than waiting on the median with you. Keep the group small enough that you are not blocking the walkway for everybody else.

Can you bring chairs or an arch to the sign?

Realistically, no. The sign sits on a narrow public median, and the walkway you would be setting up on is the one other people are waiting in. Anything that takes up that space or affects the flow of traffic needs a permit from the county, and it holds up everybody waiting behind you.

Can you use a tripod or bring props to the sign?

The county does not publish a list of allowed equipment, so the answer comes down to how much space the gear takes up. One person carrying a camera and a tripod they can move is a different thing from lighting stands staged on a public walkway. Lighting stands are the kind of setup the film permit process is written for. If you are planning to bring gear or props of any size, ask the county before your date rather than finding out on the median.

Let’s talk about your date

Every photo on my Welcome to Las Vegas sign page is a real couple at the sign, including a ceremony sung by an Elvis impersonator in a white jumpsuit. The whole set is there if you want to see what the place actually looks like in a photo.

A session at the sign is hourly photography. My rate is $300 an hour when you book two or more hours, or $350 for a single hour, and those prices can change. There is no travel fee anywhere in Clark County.

If you have your date and you are picturing the sign in it, email me at mckenzie@msweddingimage.com or reach out through my contact page and tell me what else is in your day. I will tell you honestly how the sign fits around your chapel time, your dinner reservation, or your flight home, and what the thirty minutes out there will actually get you.