LDS Temple Wedding Day Walk-through

In Utah, temple weddings are as common, if not more common, than traditional wedding ceremonies. Temples don’t allow wedding photographers to photograph anything that happens inside the temple, so all of the pictures have to take place after the ceremony. All LDS wedding photographers have different processes, so here is a walk-through of what to expect from us on your wedding day at an LDS temple.

1. The Temple Exit

The exit for our brides and grooms getting married in temples is the equivalent to the first kiss at the alter for our couples that have traditional wedding ceremonies. Sealing ceremonies usually take at least 40 minutes, but we will arrive at the temple just after your sealing time so that we can get pictures of the temple grounds and candid pictures of guests outside.

When it is time for our bride and groom to exit the temple, we will give them the go ahead signal and capture the pictures from their exit as their family cheers them on! After taking some candid shots, we’ll get pictures of our bride and groom greeting their friends and family members. Here’s a blog from a past temple wedding.

2. The Group Portraits

After the exit, we will walk to our group portrait location, which varies temple to temple. Some temples are busier than others and some days of the week are busier than others for weddings and crowds. Occasionally, we might have to wait our turn to use an area, while another wedding party finishes up. Once we get settled we will take a formal picture of the whole group and also a fun group picture. While Jessie is taking the main image, Dallin is always off to the side capturing different angles. Sometimes the pictures that Dallin gets of different angles end up being our couple’s favorites!

3. Individual Family Portraits

After finishing with the large group pictures, we’ll break it down and get individual family pictures, sibling pictures and pictures of our bride and groom with their parents and grandparen

ts. Since there are two of us, Dallin works on getting smaller group pictures and individual head-shots of family members while Jessie takes the main pictures.

4. Bridal Party

The last group pictures that we take at the temple are the pictures with the bridal party. We’ll do a few different pictures of the groomsmen, bridesmaids, and both sets together. We love meeting the members of our couple’s bridal parties because they are some of the most important people in our couple’s lives and they are equally as awesome!

5. Bride and Groom Portraits

In our opinion these are the most important pictures from the wedding day. These are the first individual pictures of our couples as husband and wife. It’s also a nice break for our bride and groom from all the stress and hustle and bustle. We like to go around to different spots on temple grounds for about an hour to capture some of our couple’s joy from their wedding day.

As LDS wedding photographers we love capturing all of the excitement and joy from our couple’s wedding day. We love getting to know the people at the heart of the wedding planning, the people that mean the most to our bride and groom. Years from now, our greatest hope is that our couples will share the details and the moments from their big day with their kids, families or friends. It’s the timeless memories and stories that make photographs lasting.