Wedding Vendors for Yosemite National Park

A special use permit is required for any wedding or commitment ceremony held at any location within Yosemite National Park. The permit cost is $150 (if event monitoring is required, you will be charged an additional $50 per hour).

Weddings or ceremonies may be scheduled up to one year in advance and more than 21 days prior to your event. You can find out more info about Weddings and Commitment Ceremonies in Yosemite National Park here.

If you are eloping, locations are nearly endless. If you have ten people or fewer, you can elope anywhere the public is allowed without having restrictions imposed on larger groups. But if you are having an intimate or bigger wedding with more than ten people, HERE are the locations available to you. We have also put together a Yosemite Location Page so that you can start to visualize your special day. We are experts in Yosemite locations. Whether we will be photographing you in the Valley, or in the High Country; we have years of knowledge of the park. We love getting couples out to private, intimate locations. Keep in mind not all locations are available all year around such as Tuolumne Meadows and Glacier and Taft Point which are only available from late spring until mid-fall.

Yosemite experiences different seasons, and each season has its own unique beauty. We can help you plan for the season and make sure you have everything you need to stay comfortable and safe. Shoes are one of the most important aspects of being comfortable at your wedding. Wear footwear that you feel comfortable hiking and moving around in. Having good rubber for your shoes will help immensely on granite surfaces. The mountains can be chilly even in summer months, especially in locations above 4,000 feet. We recommend considering wearing thermal layers underneath your outfits depending on the season and the time of day. This is important, especially for early mornings and star photography, which no matter the time of year can be chilly to outright cold at night.

Comfortable shoes

Thermal Layers

Puffy Jacket

Headlamp

Water bottle

Snacks

Bobby pins and hairspray for re-touches

Hand warmers

Chapstick

Bug Spray

Toilet paper and plastic bag (pack it in, pack it out)

Fresno airport is the nearest airport to Yosemite Valley, but San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, and Sacramento are also viable options. If you’re booking your session for Tuolumne Meadows or the Tioga Pass area, consider flying into Reno and staying in the Eastern Sierra in Lee Vining, June Lake, or Mammoth Lakes. We suggest as soon as you book your flight, to reserve a rental car. They can go really fast.

There are three year-round routes to get into Yosemite Valley:

- Highway 41 from Fresno and Oakhurst. It is a very curvy road with hairpin turns so if you prefer to avoid that highway, we suggest choosing an alternative route.

- Highway 120 from San Francisco and Groveland

- Highway 140 from Merced and Mariposa

All three routes are open all year with the exception of road closures due to rock slides or icy conditions. Highway 140 is the safest route during the winter as it does not experience such severe weather. We suggest keeping a watch on road conditions so that you can choose the route safest for you.

For an update on road conditions, please call the National Park Service at 209-372-0200. During the winter months, snow chains are required by law to be in your car at all times. If you're renting a vehicle and need to buy chains, go to the closest auto part store and plan on returning the chains if they're unused and you can.

There are many lodging options in Yosemite Valley and the surrounding vicinity ranging from elegant and expensive such as The Ahwahnee Hotel or cozy and quaint such as the Yosemite Valley Lodge. There are also vacation rental houses in Yosemite West, Wawona, and Foresta.

If you are planning on staying outside the park, the Yosemite View Lodge in El Portal, Rush Creek Lodge, Evergreen Lodge, and Tenaya Lodge are great options as well. We highly suggest to let us know where you are planning on staying.

Some of the lodging options outside the park may not look far on a map but can take up to several hours to get to some locations. We are here to help and give advice to you so that you can maximize your time in Yosemite and spend less time driving. Distance from the park is crucial in deciding your lodging.

Yosemite National Park is one of the most popular national parks. From May-October the park can be very busy. If you are planning on staying outside the park, we highly suggest giving yourself plenty of time to get into the park or getting up and into the park very early each morning. The lines to get into the park can be very long and sometimes can take hours to get through from 10 am-2 pm. Also, it's not if but when you get stuck behind a large RV that doesn't quite understand the purpose of pullouts, it can be very slow driving into and around Yosemite.

We all love Yosemite and want to keep it as wild as possible. Here is a list of items that the park does not allow during the ceremony:

- Any live animals such as doves, butterflies, horse-drawn carriages, and pets. Pets are not allowed to attend wedding ceremonies in the park, but they are allowed inside the park. So if you want your furry friend to be in some photographs, we can definitely get those after the ceremony. Animals are only allowed on paved areas in the park and are not allowed in meadows.

- Release of inanimate objects: Birdseed, confetti, bubbles, rice, smoke bombs, fireworks.

- Additional seating with benches and chairs

- Amplified music, PA systems, television, or radios.

- Decorations or posted signs.

- Receptions in a picnic area

- Drones

- Balloons