Arches National

Park Wedding

Guide

Moab, UT

Arches national Park 101

Arches National Park is a beautiful backdrop for a destination wedding or elopement. With its famous rock formations and stunning vistas, it's no wonder that so many couples choose Arches National Park as the location for their weddings.

Arches basically consists of one 18-mile in-and-out road with a bunch of viewpoints and small side roads along the way. You’ll pass petrified sand dunes, towers, and of course arches.

In addition to shooting weddings, I used to guide hiking trips in Arches National Park and my favorite section has always been the Windows. It contains more prominent arches in one small space than any other part of the park and that adds a lot of variety to your images. The “hikes” are also all very easy, though there is a bit of scrambling to get to the best spots.

location

Arches National Park is located just north of Moab, UT. The Arches visitor center and entry station is just 5 miles outside of Moab, but the exact distance to the wedding ceremony sites within Arches varies. Arches is just one straight, 18-mile road to Devil’s Garden and back. Getting to the furthest part of the paved road from Moab takes about an hour.

 

Wedding Ceremony

Locations in ARches

Arches National Park offers several incredible locations for your elopement ceremony, including the Windows section and Sand Dune Arch.

In general, I recommend avoiding Delicate Arch - I have never seen it not busy. Not at 11:00pm, not at sunrise in the winter. It’s just too busy now, sadly.

Arches National Park only allows weddings at specific of locations in the park:

  • 3-10 guests
    Delicate Arch
    Landscape Arch

  • 11-25 guests:
    the Windows Section (North Window, South, Window, Turret Arch, or Double Arch)
    Sand Dune Arch
    Delicate Arch Viewpoint
    Pine Tree Arch
    Park Avenue

  • 26-50 guests:
    La Sal Mountains Viewpoint
    Panorama Point

  • 51- 80 guests:
    Devils Garden Campground Amphitheater

PERMITS

All weddings in Arches National Park require a $185 special use permit, which can be obtained through the park's website. Your Moab wedding photographer should be able help you with the permit application process. I personally created an entire step-by-step process in my client guide.

Be sure to apply for your permit well in advance to ensure that you can secure your desired ceremony location. The park requires 4 weeks or more to process a permit, so don’t slack! Weddings can be booked up to 1 year in advance.

If you have a special recreation permit, you won’t need to make a timed-entry reservation. But if we’re just doing a bridal shoot or engagement in Arches National Park, be sure to look into the reservations well in advance (see more info here).

Don’t forget to bring a hard copy of your permit on the day of your wedding!

Larger, more complex weddings will require monitoring by Canyonlands rangers. This will incur an additional fee, and this will be quoted upon issuing the permit.

Wedding permit Conditions

  • Permit Conditions

    A permit does not grant exclusive use of the area and the area will remain open to the visiting public. Permittees may not ask the public to alter their visitation in any way. Additional permit conditions are imposed as follows:

    • Natural Resource Protection: Wedding activities are restricted to slickrock, dry washes, or maintained areas of the park to protect fragile biological soil crust and plant life.

    • Bouquets: To prevent the introduction of invasive species into the park, dried plants, including grasses, are prohibited in bouquets.

    • Releases: Butterfly releases, and all other living and/or inanimate object releases or dispersal, including birdseed and rice, are prohibited. The permittee is responsible for site cleanup.

    • Decorations: The use of balloons, arches, or any other type of decorations will not be authorized.

    • Obstructions: Permittees may not obstruct sidewalks, trails, parking lots, or other visitor facilities. This includes the use of tents, tables, or other furniture. The park will evaluate folding chairs on a case-by-case basis.

    • Food: The establishment of caterers or any food service is prohibited.

    • Audio Disturbance: No public address system is permitted and music volumes are highly regulated (Re: 36 CFR 2.12). Noise levels must not exceed normal speaking volumes.

    • Vehicles: All vehicles must be parked in designated areas only; no off-road traffic. Carpooling is recommended and may be required at specific locations.

    • Pets: Pets are typically not allowed at ceremony sites, particularly those areas off pavement or in other undeveloped locations.

    • Drones: Operating a drone is prohibited.

    • Monitor: Activities will be monitored or spot checked by NPS personnel for compliance with the terms and conditions of the permit and to ensure that no resource damage or visitor conflicts are occurring.

    • Time limit: If requested ceremony location is under or immediately adjacent to an arch or scenic feature, then the ceremony may have a required time limit of 15 minutes, depending on time of day, time of year, and other visitation patters and factors. Locations likely to contain a time limit in the permit conditions are The Windows Section, Sand Dune Arch, Pine Tree Arch, and Park Avenue due to the congested nature of those locations.

Transportation

Guests will still be responsible for the entrance fee, so it’s best to coordinate carpooling ahead of time to save costs. Parking can be a pain in Arches so carpooling will help with that, too.

Season

Spring (March-May) and Fall (September-October) provide the most comfortable temperatures in Moab. Mornings and evenings in March and April are still pretty chilly though, and Arches is a bit higher elevation than the rest of Moab.

Spring will be windier than the fall but you will see more flowers, like Paintbrush and Globemallow. Fall is less windy and has beautiful fall colors on the Cottonwoods, but you won’t see many of those of apart from Cottonwood Wash in Arches.

Summer is scorching and has frequent monsoons and flooding and is generally not recommended.

Have a great wedding day

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About Your Wedding Photographer

Hey, I’m Danielle, a Moab wedding and elopement photographer. I worked as a hiking guide in Moab and thru-hiked 800 miles from Arches National Park to Zion National Park. I used to go to Arches several times a day with clients, have canyoneered many of the routes in the park, and have explored the far out, inaccessible parts of the park that most people don’t know about on the Dome Plateau. I’ve even taken photos and video for Edward Abbey’s family, so when it comes to Arches National Park experts, I’m your person.

I’m not saying you should pick the coolest photographer you find…but if having a photographer with some serious local expertise and skill behind the camera sounds like something you want on your very important wedding day, check out my Moab wedding and elopement packages.