Planning a Public Lands Wedding This Year? Read This!
who was affected?
National Park Service - this means Grand Teton National Park, Arches National Park, and Canyonlands National Park.
United State Forest Service - this means Bridger Teton National Forest. The only place I work that this affects is the Wedding Tree in Jackson, WY.
Bureau of Land Management - this means all of the “other” spaces in Moab - think Corona Arch, Fisher Towers, and more.
Who is not affected?
Well, if you’re getting married at Dead Horse Point State Park, good news, I guess? You’re still safe!
What happened?
Thousands of federal employees in various Department of the Interior branches were fired. That is bad, but what’s possibly even worse is all of the offers rescinded to seasonal employees. Seasonal employees operate almost every aspect of public lands, from entry booths to backcountry rangers to EMTs to the people who empty the trash. This includes people who have worked at the park for years, because full-time positions are nearly impossible to get. Many of them also pick up wildfire shifts (called having a red card), because these jobs pay terribly (not saving the federal budget a whole lot) and fire pays a bit better.
So between the firing of permanent employees and rescinding of seasonal employee offers, I’m anticipating a very rough time for public lands this year.
What does this mean?
Obviously we don’t know what it all means, yet. But we can predict and prepare for a few things.
Longer permit processing times - I spoke to the Special Use Permit coordinator in Grand Teton National Park a few months ago and things were already difficult for 2025. They have increased monitoring of weddings (every single wedding now) but don’t have the staff. It’s unclear who was affected by the layoffs yet at Grand Teton, so maybe none of the full-time staff was. Assuming the wedding employees are still there, we all know how layoffs work - they’ll likely be picking up the slack for other roles that were eliminated and have less time to dedicate to permits.
No one to answer questions at the visitor center and/or closed visitor centers - this ties into the above. There have been times where I wasn’t able to reach the Special Use team in the parks and got the information I needed from the visitor center.
Poor facilities maintenance and/or closures - I would go into this season expecting the bathrooms to be unmaintained or closed. Aside from being gross, this could limit your opportunities to change into a different outfit.
More wildfires - this one is heartbreaking because the wildfire smoke really ruins wedding days. But with fire teams being cut and the loss of all of the seasonal employees who pick up fire shifts, I’m expecting a particularly brutal wildfire season.
Closed trails - It’s unclear what is happening with NPS trail crews, though I do know that friends who work trail crews elsewhere lost their funding. This means that if an avalanche knocked down a ton of trees in Cascade Canyon, those trees are not moving. If rockfall happens in Arches National Park or Canyonlands, it’s not getting cleared. Expect closures to some of the places you want to visit this summer.
No medical staff - no one wants to think about this, but I’m a Wilderness EMT so my brain immediately goes to things like this. There will possibly be no medical staff in the parks this year in case of injury or medical problems.
Closed parks - worse case scenario, the parks aren’t even open.
What Can We Do?
Okay, we've got the panic out of the way.
No one wants to hear this, but just don’t get married on federal lands. I know, that sucks, but they just don’t have the staff right now to deal with an influx of people. I’m not saying cancel the weddings you’ve already planned because I’m anticipating rough economic times and those vendors need the income, but if you haven’t booked anything yet, pivot.
Get married in state parks! I already encourage folks to get married at Dead Horse anyways, because the lighting is so much better than Arches.
Aim for spring and early summer weddings, before wildfire season. I can’t emphasize this enough and I already encourage people to choose earlier weddings. Yes, you will have a greater risk of rain and maybe even snow in the Tetons, but June is damn near perfect most of the time. You’ll also have incredible wildflowers and best of all, you’ll be able to see the landscape.
Plan on just one outfit, unless you have a private venue. The bathrooms are going to be horrible. And if you’ve never peed in the woods, maybe get comfortable with that now.
Very last minute elopements are probably out, since I’d expect permits to take longer to process. Don’t drag your feet this year!
Leave at-risk family members at home. This really, really sucks, I know. But it’s just not worth the risk of bringing them to a park that has no EMT staff because the entire team was fired.
Work with a local photographer - we don’t know what’s going to happen yet but they’ll be most in tune with any closures and updates.
And most of all - please vote call your senators to object to what’s happening and vote in the midterms. I realize firing a bunch of park staff is not as dire as firing the people who manage our nuclear arms, but frankly neither of those things should have happened.
This country has strayed so far from kindness and empathy into a pretty terrifying agenda of revenge and retribution. Most Americans do not want to see these parks go or the cost increase substantially from privatization (think: vets, healthcare, nursing homes).
