As a LDS Wedding Photographer and former bride, here are 5 tips I tell every bride to
ensure a smooth temple exit! Read til the end to find my go-to family shot list :)
Table of Contents:
- Don't Forget the Flowers
- Practice the Kiss
- Take Bridal Photos Before the Sealing
- Figure Out Which Door You're Exiting
- Create Shot List With Your Photographer
1. Don't Forget the Flowers
I know you spent hours planning your wedding colors and flowers, it's important they are part of your day! LDS Temples are hit-and-miss if you can bring your wedding bouquet and boutonniere into the temple. Instead of risking your flowers wilting in your car or leaving them on the grounds, I highly recommend give them to a friend NOT attending the sealing. Once the sealing ends, your guests will head outside and gather for your big entrance (I guess technically exit? Haha) and your friend will join the group. Right before you and your new spouse walk out the temple doors, your friend can walk inside the doors and hand you the flowers! It can be a member or non-member :) There is no recommend required to hangout in the temple lobby
2. Practice The Kiss
For some reason the big kiss/dip you do with your spouse is often forgotten while planning. This only takes a couple of minutes, I promise. My guess is you and your spouse have lots of practice kissing, but doing dips, while holding flowers, and people watching is another thing
Make a plan on what kind of kiss/dip you want to do during your temple exit, then practice! (Muscle memory for the win) In my opinion, the best way to hold your bouquet during the dip is to let it hang below. This way it doesn't accidentally block your face or get shoved into your husbands head.
(Not my photo, but love their work)
3. Bridal Photos Before the Sealing
Your wedding day should not feel like a photoshoot. Yes I love doing the classic posed bridal and family poses, but my goal is to capture your day as it happens, candid and authentic. Okay hear me out, after the sealing, temple exit, and family photos, you've been at the temple for approximately 3 hours. You're gonna be hungry and tired of smiling, the last thing you're gonna want to do is more photos for another hour. Plus, do you really want your husband's first time seeing your dress to be a rushed glance while you walk out the temple doors?
Here's my vision, do bridal photos before the sealing. Whether it's a month before or an hour before you need to be inside. Make it a priority to take bridal photos when you feel your best. You can present in the moment and have a proper first look with your spouse.
Now just as a heads up, you do have to go into the temple 60 mins before your sealing appointment to sign your marriage license. So in order to get bridals done before your sealing, you will need to show up to the temple two hours before your scheduled sealing time. So your schedule would look something like this:
- Get ready
- Drive to temple
- Bridal photos
- Go inside temple
- Sealing
- Temple Exit
- Family Photos
- Leave temple
In an ideal world, I would highly recommend doing your bridal photos a week before your sealing. However I'm fully aware that due to travel and time it takes to glam up for wedding photos, it can be too much to do bridals on a separate day. But if you're able to make it work, it's a whole hour of time you get back to yourself on the wedding day! (May I suggest a Swig and Costa Vida run?)
3. Quadrouple Check Your Sealing Time
The temple does not give you an "exit time" to share with family and friends. The exit typically happens 20 minutes after the sealing, so tell anyone not attending the sealing to arrive at the temple 20 minutes after your sealing is scheduled to start. If you're really nervous they'll run late, then tell them to show up at the same time your sealing starts haha. The safest approach is to send both your sealing time and expected exit time to guests so there is no confusion
Trust me, the last thing you're gonna want is to walk out those temple doors and start family photos and Aunt Barbara is forty-five minutes away. Or even worse.... your photographer shows up at the wrong time
4. Figure Out Which Door You're Exiting
Every temple is SO different, some have you exit through the front, others have you go out the back or even a random side door (cough cough draper temple). I highly recommend calling the temple and asking which door you'll be exiting and communicate that with guests and photographers. The temple doors you exit from have a direct impact on how your photos will look and feel. For example, at Manti you walk out a side door that has no shade, so your photos will be pretty bright. Whereas Bountiful sends you out the front door which is the shaded walk way
5. Create Shot List With Your Photographer
A shot list is the schedule of which families are photographed first and what variations are created. Some things to keep in mind, grandparents are going to struggle standing in the heat waiting for their turn. Take photos with them closer to the beginning than the end. Kids are also going to get more restless the longer they wait, get them done first.
Besides that, order the shotlist from biggest group to smallest group. That way nobody is waiting around for more photos they won't be included in. Here's my ideal wedding shot list:
- Everyone
- Family only (friends can go home now, unless they are in the wedding party)
- Brides extended family
- Brides grandparents
- Brides immediate family (bride grandparents leave)
- Brides parents
*all of brides family can leave*
- Grooms extended family
- Grooms grandparents (extended family members leave)
- Grooms immediate family (grooms grandparents leave)
- Grooms parents
*all of grooms family can leave*
- Wedding party
- Bride with bridesmaids
- Whole group
- Bride with individual bridesmaids
- Groom with groomsmen
- Whole group
- Groom with individual groomsmen
*everyone can leave
The bride's family does NOT have to go first, I usually have the bigger family (or whoever has the most sensitive grandparents) go first