Planning Your Wedding Day in Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park boasts numerous locations to say your “I Do’s” in gorgeous Pacific Northwest Scenery. If you’re planning an Olympic National Park elopement, all you have to do is put a pair of hiking boots on under your gown and hit the trail! On the other hand, if you’re planning on incorporating a lot of family and friends into your day, you may want to select an Olympic National Park wedding destination that allows for access to amenities like dining and lodging. Luckily, ONP has a variety of locations that can accommodate weddings of many sizes! For a larger wedding, NatureBridge on Lake Crescent, Lake Crescent Lodge, or Lake Quinault Lodge would all be great choices. All of these venues have historic lodges that would allow for an indoor ceremony, or a large tent on the lawn, as well as amenities for a large number of people, facilities for catering, and some handicap accessible features.

NatureBridge at Lake Crescent

Nestled under the towering cedars and Douglas firs on Barnes Point at Lake Crescent, NatureBridge is one of the larger Olympic National Park wedding venues. It still feels remote and secluded, and affords a myriad of opportunities for your guests to hike, canoe, swim, and wander the lakeshore trails around Barnes Point. Or you can take a more ambitious hike up to Storm King peak, which overlooks the entire span of Lake Crescent itself as well as the surrounding mountains and Strait of Juan de Fuca to the north.

Rosemary Cottage at NatureBridge affords indoor space for a wedding reception or ceremony of 50-75 people, and a comfortable dining and dancing space for receptions where guests can both enjoy the outdoors and move indoors as the day gets cooler. If you plan to have your wedding ceremony outdoors at NatureBridge, there are a number of ceremony sites that allow for the sapphire waters of Lake Crescent to serve as the backdrop to your vows.

See more from Shannon & Derek’s nautical NatureBridge wedding on the full blog post! Also: take a look at Ernie & Mckenzie’s gorgeous NatureBridge wedding day.

Lake Crescent Lodge

Just down the road from NatureBridge is Lake Crescent Lodge, an historic inn on the western shore of Barnes Point. Although not quite as large a venue as NatureBridge, Lake Crescent Lodge can accommodate a few hundred guests for a picturesque lakeside Olympic National Park wedding. Wedding ceremonies usually take place in a meadow just north of the Lodge itself, although the shoreline of the lake, the large field adjacent to the Lodge, and Bovee’s Meadow to the south would offer alternate ceremony sites depending on the number of guests involved. Outdoor receptions take place under a large tent in the field behind the lodge, allowing guests to wander the grounds and trails as well as join in dancing and dining under the canopy.

See more from Sarah & Soren’s Lake Crescent Lodge wedding here!

A Fall Wedding at Lake Crescent Lodge

During cooler months, Lake Crescent Lodge is able to host intimate indoor weddings, like Laurella & Zach’s cozy winter ceremony that took place in November. Although the wind and rain howled outside, the bride and groom and their guests stayed warm and dry for their ceremony in front of the Lodge’s dramatic stone fireplace! During a brief respite in the torrential November downpour, we ventured outside for some atmospheric romantic portraits of the bride and groom under the towering trees around the lodge. Afterwards, the couple enjoyed a relaxed dinner reception that took place on the airy sun porch.

Lake Quinault Lodge

Even more remote than Lake Crescent Lodge and NatureBridge, Lake Quinault Lodge is nestled in the eponymous Quinault Rainforest on the shores of Lake Quinault. Another historic Olympic National Park wedding venue, Lake Quinault Lodge evokes a sense of history and timelessness. Margaret & Paul’s cozy wedding day at Lake Quinault Lodge was filled with the warmth of the roaring brick fireplace and the love of the couple’s family and friends despite the cool and misty fall weather. The couple got married in separate rooms adjacent to the main lodge. Breathtaking old-growth cedars provided the perfect background for romantic portraits of the couple! The wedding ceremony was held in the Lodge’s great room in front of the cozy fire. Afterwards, the couple and their guests moved into the dramatic dining hall for a relaxed reception celebrating Margaret & Paul’s new marriage!

Check out the full post from Margaret & Paul’s cozy Lake Quinault wedding here!

Hurricane Ridge

Hurricane Ridge is one of the most popular elopement spots in Olympic National Park. Boasting world-class mountain views into the heart of the majestic Olympics, Hurricane Ridge is still easily accessible from the park headquarters in Port Angeles. A Hurricane Ridge wedding is a guarantee of an experience that feels like a step outside of time. When you make the 45-minute drive south from the Olympic National Park headquarters in Port Angeles, Washington, the road ascends over 5000 feet into the Olympic Mountains. As the narrow highway winds up the shoulders of increasingly taller and steeper peaks, the forest around the road changes from lowland conifer firs, maples, and cedars to the spires of alpine firs that are built to withstand being covered in several feet of snow for a significant portion of the year. Alpine meadows open between the groves of hardy conifers. If you’re alert you may see deer wandering through as they snack on the scrubby grass! During the early summer, wildflowers abound in the meadows between thickets of trees.

Erica and Riley were married in late spring, when almost all of the snow had melted but the air was still chilly at the altitude of Hurricane Ridge. Just down the windy road from the visitor center, Erica was escorted down a park-trail-turned-ceremony-aisle by her brother Jake. Riley was waiting at the crest of a wide meadow with a view of the ranks of Olympic mountains spread out behind him. The couple said their vows in front of some of the most spectacular scenery on the planet!

See the rest of Erica & Riley’s sun-drenched Hurricane Ridge wedding day in this post.

Olympic Coast Beaches

For a bride who wants to get married on the beach, Kalaloch Lodge, Second Beach at La Push, and Ruby Beach all offer beach access to the gorgeous sandy coastline. Plan your wedding for low tide to take best advantage of the seastacks and tidepools! Amenities and facilities are more limited, and your guests will need to be able to navigate the sandy, rocky, or pebbly beach itself, in addition to an often challenging trail climb down to the beach from the level of the road.

Beach 4 at Kalaloch

The rugged and wild Olympic Coastline is a wild and scenic location for an Olympic National Park elopement. There are dozens of small beach access trails along Highway 101 that allow a handful of people to climb down to the beach for a tiny elopement ceremony, however most of these have extremely limited parking and would not allow for a large number of cars and people. But if all you need is an officiant, your sweetheart, and a couple of your nearest and dearest, a beach ceremony might be just the right choice! On Erin and John’s sun-drenched wedding day, all we could hear was the roar of the Pacific ocean, the cry of an occasional gull, and the laughter of the dozen or so friends and family who gathered to watch the couple say their vows.

More from Erin & John’s sunny Olympic National Park beach wedding day on the full post here!

Are you planning an Olympic National Park wedding? As an Olympic National Park wedding photographer with over ten years of experience, I’d love to chat with you about your day! Drop me a note!