The 10 best wedding venues in Jackson Hole

There is no residency requirement and no waiting period, but the license must be issued in Wyoming — you cannot arrive holding one from another state or country. Both parties apply in person at the Teton County Administrative Building at 220 South Willow Street, open weekdays 8am to 5pm, with photo ID; a passport is fine for overseas couples, and the license costs $30. Wyoming requires an officiant, meaning licensed or ordained clergy, a judge or a justice of the peace, plus two witnesses at the ceremony, so marrying each other without an officiant is not an option here. What you end up with is a full civil marriage valid across the United States; most countries recognize it once the certificate has been apostilled, but some still expect a separate civil ceremony at home, so check with your own consulate rather than assuming the paperwork is finished.

Yes, and the straightforward route is Jackson Lake Lodge, the concessioner-run lodge inside the park boundary, where the Southwest Terrace is an established ceremony site and the reception rooms are a few steps away. Ceremonies at undeveloped locations in the park are a different proposition: they need a special use permit from Grand Teton National Park, with its own application, fee, list of approved sites and group-size limits, and the terms are revised between seasons. Confirm the current rules with the park's permits office before you commit to a date or a location, and expect the permit to dictate your plan rather than the other way round.

Bigger than the ranch imagery suggests, though the ceiling is lower than a city's. Snake River Sporting Club takes anything from 10 to 500 across its spaces, with 200 on either of its tented lawns; Spring Creek Ranch seats up to 300 outdoors at Sagebrush Vista; and Rendezvous Lodge at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is comfortable at 100 to 200 with a 400 maximum. At the other end, Amangani only does buyouts for 50 to 75, The Cabin at Hotel Jackson caps at 50, and the National Museum of Wildlife Art seats 100 or holds 300 standing. In practice, guest lodging rather than venue capacity is what limits most guest lists here.

Twelve to eighteen months for a summer Saturday is realistic, and the reason is arithmetic rather than fashion. The valley has a small number of wedding-capable properties and several open only part of the year — Jackson Lake Lodge from mid-May to early October, Diamond Cross Ranch from 1 May to late October — so demand compresses into roughly five months. Properties that operate as buy-outs, Turpin Meadow Ranch among them, also apply seasonal minimum-night stays, which means you are committing your guests' accommodation at the same moment you book the venue. Start by working out where everyone will sleep and let that narrow the venue list.