Temple Dedication Delegation

A website by a temple fan gives a chronology of the initial dedications of the 167 current temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, plus the Kirtland temple and the first Nauvoo temple. Twelve of those were carried out by a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles instead of a member of the quorum of the First Presidency:

Nauvoo by Orson Hyde (1846)
Manti by Lorenzo Snow (1888)
Regina by Boyd Packer (1999)
Brigham City by Boyd Packer (2012)
Sapporo by Russell Nelson (2016)
Provo City Center by Dallin Oaks (2016)
Star Valley by David Bednar (2016)
Kinshasa by Dale Renlund (2019)
Fortaleza by Ulisses Soares (2019)
Port-au-Prince by David Bednar (2019)
Lisbon by Neil Anderson (2019)
Arequipa by Ulisses Soares (2019)

It’s a curious pattern. In 1846, there was no First Presidency; Joseph Smith had been murdered in 1844, and the First Presidency was not organized again until 1847; church members had already mostly abandoned Nauvoo. Lorenzo Snow presided and pronounced the dedication prayer in the Manti temple in “public” sessions for general membership with recommends and tickets beginning May 21, but Wilford Woodruff, president of the church, did so first in a private session of church leaders on May 17. (“A History of the Manti Temple,” 1960 Masters Thesis by Glen R. Stubbs)

The Regina temple was dedicated the same day as the Halifax temple in a year that 15 temples were dedicated. The previous 12 years (1987-1998) saw the dedication of 13 new temples. The original plan was for President Hinckley to dedicate the Halifax temple on November 13, then the Regina temple on November 14, but his plane to Halifax was delayed by a mechanical problem, so the Halifax dedication was postponed one day, and the task of dedicating the Regina temple was given to Elder Packer. The task of dedicating the Brigham City temple seems to have been given to Elder Packer due to that being his hometown. Four temples were dedicated that year, two of them by President Monson.

Six temples were dedicated in 2016, none of them by President Monson, and three by one or the other of his counselors in the First Presidency. President Nelson has dedicated two temples since being sustained as president of the church, and one of his counselors has dedicated one. The last five temples were dedicated by members of the Quorum of the Twelve.

From the Logan temple in 1884 up to the Seattle temple in 1980, the 18 temples dedicated in that span were all dedicated by the president of the church. Gordon Hinckley dedicated 65 of the 77 new temples completed during his 13 years as president of the church; the eleven dedicated by President Hinckley’s counselors were all dedicated within a five month span, March 11 to July 30, 2000, that also saw President Hinckley dedicate nine new temples.