Are you recently engaged? Are you looking for different ways to celebrate your wedding day that are outside of the traditional wedding format? Is a big traditional wedding just not for you? Are you dreading planning seating charts and choosing bridesmaid dresses and looking for an alternative? Are you wondering what it means to elope? Well, you're in the right place!
Let's start here -
What is an elopement?
An elopement doesn't quite mean what it used to. Modern elopements are thoughtfully planned out intimate wedding day experiences. You might have also heard elopements called micro-weddings, small weddings, intimate weddings, or adventure elopements. Couples who elope usually tell their loved ones that they are getting married, it's not a secret, but instead of having a big party and planning out seating arrangements and bridesmaids dresses they are choosing to have a more intimate or adventurous wedding day experience that just wouldn't be possible with a large guest count.
Modern elopements aren't just going to the courthouse to get married, but they can totally be that too! Modern elopements are more like an awesome date night or date day, where the focus is solely on the couple and the importance of what it means to bind your life to someone else forever. Every aspect of an elopement is chosen with intention to represent your love as a couple.
Elopements are all about experience and intentionality and forgetting about tradition. You have the ability to do whatever you want on your elopement/wedding day, including having an unforgettable experience or special adventure to celebrate the start of your marriage.
If you value experiences over stuff, eloping might be for you.
Couples around the world are opting out of big traditional weddings and opting in to an adventure elopement for their wedding day. Not all elopements have to be big adventures where you hike in Patagonia, they can happen in your back yard.
Consider how you want to feel on your wedding day and what you want to remember. Elopements are about making the day you get married just as special as you would make your big traditional wedding. You can still wear your wedding dress, you can still splurge on that beautiful bouquet you had your eye on, and you and your partner can still plan an extravagant elopement night dinner with each other, complete with wedding cake and bubbly.
Need some inspiration for what to do for your elopement day? Consider trying something new, or doing something you love. At the very least, plan to just have FUN with your partner and consider documenting it. Make it a day to remember that you can look back on with hearts in your eyes.
Here are some examples of elopements or small intimate weddings:
1. A short hike to a scenic location where you can have a picnic, say your vows, and pop champagne. After saying your vows, consider planning a private dinner and a sunset cruise or having a bonfire and then going star gazing.
2. Getting ready together in the morning, saying your vows in front of a lake while the sun rises with only your parents and an officiant present. After saying your vows, consider celebrating your new marriage with brunch and a relaxing afternoon reading in a park.
There are tons of reasons to elope or to have a small intimate wedding. Everyone's reasons for eloping are different, but some of the most common reasons include:
1. Wanting a unique wedding day free from tradition
2. Wanting to not feel rushed and not be able to remember their day
3. Not wanting to plan as much
4. Not wanting to be the center of attention
5. Valuing experiences over stuff
How is eloping different from a destination wedding?
I would define destination weddings as traditional weddings that happen in a location that is not your home. Destination weddings have a relatively large guest count and couples who have a destination wedding make plans for things like a large dinner reception for guests, sometimes with a DJ or band and accompanying decor for that reception at a venue.
Meanwhile, elopements can either happen in your home town or in a destination. The specific location is often meaningful to the couple. Elopements are much smaller, with usually just the couple getting married and a combination of an officiant, two witnesses, a photographer or videographer, parents, and maybe 1 or two close friends are the only ones present.
Sometimes couples who elope invite their parents or a couple close friends, but they are still small and intimate events. Elopements also don't usually have a large dinner reception or decor associated with that dinner reception. Instead of a dinner reception and planning for decor, couples choose to have a private dinner or find another way to celebrate without a big party.
Let me tell you a secret: your wedding day can be whatever you want it to be! Think outside the box, the possibilities are endless.
Do you think eloping might be for you? I'm here to capture it for you!
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