What is an elopement | A free planning guide

An elopement is an intimate, small, non-traditional way of tying the knot. You can head to the mountains or travel the world to find the perfect spot for you and your person. The location, new friends you make along the way, and the stories to be told of your day are what will capsulate the start to a new chapter. In general, elopements are a more affordable alternatives for full weddings because the cost is centered on your location, photographer, and a few other miscellaneous fees.

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While a traditional wedding is focused more on the guest list, the food served at the reception, and the location itself an elopement is focused more on the intimacy between the two, which we personally are in favor of. An elopement day is a full day, weekend, or full week just about you, not the party you are throwing for your people.

Why eloping?

The reasons to elope are endless. Let’s break down just a few of our favorite reasons couples choose to elope.

1. Location
   This day in time, you’ve probably seen people with wedding photos in the mountains, on the beach, and out of the country. More and more couples are choosing elopements and intimate weddings to be able to travel for it. You can head to a National Park, the Dolomites in Italy, or your local park or downtown. The world is your ceremony space.
   
2. Intimacy
   Elopements can be as big or small as you want. In Colorado, you can actually marry yourself so it could actually just be the 2 of you, plus your documentation team (photo + video). You can decide to take 15 of your family members and friends so a lake house in Minnesota or open land in Montana. The focus is on you two, whether that’s with you two or your crew.
   
3. Less stress
   Wedding planning is stressful! Since eloping can be as simple or elaborate as you want it, the stress can drift away. You can spend more time and energy focusing on what’s important, your love!
   
4. No time crunch
   There truly is all the flexibility in the world. You can plan for whatever length of time, you can change the date, change the time, change the location. There doesn’t have to be any schedule the day of, if you want to sleep in you can! If you want to get a sunrise hike in, you can!
   
5. Unique
   Honest truth, all weddings look the same. Elopements though…people do the most amazing, unique, fun things with elopements! Bring your dog, get fast food, whatever speaks to you guys as a couple.
   
6. Adventurous
   Most elopement professionals are down for whatever you want. You can have your ceremony at the top of a mountain, in the ocean, or at the base of a waterfall. If you are adventurous couple, make this day adventurous.
   
7. Dream wedding, vacation, and honeymoon all in one
   If you want, you can make your elopement into a destination dream vacation. For example, you want to get married in the Dolomites. Spend a week with your people in the best of Italian cities, getting married in the Dolomites over the weekend, then honeymoon on the Amalfi coast.
   
8. It’s truly all about you, not your guests
   Another truth about weddings, a lot of it ends up being catered to your guests. You plan your timeline, food, decor, playlist, etc around what people will be into. Elopements and intimate weddings are 100% about the two of you.

I could go on, but I’ll stop here for now. Does this sound like you? If so, you are in the right place!

How to elope

At this point, eloping is looking right for you, so where do we go from here? Let’s start dreaming a bit.

What location are you thinking? Are you beach, international, mountains, or national park? A world of possibilities for your day.

What time of year is best for you? This might vary based on your location, but you can also think about time of year preference.

Will it just be you two? An officiant? A photographer? Videographer? Parents? Siblings? Friends? Planner? Contrary to what you might think, elopements can be as big or little as you want. The average elopement guest count is 2-20 people.

Grab your vendors? Who do you want capturing your day? Do you want florals? Will there be food and drink catered or will you hit up a local restaurant at the end?

Once you get this far, you are golden! Most elopement focused vendors (especially photographers and planners) will walk you step by step, making it truly easy peasy, lemon squeasy.

Get your free elopement guide 👇🏼

Since you are still here with us, we have a sweet treat for you! We have created our own resources for couples planning their dream elopement that covers location guides to budget tracking. It’ll all simple, easy to use, and FREE (maybe the best part). You can grab it here!

Guide Instructions

• Go to the link above
• Duplicate the template top right corner
• Create a free account with notion.
• Boom, template is yours to use.

You’ve got the info, the resources, and now you are ready for the fun. We would LOVE to be your elopement guides and walk along you to the alter (and beyond). To book us for your elopement, click HERE. Want to see an elopement we have shot? We got you here!