Island wedding avaDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of people opted for a micro wedding instead of a large and fancy event. This trend became so popular that the term “eloping” returned to our lives with a new meaning. Brides and grooms in 2020 often elope with only their closest family and friends to some far-away places, far from people and civilization, to have a small family-style wedding with striking wedding photos. And why not? They save a lot on such a wedding and get wonderful memories that will last forever.

Most of you have heard the term “elopement” or “eloping”, which used to mean that a couple ran away and had a secret wedding, like so many people did in Vegas. But today, eloping gained a bit different interpretation – a couple takes their closest people and has a unique small wedding ceremony somewhere, without hundreds of guests, huge wedding budget, etc. Something like a micro wedding instead of a big and costly marriage ceremony. The main idea of an eloping is to pick a special location and have a cozy ceremony – usually, the locations are rather weird for a wedding (a mountain peak, a forest, a faraway island, and so on), but some brides and grooms elope only as far as their backyard.

Why to choose an elopement over a large wedding?

Budget

First of all, such a wedding is much, much cheaper than the usual classic marriage celebration. Even if you pay for a trip to some faraway destination for your few guests, it is usually cheaper than organizing an ordinary big wedding. And if your wedding location is somewhere close to your home, you’ll spend even less.

Flexibility

Having just a couple of wedding guests gives you a lot more options as to where and how to celebrate. With just 1-3 cars or a van, you’re able to travel practically anywhere, easily organize a meal and overnight stay, and take gorgeous wedding photos (family photos with 5 people are much more creative than with 20 people). With an eloped micro wedding, you can be really imaginative as to how you want to celebrate and quickly do the planning. And you’re not limited by your venue’s working hours, only by your desires and plans.

Privacy

An elopement wedding gives more privacy, intimacy, and a homey vibe to your big day. Introverts who don’t like attention and fuss will especially appreciate this trend. Some people are just too stressed when they’re the center of attention, so it’s only fair that they choose a more comfortable for them wedding ceremony.

How to plan an elopement wedding?

If you’re not sure you can do it by yourself, hire a wedding planner specializing in elopements. There are plenty of professional wedding planners who do that.

But, obviously, to plan an eloping is a little easier than a grand wedding, and you just might cope with it all by yourself. Here are a few tricks that should help you.

Choose a location

As we’ve mentioned earlier, it can be any place – an outdoor location, a more urbanistic place, or even your own backyard. Here are some possible options: an island, a national park, a mountain ridge, a waterfall, a hot spring, another city, etc. Use your imagination and be creative with your wedding destination – simply because you can and because you will remember such a special marriage ceremony for the rest of your life.

Use local vendors

If your wedding destination is far from your home, remember to find the local vendors – they will be familiar with the area, local food, the landscape, and other issues, and also, you won’t need to pay for their trip as well.

Legal marriage papers

Remember that if you want your marriage to be legal, you’ll have to prepare the papers. And that means you need to do some research, especially if you’re having an elopement wedding abroad or even in another state or region. Find out what papers you need, whether there should be witnesses and how many, who has the legal right to marry you (should it be the officiant or can someone get the permission to perform a wedding ceremony?), etc. All this has to be done in advance so that you didn’t waste time during the wedding trip itself.

An elopement wedding can be such a great thing. And not only for today’s social situation when some of us literally can’t have a grand wedding because of the pandemic, but eloping is a nice option even for those calmer and safer times. As many people as many tastes! So, don’t be afraid to pick the right style of a wedding ceremony for your couple. Maybe an elopement wedding is a perfect choice for you.

You have no rights to post comments