First Steps in Planning your Elopement

You Have decided on an Elopement

Now What?

So you’ve tried to plan a wedding and you are just not having it. The cost, the stress, the drama, you ain’t about that life. Or maybe, you have always known that a big wedding was something you wanted to avoid. No matter the reason, destination elopements are rising in popularity every year. In comes my destination elopement checklist. A massive collaboration to give you all the info you will ever need about planning your dream elopement.

Once you have made the decision all of the traditional wedding planning stress just melts away! However, there are still a lot of moving pieces involved in planning a destination elopement.

Even if it’s something that you have always wanted making the decision can still be difficult. Who can you include? How do you decide where to have it? What traditional elements do you keep, and which ones do you toss? These are the types of questions you and your partner need to sit down and have a conversation about. Here is a list of the top 5 questions you need to ask your partner when planning a destination elopement.

” Marriage is such a powerful and intimate thing and couples want to make sure the act of actually getting married emulates that.” -Velvet Sage Photography

Questions to Ask Yourself While Planning an Elopement

The First Step

1. Why are we doing this? Will we regret it?

This gives you something great to talk about on your next date night. If you are seriously considering eloping, ask each other what your reasons are for wanting to do it. Then decide whether or not it is actually the right fit for you both. The couples that hire me to photograph their destination elopement confide their biggest reasons for wanting to elope. Most of the time is to make sure that getting married encapsulates their reasons for wanting to spend the rest of their lives together. Marriage is such a powerful and intimate thing and couples want to make sure the act of actually getting married emulates that.

2. Guest list. Who makes the cut?

This can be really hard for some people and really easy for others. First, take a look at the special people in your life and ask yourself what the benefits are to inviting or excluding them.

Visualization is a great tool. take time to sit with your partner, eyes closed, close. Listen to the breaths of one another and begin to form your perfect wedding in your mind. Take turns describing it. How does it feel to not have certain people there? If your partner all you care about seeing there?

Here is a great article on 5 Ways to Include Your Family in Your Elopement.

3. Location. How do we decide?

There are so many gorgeous places around the world to consider, and even more blog posts to tell you which ones you should chose and why ( don’t google it, you will just overwhelm yourself). Instead of searching the internet for the answer, search yourself instead. How much effort are you ready to put forth? Can you legally be married in those places? Do you have a special connection to a certain area? Do you share a special place together?The answers usually come out rather easily once you start digging.

4. Elements.

Which pieces of a traditional wedding are right for us? How do we make this unique to us?

As new generations grow up and begin to get married, their own values begin to slowly get cemented in the fabric of the industry. Eloping has become less and less, something secretive and more of a chance to stand out and be seen. All of the traditional and beautiful pieces of a large wedding can easily be incorporated into an elopement. If you need a list to get your ideas rolling sign up for my Destination Elopement Checklist below! I have taken the idea of a perfectly styled elopement and broken it down into several vital steps.

5. Budget

Once you’ve been able to sit down and have a good conversation about the topics above and figure out where you and your partner stand you will be more prepared to take the next step. The next step of course being to actually plan your destination elopement!

How much can you afford to put towards it this very moment? How long are you willing to wait? How much can you truly afford to put towards it every month? Super simple questions to help you come up with a good number.

Hopefully this little destination elopement checklist article really helped! Its always my goal to make sure everyone I can impact this life, walks always with a sense of calm and serenity. I see too many people going through the motions even when they know that it is wrong for them. It’s time to take back what’s yours and if, for you right now, that is taking back your wedding and getting eloped, then I want to help!