Elopement – Top tips for planning an elopement wedding
Elopement weddings
Top tips & things to consider
- Budget – First and foremost, as with all weddings, I would look to set your budget. This will then help with the rest of the planning.
- Destination – Choose a destination for your elopement. Are you after a wedding close to home, or is there a fabulous destination you’ve been dreaming of. Be that the chapels of Las Vegas, the mountains of the Rockies, a beach wedding or Gretna Green.
- Marriage laws – Check out the marriage laws for the country/province you want to get married in. These can vary quite a lot. For example in Alberta the laws are quite simple and it is possible to get married almost anywhere. You can see the rules for Alberta here.
- Suppliers – Choose the suppliers for your day. I would strongly recommend a good photographer to capture your precious moments. I would love to chat about your day, drop me a message to see if we’d be a good match! Consider whether or not you would also like a videographer to film your ceremony or create a highlights reel. Another hugely important person in your day will be your officiant/celebrant. If you’ve always dreamed of a hiking elopement, you’ll need to find suppliers who offer this amongst their services. Often hiking is done through the later part of the night to enable the ceremony and/or photos to take place during sunrise. Other suppliers to consider – wedding planner, dress boutiques, florists, venue (if required), food/cake.
- Accommodation/travel – Will you be needing to organise travel and accommodation for your elopement wedding? If you are heading to popular destination for your special day it might be worth getting these booked well in advance to ensure you get your pick of places to stay.
- Guests – Are you planning on eloping just the two of you, or will you be having guests? Another consideration, which may in turn affect your choice of marriage location.
- Party – Will you be having a celebration/party after your wedding? Do you need to plan a venue and catering for this?
- Veils – Are you wanting to wear a veil, a much smaller consideration, but you might want to consider getting veil weights to help counteract the potentially windy conditions.
