PLANNING YOUR ELOPEMENT
BY AN AUSTRALIAN & NEW ZEALAND ELOPEMENT PHOTOGRAPHER & VIDEOGRAPHER
Think about your WHY.
It all begins with a thought, a thought that a traditional huge wedding isn’t for you. That is OKAY, you don’t have to bend to the will of your family, friends or anyone that tells you otherwise. I’m here to tell you that it is completely and 100% your decision to do what feels right to you & your partner.
How your day plans out will be based a lot around your why, why do you want to elope? Does it feel more intimate for you and your partner? Why do you feel it will be more beneficial for you both? Do you just want a casual, low key wedding day without having to chat to people all day and the stress of planning? Whatever your reasons may be, keep them in mind while you are planning so you can truely make the day about the two of you.
Make a mood board about how you want the day to be!
This can actually be one of the most exciting parts of planning! If you aren’t much of a mood board type of person, you can always just envision in your mind or write it down how you want your elopement to look!
This can include photo inspiration, florals, locations, dress, suit, hair, makeup, all the things!
You can also include fun things that you might want to include to make it different, I’m a firm believer in making it exactly what you two want, there are no rules and you can incorporate absolutely anything into your elopement.
Find your location
Now the fun part starts, finding your dream location.
Absolutely nowhere is off limits, do you have somewhere that is special to the two of you? Or just somewhere that is drop dead gorgeous and you love the look of? Either way, you can make it work.
Having a location that is special to the both of you might make it easier as you know the location while also adding to your memories of that particular location, While having a location that you don’t necessarily know too well might make it a little bit more difficult, although it is still more than possible and a nice way to start your married life together in a whole new location with a whole lot of new memories. Finding good vendors is also a good idea too as they can be crucial in helping with the planning, so take advantage of them!
A few things to keep in mind when finding your location is time of year, accessibility (are you having it in a building/airbnb or out in nature?) and how busy the location is?
Time of year is definitely the most important, Do you want snow? Heat? Beach? All of these things will come into play, so it’s important to look into seasons of the particular place you are looking at. If you don’t want rain then a rainforest probably isn’t the best place, is you don’t love the cold then a warmer climate in summer/spring would work better for you, but if you love the cold, then Iceland is perfect!
Next is accessibility, if you are looking at getting married in nature, it’s important to look into local laws & who owns the location, the council of the certain location might not allow elopements or you may have to pay a small fee, so this is super important to make sure nothing goes wrong on the day and it is organised beforehand!
if you are wanting a intimate elopement then you also want to keep how busy the location is in mind, because this can of course take away from the intimacy that i’m assuming you will want!
Choosing your date
The first step to picking your date can link into what I said above, checking to make sure your location is in it’s prime season and then you can go from there in picking a date! for example, If you want to elope in Italy, then May-September would be the best time to do so! But other than this it will just depend on your availability and what time of the year works for you, just make sure to consider everything you want to incorporate into your day when picking a date so the location/season works into it.
Working out your Budget
Budget will obviously play the main part in your elopement, it’s important to figure out what is most important to the both of you and what you want to spend a larger amount of money on versus something that isn’t as important to you. A few things to think about that are more costly are photographer & videographer, venue/location, florist, hair/makeup artist, celebrant, flights/airbnb/rentals, attire/rings.
It might seem like a lot, but you would be suprised about how well you can elope while not spending a crazy amount of money, but It’s your wedding day so it’s important to spend what you feel comfortable spending on each particular component.
Don’t rule anything out because you think it might be out of your budget, you might be suprised! So don’t be scared to get quotes from vendors, ask questions, watch videos and read blogs to help.
The Legal Stuff
I think this is where most stress comes from for couples, just like a wedding, you need a wedding license and it can be a little tricky doing this away from your home country where laws are different. What I always recommend my couples do is go down to your local court house a few days before you leave and get legally married, but leave the vows, rings and everything else to your symbolic ceremony/elopement. This doesn’t make eloping any less special, getting married is about the commitment to each other, not a piece of paper. If you aren’t having any family come to your elopement, you can also use this as a nice way to have them come along and be your witnesses.
You can also hire your celebrant to do everything but the legal stuff, most elopement celebrants know that this is what couples do, so they are used to it.
Alternatively, if you want everything to be done the day of your elopement, you can definitely do this, it’s just a few more steps to jump through and it is different for every country so make sure to look into what your government requires when marrying in another country.
Finding your Vendors
Photographer/Videographer
Without being bias, this is the most important part, these are the memories you will hold onto years down the track, do you remember watching your grandmas wedding video and going through the photos and all the emotions that came flooding back with it? The only thing I am going to say about finding a photo & video team is, find one that you vibe with and LOVE their work, don’t pick someone based on price, because you might end up having problems and not loving the final product. Also, you don’t want to feel uncomfortable on your day, so it is so important that you get along with your vendors, especially photographer & videographer, you will literally be with them all day and you want to feel comfortable in front of the camera because trust me, if you aren’t, it will show through in the photos, so make sure you VIBE with them!
Elopement Celebrant -
As I said above you can have a celebrant there to walk you through the ceremony and make it feel more legit even if you have already legally married at a court house. If you are having family at your elopement you can even ask one of them to marry you, alternatively you can also ask your photographer to do this if you want to have as minimal people as possible!
If you want to have everything done on the same day and not beforehand, you can also ask your family member/photographer to get their marriage license (this is quite easy!)
Hair & Makeup -
This can honestly be your own choice, some of my previous brides have done their own makeup and some have had makeup artists & hair come to do it for them.
I honestly love when my brides do their own hair & makeup (if you feel up to it and know a little bit about what to do!) But it can just be so sweet & can add to the intimacy of the elopement.
Florist -
Having a florist won’t be as important for an elopement as it would be for a wedding, but it’s still so gorgeous being able to have a bouquet of flowers for your elopement, so it’s another decision to make to see if it’s important to you. One of my previous brides actually spent the morning of her elopement walking around her airbnb in Southern Italy and picked wild flowers she saw that she loved (with permission of course). I also love the idea of running down to the local markets the morning of and buying a bunch of different flowers to make into a bouquet.
Finding your Attire/Rings
Whether you are eloping or not, you deserve to feel beautiful/handsome! So finding your attire & rings can be really fun and a great way to incorporate family (having them come with you to dress fittings etc). You know how usually a groom won’t see his brides dress until the day, I actually had a previous couple that made it so the bride didn’t see the grooms suit either! So it made them both feel excited for the other to see them on the elopement day.
You will also want to think about how many outfits you will need, one for post ceremony to be more comfortable? One for your pre-ceremony photoshoot the day before?
Here is a list of everything you will need to complete your wedding attire.
Dress
Veil
Earrings + Necklace
Shoes + Socks
Suit
Belt
Tie
Under Garments
Wedding Rings
Perfume/Cologne
At the end of the day, this is about you two and no-one else so make sure to keep that in mind. There are no rules, so enjoy it. The one thing I hate seeing is my couples stressing and ultimately not enjoying their day, so don’t let that happen.
If you are looking for a photographer & videographer to fit into your special day, my partner Cody and I would love to be there and capture your day, we are silly and love to have a bit of fun while also being down to earth and capturing your soul through our work.
We can’t wait to hear from you x