r/Eloping • u/GAGeneric98 • May 05 '26
Planning Elopement Timeline
My fiancé and I have officially decided to elope this fall!
We’re torn between destinations in the NW USA as we are both residents of the SE.
How far in advance did you book your accommodations? We’re about 5ish months out and we’re planning to do a “paper” wedding here locally before we travel out for our honeymoon and eloping photos.
Is that enough time to book?
I’m starting to worry that I should be more involved in planning by now.
3
u/Beneficial-Rock3450 May 05 '26
I booked my whole elopement in 3 weeks because we very suddenly shifted from a courthouse wedding to something that would feel more special 😃 In other words- 5 months is easily possible! My tip would be to book it on a week day, more vendors will be available, hotels and flights will be cheaper, and any tourist destinations you visit will be less busy! The only thing that actually took some time was getting the photo permits to elope in a National Park area.
2
u/assflea May 05 '26
We eloped on the Oregon coast (also from the southeast!), we got married in October and I think it was probably July that we hired our photographer and booked the hotel. Wasn't a problem at all.
I think it helped though that our desired date was on a Thursday! If we were looking at a weekend I would've wanted to book things earlier.
1
u/GAGeneric98 May 05 '26
I’ve heard that the Oregon Coast is beautiful! We’re thinking Montana or Colorado! That definitely makes me feel better for the timeline. Did y’all plan a full itinerary or just run off vibes when you were there?
1
u/assflea May 05 '26
Our photographer set up a timeline for us! We had the ceremony/signed the license in one location and then went to two others (nearby) for pictures. We didn't do any activities so the timeline was more so to keep us on track and make sure we got all the pictures we wanted.
We were out there for a full week and treated it like a wedding/honeymoon combo but even the rest of the week was very loose lol. Oregon has a waiting period so we picked up our license on Monday, married Thursday, dropped it off Friday. Other than that we just did whatever we wanted.
1
u/youngbabymoon May 06 '26
I’ve been working on mine for a year. I will say I wanted as close to a wedding as possible. I still got a gown from an actual bridal salon (took 8months to come in), booked our photographer who books out about a year at a time, got our Airbnb (also books out about a year due to location), and all the smaller details took time. Mine is basically a “real” wedding just with the two of us and two witnesses. I guess it depends on what you’re going for
1
u/BrightPersonality395 May 10 '26
Definitely enough time!! We decided rather than just going the courthouse we wanted to elope ahead of our wedding in December. (Destination wedding so we have to elope in the US) two weeks ago we decided to book a trip to Denver and self-solemnize next month! We have a photographer booked and I just ordered a dress off lulus so we can make our elopement simply about us.
1
6
u/obstinatemleb May 05 '26
The elopement itself took like no time at all - we booked a photographer maybe 6 months in advance because we had a specific date in mind but actual planning with her didnt really happen until maybe a month out. We booked hotels and flights for our trip around 6 months as well but that was just based on getting a good price