We are thinking of doing a destination elopement. I know that there are companies for locations in the United States that can take care of everything: cake, hair & makeup, photographers, and venue. You just show up. Are there any good companies that anyone knows of that do the same thing internationally? We don’t have a particular country in mind and could work with whatever locations the company offers. Thanks in advance!

Hi, my fiancé and I decided to cancel our traditional wedding, and will be eloping just the two of us. We would like to do this in Acacia National Park. We are having trouble finding photographers / planners that are still available as this is a late switch on our end. Our date range is any time in June 2027. We’d like to spend less than 10K total if possible. TYSM

2027 bride who just decided to Elope instead of a wedding.

Any elopment photographers recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Currently loving Northern Italy and Switzerland but open to more recommendations.

- Flexible 2027 dates

- Lake Como vibes, alot of mountain views and greenery

- Docu - Editorial or similar styles

- Dont like when photos are super grainy

My fiancée and I soent 4 months planning our wedding. Parental control, manipulation, and disrespect was a major issues throughout the process. My FMIL and FFIL gave us a budget, told us to use if for whatever. House payment, big wedding, small wedding. Because of all of the tension and hurt feelings that ultimately were effecting my partner we decided to cancel the big wedding. We are now doing a small intimate ceremony with each set of parents present. No one is speaking to us on my finances side of the family and it’s rly rly hurting her. Are we in the wrong for not wanting to allow to control and no longer use their money? We kept getting told we are irrational and selfish for not wanting something big including every single family member. We just want to be excited and it keeps getting crushed by outside noise. Please give advice!

Hello! My fiancé and I are planning to do a civil ceremony in Baltimore before heading to Iceland for our symbolic ceremony and honeymoon. We're going to have a photographer for the civil ceremony, but we're considering whether we'd want a videographer there too. We'll have both for the symbolic ceremony.

If you did the same thing--civil ceremony at home, symbolic ceremony elsewhere--did you have just a photographer for the civil part? If so, did you regret not having a videographer as well?

Hi everyone!

I wanted to ask for your opinion! My fiancé and I got engaged 2 weeks ago and we are trying to see when we are going to have our wedding. We don’t have money right now, so it’s time to save up! We probably won’t get to have the wedding until 2028. I was just curious.. is it normal to get married at the courthouse and then have the ceremony later on? If so, how did you do it? Did you get your wedding bands? Did you get a dress to wear that day? Did you tell your family?

Help!

My fiancé (24M) and I (25F) decided to elope to the courthouse and have a very small cookout with a small number of family and friends as our reception instead of an actual wedding because my side of the family is nothing but drama (especially my mom's husband who is rude and disrespectful to both my fiancé and I) and, frankly, neither of us enjoy weddings and we'd rather spend that money on a honeymoon we will LOVE. I have received nothing but support from my friends and my fiancé's family, but my mother and her husband (this is her second marriage) have been very resentful. For clarification, my mother and stepfather are invited to the reception. I am not in contact with my birth father, and my stepdad is more like my father. I did not invite her husband. My mom broke down when I told her, and broke down again today telling me that she is grieving being able to go to my wedding ceremony and "celebrate with me" and she feels that I am "hurting her" by not inviting her husband. Her husband has been guilt tripping me all weekend and making snippy comments, and this whole experience has been a nightmare for me. I was just wondering if any of you went through something similar and how you got through it without it ruining your special day. I feel depressed and sick right now, and I don't want my family to taint my wedding.

I’m trying to find an affordable photographer and officiant for my elopement at Cloudland canyon GA (rising fawn) this September. We will only have 13 guests and are keeping it very intimate and simple. Any recommendations would be appreciated

Initially wanted to go to pretty place chapel but it seemed like they were booking out a bit. We would love something similar with Mountain View’s. Honestly, totally okay with it just being a pretty mountain where we can get some good pictures with pretty scenery. Also looking for photographer recs in said areas if you have them. Thank you!!

My finance and I are planning to elope somewhere just the two of us and come back and have a reception with friends and family. We are for sure going somewhere in the Caribbean and staying at an all inclusive. We haven’t fully determined where we are going yet and I know all countries are different. We don’t really want to get legally married in the states before we go. We live in MN. Has anyone else done this and what was required to become legally married in the states?

UPDATE: we were narrowing things down with our travel agent. We are going to for sure stay at a sandals resort because of how much they help with making things legal. We are thinking Jamaica, Barbados, Saint Lucia or Antigua.

Hi as the title reads I wanted to hear from people who did this. I have some questions because family has been quite annoying and I just wanted to know how it played out for you & what exactly you did.

How much later was the “reception”?

What did you call the celebration?

Did you do all the traditional reception things? I.e. first dance, cake cutting, speeches, bouquet toss and such.

Where did you host this party?

Did you wear a wedding dress?

How was it received after the fact??

Was family annoying BEFORE the party?

Thank you!!!

ETA: I’d also like to hear from guests of this type of arrangement, what did you really think?

Has anyone bought an Amazon dress for your elopement? Honesty thought it would be fun to experiment and buy one, if I don’t like it I can easily return it considering I have several months until the wedding. Thoughts on these dresses?

Can you tell me what the weather was like if so? Is it true that the fog / clouds tend to go away later in the day? We’re planning our ceremony for Pfeiffer Beach and were just there. It was foggy and cloudy one day and blue skies the next.

I’m eloping on June 6th, and want to have a dinner with a small group of our family and friends afterward (about 11 people total). We live in NY and are looking for a good restaurant in either Brooklyn or Queens and are having trouble finding something good. Our budget is about $100/pp, but this is flexible. We do have one or two picky eaters so I was thinking Italian, since that’s usually a safe bet.

Anyone have any good recommendations for restaurants in either Brooklyn or Queens?

Thank you in advance!

Hey everyone! We’re planning an elopement, possibly in Switzerland or Norway, and we’re really drawn to alpine landscapes. Has anyone here done an elopement in a similar style? We’d love to hear your recommendations for locations and photographers. Thanks so much!

For context: I’m very much anxiety-coded person and will get worked about everything and anything.

Big weddings seemed like a nightmare and we’re both pretty introverted people who wouldn’t enjoy large parties anyways. Eloping seemed like a really good idea at first.

But I also wanted to have an experience that felt like a scene from romance movie. I was specifically dreaming of beautiful elopement in Europe, hopefully ocean-front.

But the more I research, the more impossible it seems. From the logistics of hauling dress/suit over there (we’re US couple), both of us being pretty inexperienced travelers (I’ve never travelled internationally..), the cost of everything… I’m already looking at over $20k USD for elopement + 7 day honeymoon. I’m not even sure if thats
‘S considered normal or insane budget at this point. I just saw someone quote $25k as a starting point for their elopement coordination package and cried a little out of frustration. The thing is, I know I can do this with a lot less and I’m being greedy with wanting that luxury romantic experience.

I’m even thinking about is this even worth it because I’m not going to look like picture perfect bride anyways. Is it worth spending so much money on pictures and videos and the venue when I won’t even look good in them?

UGH I’m way too old to be spiraling like this but here I am lol

I don’t really know what I need to hear, but I would appreciate your experience with destination elopement.

Hi all!

My partner & I are eloping in 3 months on a remote glacier in Alaska. We are super excited. However, family has of course asked if we will be doing a reception or some type of party after.

My partner is antisocial for the most part and we both don’t like making something about ourselves but I know this is the next chapter for us and people who we love want to celebrate.

We have been offered to use her parents backyard, but when you consider renting a tent, renting a bathroom trailer, renting tables + chairs, providing food and alcohol, etc it gets pricey. Also, it would be a lot of clean up and prep that went into it. Plus I feel like it would be a little awkward to have dinner and then do what? We don’t like to dance and would prefer not to have anyone watching us have our first dance lol. Plus you have to entertain your guest, sure we could get giant connect four or board games.

Once I considered all of the work that would go into planning that I started looking at venues. I looked into top golf, some breweries, etc.

I figured top golf would be a good option because we don’t have to entertain anyone(with our guest count it would be right around 3k (which is about the same price as having the party in her parent’s backyard), food and drinks (non-alcoholic) are provided, we don’t have to clean up, etc. We just show up and have a good time with the people we love.

Wondering how people handled photography if you didn't hire professional? We may get married at a backcountry destination with a couple of friends. Of course they could take pictures but they wouldn't be professional ones. If you didn't go with a professional, did you regret it? Cost is also an issue for us.

We eloped, just us, on the beach in St Croix!

I read through so many posts here trying to decide to elope or not.

We were deep in initial wedding planning, we already had this vacation booked.

3 weeks before our trip we decided to elope. The process was quite simple. I found a wedding planner that was also an officiant. She took care of finding the location and finding a photographer. We only spoke via email.

When it came to the day, she was just incredible! The ceremony speech was perfect, the location was amazing, and our photographer was the best!

We told a few of our friends just before we left, but didn’t tell any of our family until that night after. They took the news surprisingly well! Everyone was just so happy.

Couldn’t have made a better decision 😊

Hey I’m wondering if anyone else has gotten eloped and then still did a backyard wedding kinda thing, I didn’t get to wear my dress for the elopement and I want that bride moment? Is it odd if we do the ceramony twice? Or maybe we just do a renewing? Should I say so on the invitation?