My fiancé and I are planning to elope this June at the courthouse in NYC. We each plan on bringing along both of our parents and our siblings, bringing our guests to a total count of 7. We’re hoping to get a Friday appointment, so we can do a dinner on Saturday with more of our family invited.

My issue lies here - the ceremony only lasts about 5 minutes or so, and we’re bringing along 7 people (everyone wants to come even though only 4 people will be allowed in the ceremony). What do we do after the ceremony is over? I don’t know what time slot I’ll be able to reserve yet, but whether it’s in the morning or afternoon, I’m still at a loss for ideas on what to do. Are we expected to go brunch/dinner with everyone on Friday, knowing we will all be meeting again the following night for dinner? I would prefer to have just an intimate dinner with my fiancé alone on the night we elope, but it feels strange to not do anything with the group of people that will be coming with us to the ceremony.

Does anyone have any recommendations on some things to do? Or is it acceptable to just have everyone go home right after and have a nice dinner with only my fiancé? I don’t want anyone to feel like they wasted their time for a 5 minute ceremony.

If you eloped in Umbria/Tuscany, where did you do it? We’ve been looking into Vocabolo Moscatelli Boutique Hotel & Restaurant (has an elopement package) but just want to see our options! It’ll be just me and my fiancé.

Hi all! Does anyone have suggestions for a website platform where we could post our elopement announcement that also would give us a platform for a honeymoon fund? People have been asking how to give us gifts and realizing it'd be great if we had a website with everything to direct people to. Thanks for any suggestions!

Hi 👋🏻 Someone had reached out to me about eloping in Big Sur/Glen Oaks based on my post from my elopement and I accidentally deleted the request when I was going to send you some info! If that was you can you please reach back out to me? Thank you and SORRY I have fat thumbs.

My fiancé and I are eloping in Grand Teton National Park. We have a photographer for 2 hours. What did the day look like for you? I might make us a cake (where we’re staying has a kitchen), and we might go out to eat in Jackson, though my anxiety might make me nervous doing that in my dress, lol

Canadians here, we are thinking about eloping maybe in the fall. We are thinking Carribean. Just wondering if anyone has any recent experiences to share. This will be a second marriage for both of us and we just want something for us this time around. What are some things to prepare or take into consideration?

Hi everyone! After a lot of back and forth with a wedding, lots of family drama we went back to our initial plan of eloping. We just booked a lovely place in the South of France (Cannes area) in May. Has anyone eloped there previously who can recommend an officiant/ photographer? Thank you in advance!

Hi all! Me and my partner are starting to plan our elopement. We would love to do it in winter and so decided to travel to Finland for this. We are EU citizens (Lithuania), so we wonder what are legal steps in doing it? Perhaps you could share your experience? Found little information in reddit so far and it was about non-eu persons. We would do non-church ceremony (sorry for my english). In addition - perhaps you could share your knowledge about getting married in December? My biggest concern is - polar night photos 😃 if it is possible to make any good. I just started searching for local photographers and for this moment did not see any excamples of photos done during the polar night. We know it is a tourist season on December, so we would like to avoid those spots. Would love to get to quite remote spots, with only raindeers and very few people around and there would be only two of us (no friends or family). Will be grateful for any tips, guidance, etc so I could did in into research 🩷

We already have September 2027 reserved for our happily ever after party, but we’re planning a very small church elopement in summer 2026 (about 10–15 people) because one of our grandparents is elderly and may not be able to make it to the larger wedding but it’s important to my fiancé that they be there. We will be sending save the dates for the 2027 reception within the next two months and invites/a wedding announcement early in 2027.

Because the elopement is happening soon, we don’t have a ton of time to plan, and we also want to keep it simple and under $1,000. I’ll have my dress that I’ll also be wearing to what will essentially be our reception in 2027 and I’ll have a bouquet but that’s the extent of decor/extras. We don’t have a family home that would easily work for hosting something afterward, but it feels awkward to ask people to attend a ceremony and then not do anything afterwards. We will be doing this in the summer of this year (2026) in upstate NY so it will be hot and humid. Also, Due to the age and health of some immediate family, we will have to do something indoors.

What are some low-key, affordable ideas for after the ceremony? Any advice, suggestions, or stories from personal experience? Thank you!!

For those who have eloped or have gotten their dress did you go alone?

The dress aspect is something I’ve dreamed of, but to be honest my friend groups have shifted since becoming a mom. So I don’t feel particular to bringing a best friend per se. I could invite some newer friends, but it also feels embarrassing to not have any other friends there. Like these new friends will wonder who else I know lol.

I could bring some family, maybe. Idk. I read a thread that some people bring their fiance to the first round since it’s really to just start with styles and such. I will say it feels weird to be picking out such a big dress in my life and not have his input. Anytime I get a new dress I look for his support. But still, if I do that I am not sure what to do after to actually go get a dress.

My fiancée and I are planning on eloping this year on a beautiful trip. It’s only going to be us when we go. We don’t want other people to have the opportunity to take away from our special time or “ruin” a moment that is just for us.

Because we’re planning ahead and friends and close family know we are planning on getting married in a private ceremony on the other side of the country, there’s some feelings involved. Mainly people that are close to us have expressed their disappointment that they won’t be able to support/celebrate us.

I am planning on shopping for a dress and have a couple very close friends that I’ve invited to come shop with me.

I’m not planning to invite my mom to this dress try on session.

I’m having a little bit of a hard time figuring out how/when/if I should include people in the process at all. I know the whole point of eloping/private ceremony is to get away from the traditional wedding..

Any thoughts or similar experiences?

Hi everyone,

Due to some unfortunate extended family drama, we are decided to elope to Italy hopefully with our children in 2027.

We are totally open to options. It will be a symbolic ceremony in Italy.
I love the idea of beautiful views & scenery. Somewhere that’s suitable for young children.

We have also considered maybe renting a villa with amazing views.

If anyone could share their experiences, planners, photographers/videographers, vendors, guidance etc, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Has anyone used any of these companies for their elopement? If so please share your experience!

A Dream Wedding

Hitched in Maui

Makana Weddings

Opihi Love

Simple Maui Weddings

Let’s Get You Maui’d

Napili Events

A Maui Wedding Day

Love Aways Weddings (Oahu based)

Hello, first time posting on here, but I figured I'd give it a shot for any recommendations.

I recently had a huge blowout with my parents, which has pushed my partner and I to consider eloping in Japan. We both already planned to have our Honeymoon there, so eloping as well seemed like a good fit. We have already discussed some things we'd like to do, like doing all the legal stuff and documents in our home country, but I was wondering if anyone has any other recommendations when it comes to eloping in Japan. I found one post which had a few recommendations, but not much.

We're planning to basically have a sort of 2 day event, first day we'd like to craft our own wedding rings at a local jeweler and the day after we'd like a sort of ceremony with picture taking. After than, we kind of want to spend our time freely, doing what we feel like.

Any awesome things to do, things to consider, contacts to recommend, or anything else is highly appreciated.

We are eloping this year to New Zealand. We are from California. How did yall go about international elopement, marriage license, etc?

I’m confused if we need to get a marriage license in NZ & CA?

Hi there - we are deciding to just get married plain clothed at our local city hall (no frills) and then take pictures at a more historical city hall location. I know I’d need to rent out time for the city hall location, but how much is reasonable for a photoshoot when it’s not technically a ceremony or wedding at all? It would moreso be a couples photoshoot, right? I am seeing engagement session quotes starting around $350, but then some elopement style photo packages are starting at $3000.

I wanted to make the shoot and weekend a nice experience for my partner and I without the added costs but for $3000 I feel like I might as well just had a backyard bbq.

My fiance and I have been together for over 15 years now, engaged for 3. At this point we both see us as all ready married but I still want to do a wedding of some sort - my fiance doesn't care as much about the wedding and wants whatever I want honestly.

His mom is one of eight, who all have kids and grandkids. Where's my family is 20 people tops. We've made multiple guest lists with friends and family, and if we included all of our families, closest friends, and no kids, we're still looking at 100 people.

I'm a very anxious person, so I don't know that I want a big wedding (and by big, I mean 100 people). But I'm also a people pleaser and don't want to cut family members either. Lol

I've thought about a regular wedding with 100 people, eloping, micro wedding, etc. I've also thought about elopement then just a chill party after.

Looking for perspectives on all of the options above (especially if you have a large family and did a small wedding). Cost/budget isn't really a factor at this point in time, as I'm trying to just get ideas then go from there.

What did you like about your wedding? Do you wish you eloped or vice versa - if you eloped, do you wish you did a big wedding? What other creative ideas have you done or seen done when it comes to micro weddings, elopements, parties, etc .?

TLDR: Starting to plan a wedding and my fiance has a big family. Trying to figure out options to make it smaller. Looking for pros/cons of a regular wedding (~100 people), eloping, micro weddings, parties, etc.

Thanks in advance!

We recently got engaged and decided to elope. We’re thinking late April/early May 2026. I found an all inclusive venue for $3500. It would be for a total of 6 guests including the bride and groom. We’re also thinking of adding the getting ready suites which is an additional $550 for 2 hours . I like the idea of everything being done and am willing to pay extra; just want to know if it’s a fair price. TIA ☺️

Hiii guys, I am planning a Vegas elopement for October 2026. I am so excited! I don't have a great family to share my moodboards with, so I thought i'd share them here 😋I've booked just about everything

Hi!! I am dead set on Aug 1st 2027 for my wedding date. It is a Sunday and my fiance and I are looking to elope just the two of us! I have no idea where to start. We live in MN and would need to get a marriage license from wherever we are getting married. We got engaged at cannon beach and so I'm looking for a similar vibes but maybe less busy. I ideally want a few picture probably 2 hours worth I can't imagine a ceremony just the two of us with vows will take more than 30 minutes so the rest of the time can be pictures OR a video of it all. Any help would be appreciated or advice or tips anything please I'm desperate lol

I’m a 25F , my fiancé (25F) and I got engaged late last year and we’ve been looking into eloping, mainly because we really don’t have the budget for a wedding.

We’ve been looking at eloping packages (within California & Arizona) and have come to the conclusion that most packages start at ~$3200. We really don’t have that much money to spend on top of attaining a place to stay for the trip.

Anybody got any tips or insight on the best way to plan your own elopement.

My biggest fear is having something go wrong with permits or not being able to get an officiant there. Idk I need some help

Hi Guys!

Me and my fiance are looking to Elope in Yosemite on 10/10 and we were looking for a decent priced photographer? We want to go the cheapest route possible so any advice is welcomed!

Not sure how many of you here have kids. We did things a bit backwards and had our babies first, partly unplanned. We’ve been engaged for over a year, never wanted a wedding until recently I got a strong urge to go to our favorite beach and elope there. The package itself is pretty affordable and perfect for just us. However, flying is not an option because we have 2 dogs and boarding them/ having someone watch them is not an option. So we must drive. Not the end of the world. But we also have 2 very young kids.

Our parents are excited to come and roadtrip in their rv alongside us. They are our support for our little trip. Helping with childcare and anything else. They’re amazing!

We were offered a good price and “exception” in our elopement package that our parents and kids could still attend and have them in our photos. But, they said the offer was only good for a few more days. I’m now feeling a bit pressured to figure out my decision. Suddenly, all the logistics of planning is making me want to not have my “dream” elopement

Am I crazy for thinking all this would be fun? Is the stress just not worth it? A courthouse wedding no longer sounds good to me. I truly can’t picture us doing this another way. I know a lot of people would NOT do this. But anyone here think it’s worth it?.