Hey everyone, I hope your wedding planning is going well! I wanted to share some tips from my recent elopement.
The Backstory
I actually work at a wedding venue. It's beautiful and perfect for a lot of people, but not me and my partner. We are pretty laid-back and offbeat and we just like to be a bit unconventional. We are also above the average age of couples getting married plus it was his second marriage. My partner has a neurotic personality type and planning with him would be a nightmare (LOL). We live in a remote place that requires a long flight no matter where you're coming from, and many of his family live literally on the other side of the world, plus we bought a house recently and our budget was small. An elopement made total sense.
The Location
We are very outdoorsy and there is good weather where we live much of the time, so I chose one of our favorite hiking spots that never gets too crowded.
The Officiant
Our friend got certified online and I wrote the ceremony.
Outfits
I do not look good in white whatsoever, so I bought a long dress by a local designer that I liked, and that I knew I would wear again for parties, etc. My partner wore a shirt and casual pants he already had in his wardrobe that I picked out for him. (We wore hiking clothes to the ceremony site and then changed into our wedding clothes).
Photos and Flowers
A photographer would have been very expensive since our ceremony site was a two hour hike away from the parking lot, and I was not crazy about having any one we didn't know well at the ceremony anyway. A friend took photos on our phone, and we plan to book a couples' photo session at another time for formal photos for ourselves and to share with our families. The same friend provided some simple flowers for us.
Food
This was the MOST important part for me. It was a non-negotiable that there would be a lot of delicious food. We could have gone to a restaurant but my partner is just not a big restaurant person and since we were going to be outside it made sense to have a lavish picnic! I baked some desserts (including my partner's favorite cookies and cake) but mostly everything else was assembled - cheeses, crackers, olives, cured meats, veggies, dips, smoked salmon, fruit, etc. We also brought a bottle of red wine since it didn't need to be cold (make sure you know the laws about alcohol in public spaces if you go this route). We divided the food in tupperware containers along with plates, cutlery and a picnic blanket amongst our four backpacks.
Cost rundown:
Marriage license and officiant's online certification: $75
Location: Free
Dress: $378 + $36 alterations
Flowers: Gifted
Photos: $500 (couple's photo session in the near future)
Beauty: $35 pedicure, $30 brows, did my own hair and makeup. I also had a cut and color ($220) but arguably I would do that at some point anyway, I had just been lazy about getting it done).
Food: about $100 for four people. If you wanted to invite more people you could always make it more of potluck.
If you have any questions or would like any further tips, just ask!
