Pro photographer shooting elopement during Covid-19

I know a lot of wedding photographers personally and this is 100% true.

If your photographer is uncomfortable, I wouldn't push it.

My guess is that officiants are considered "essential" because they either tend to be religious leaders or civic officials. (Though many are not.) Anyway, legal marriages are considered essential for health insurance, visa, and military spouse reasons, so local governments will sanction these. Photographers that aren't photojournalists are going to be a lot more of a gray area.

Maybe you can reach out to another photographer, see if they are comfortable? Or speak to the person doing your elopement - if they are a courthouse official, they may actually have a photographer for government documentation.

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Thanks this is helpful! I've just seen so many elopement and micro-wedding photos that I was wondering how it was possible but I guess maybe those are all in states with fewer restrictions right now.

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Thanks! Photography is super important to me and I searched a lot for a good fit, so not only are we not looking to keep hemorrhaging money on this day, but I really like our photographer and have been looking forward to working with her so much. I definitely won't force the issue, it just kind of caught me off guard since so many others seem to be going through with professionally photographed and filmed weddings during this time. I have a couple of photographer friends who shoot semi-professionally and have second-shooter wedding experience who I know would photograph our elopement if we asked, but at this point we feel like we are sacrificing almost everything about our day.

Our friends are officiating and got sworn in just for our wedding, so there is no business or exchange of money involved and they don't have connections at the courthouse or to other wedding professionals. I didn't see anything about wedding officiants or wedding services considered "essential" so wasn't sure how that worked, but I guess maybe it falls into another category.

I was really hoping we could at least hold onto our date and photographer since we have to give up our venue, food, guests, and pretty much almost our entire wedding, but now it doesn't even look like that will be possible.

View Quoted Comment Could be, do you have a friend or relative who knows their way around a camera?


Maybe when the restrictions are lifted your photographer could do more of a styled session 😊

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I'm a photographer (primarily nature, landscapes, and sports, not portraits or weddings) and we have a couple closer friends who are semi-pro photographers (also not wedding photographers, although both have shot weddings before as a second-shooter) and would shoot our elopement if we asked, but I worry I'd be disappointed by the outcome. I had one of my friends (who offered to shoot our wedding for free right after we were engaged, way before Covid-19 was an issue) do a family shoot of us with our dog and my fiance was just so uncomfortable that he looks downright miserable in 90% of the shots even though they technically came out fine, so having a wedding photographer used to working with awkward couples and giving people direction is probably needed more than just someone who knows how to take a technically good photo. Photography is super important to me so hiring a photographer that was a good fit was literally the single most important vendor decision for our wedding for me. I was just hoping we could hold on to some aspect of what we hoped the day it would be. I feel like we have to throw out the date now, and I just feel so hopeless. We have no timeline going forward and I'm really struggling.

View Quoted Comment Yeah, it takes a special kind of personality to capture the right expressions, not just the technical aspects of operating a camera. Maybe you could find a photojournalist who would be willing to do it as other PP have suggested.

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Yea, I'm not interested in seeking out any additional paid professionals for any services at this point. We've already invested a significant amount of money into an event that cannot happen.

We are just going to have to forgo our initial date and wait until we have more information about what we can do.

View Quoted Comment That’s perfectly understandable