Traditional Dress for Elopement or Courthouse?

Do it!!! It's still your day, you're marrying your love, you should look exactly the way you want to. Who cares if it's impractical -- if you feel beautiful and confident, you'll pull it off. Do you know which courthouse you're getting married in? Many are very beautiful buildings with gorgeous staircases, so I can totally see you ascending/descending a grand city hall staircase to meet your groom. Many also have pretty outdoor areas -- something like that could work too.

Some inspiration: https://www.brides.com/gallery/epic-city-hall-wedding-photos

As long as you can bustle your dress, or don't mind throwing the train over your arm if necessary, I think you'll be fine.

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We've got zero plans as of right now but our town city hall is pretty ugly (just a an old brick building with a bunch of beige rooms inside) so hopefully if we go that route we can find a prettier building with more interesting architectural features. Right now we cannot even obtain a marriage license in town, but our state capital is still offering them. Maybe I can make trying to find the most beautiful city hall/courthouse in New Hampshire a new wedding planning project. Or, we are fortunate that our friend is the mayor of the town we live in, so he might be able to clue us in to some prettier buildings and/or hook us up with access to a building just so we can make our day special (and still get beautiful photos).

Two from Dover and Manchester seem
https://iamsarahv.com/blog/elopements-intimate-weddings/dover-new-hampshire-city-hall-elopement-wedding-fall/

https://leegphotography.com/blog/manchester-nh-city-hall-elopement/

Plenty of stunning outdoor options as well!https://www.beccamootphotography.com/new-hampshire-elopement

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Thanks!

Manchester is kind of a hotspot for Covid-19 cases right now (its the biggest city in the state, so it makes sense that there would be the most cases there and also that it would have one of the more dramatic city hall/courthouse options), so I'm not sure we'd feel comfortable going there but it's awesome to see photos of options in NH. There are definitely a ton of great outdoor options as well, I'm just trying to think of what would work for not being too crowded and not being too difficult to get to wearing or carrying our wedding attire. I will try to look up some NH elopement photographers for ideas though - I think that's really smart!

We're in southwestern NH, so fewer people and Covid-19 cases, but fewer photographed wedding hotspots too. We'd love to get married close to home. I'm sure we will figure out something! Thanks so much for your help!

Would you be willing to consider doing first look pictures somewhere (a nice park, your backyard, etc)? Then he could see your dress unbustled in its full glory? And perhaps take pictures before you go to the courthouse, and then bustle it before you go to the courthouse? That's what we're talking about doing

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Oh that's a good idea! I'm not sure our property would be that good but we'd probably have to get ready in the same house anyway (literally just thought about that now) so I'm not even sure how he'd not see me before we ended up anywhere unless I literally got changed in the woods. I'll have to think about that more. We do have plenty of pretty areas around at least!

View Quoted Comment Maybe forbid him from going into the room you're getting ready in? And have him go outside/to the location first? Our photographer is someone we knew before we got engaged so we're thinking she'll be willing to help us coordinate this

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We have a 900 square foot house with one bathroom, so isolating from one another while getting ready is not super realistic. But it's mostly the dress so I'm not too worried if he sees my hair/makeup ahead of time. I could have him go outside first, or maybe we could take separate cars. I'm not even sure about wearing my dress in a car (at our venue, I would have been able to get ready on site in a bridal suite and we had an AirBnB on site so everything was at the same place). If things have calmed down enough where I could have the photographer or a friend help, that would be much easier. I just don't know if we'll still all be standing 6 feet apart and not going into each others houses 8 weeks from now. Oh well, these are just ideas and we will figure it all out somehow.

View Quoted Comment Yeah, it sounds a bit tricky but I'm sure you'll come up with a good plan, no matter what you decide to do!

You could totally wear your dress. Like you said you compromised on so much already. Keep your dress and rock the hell out of it. It's your day and you deserve it.

I’m still wearing my dress! Feeling the same as you that cancelling everything has already taken away enough. We still deserve to look and feel our best on the day we marry! 👰🏻

Please make sure you wear your beautiful dress! You can pull it off now problem

Hello from Portsmouth! As someone that is in NH now crossing fingers to be able to get married in July, I would say wait and see for your date! (And of course I also agree, wear the dress!) Currently all town offices are closed as far as I know (maybe concord is open?) Maybe by your date everything will be calmed down and you can proceed with your original plans hopefully!!

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Hi Autumn! I called Concord probably a week ago and they said they ARE doing marriage licenses but recommended waiting until closer to our date to see if our town offices opened back up. So that's reassuring at least. Really hoping things improve by late May and trying to hold out as long as we can before making a decision, but obviously concerned that things will still be very uncertain by the time our head count is due (which would be right after the current stay-at-home order ends). Trying to remain hopeful and patient!

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I totally understand how difficult it is to stay hopeful right now but we have to! I hope everything goes your way!

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That's great they're open in Concord, hopefully your town will be starting to open up by then too. Hopeful and patient's the best way to be (unfortunately it's so hard sometimes with all this going on )