Top 7 Reasons Why You Should Elope
Top 7 Reasons Why You Should Elope
As you embark on your exciting journey to get married, you might find yourself wondering how to celebrate your marriage. You might be asking yourself, “Do I want to have a large traditional wedding?” or “Should I elope?” After capturing nearly 150 weddings and elopements, and from many conversations with our clients, we created this list of the Top 7 Reasons Why You Should Elope!
Celebrate Your Marriage In A Meaningful Way
Elopements are a way to center the day you get married around what matters most to you. The symbolism and intentionality behind any and every aspect can hold meaning. Elopements provide freedom to make choices that are a true representation of your relationship. If a big bougie party isn’t your cup of tea, it’s completely ok to say so. Some couples just feel more comfortable enjoying a celebration that is truly them – whether that’s spending the day hiking out in nature, exploring a new city, or staying in a remote airbnb hot tubbing and making pizza.
Moreover, elopements are not limited to one day. Travel, excursions, decadent food, drinks, and amenity-filled lodging are all things that will enhance your memories when you get married. Feel empowered to create a day that is a unique and authentic representation of you two.
Spend The Day Doing The Things You Enjoy
You should have a blast marrying your best friend – and by choosing to elope, you can! With little to no guests, elopements provide flexibility and opportunity for you to do the things you love. You can travel to remote destinations that provide breathtaking views. Choose activities that are fun, playful, adventurous, intentional, and true to what you enjoy doing as a couple. Ultimately, you get to spend more time with each other! When you elope, there are no limits. You can stand up paddle board on an alpine lake, play board games on top of a mountain, embark on a helicopter exploration, snowmobile to a rustic cabin, loop the loop at an amusement park and then paint the town!
Be mellow and allow yourself time to be spontaneous. If you sunbathe near a mountain lake and the sun feels too good to leave, then just stay a while. When a herd of elk graze into view from your picnic site, sit and observe for as long as you like. If you build a campfire and the sunset lights up, you can watch every single second of the day’s fleeting light.
Go With the Flow Vibe
Planning a big party and entertaining guests is exhausting. Many couples who begin planning a big wedding find it stressful needing to please so many people. When you assume the responsibility of entertaining others, there is inherently more stress associated with the overall enjoyment of your guests. Furthermore, your time becomes compromised when you have to split it amongst a large group of people. Spreading yourself thin is not relaxing.
Contrarily, elopements don’t require you to compromise your time for anyone else. With fewer guests involved, elopements give you flexibility and spontaneity! You are not restricted to follow a timeline and do what so many couples have done before. Enjoy every moment when you marry your best friend, and be uniquely you!
Prioritize Your Vows & Feel Vulnerable
Your ceremony is the pinnacle of your day. Heartfelt vows are inherently vulnerable and personal, and exchanging them in front of a crowd can be intimidating and disconcerting. Elopements provide a safe space for you to feel calm, focused, and present. Vows can become diluted when the moment is more about a party than a promise. A big production with decorations, food, drinks, music, people, conversations, wait staff, DJs, and plus ones are all distractions. By stripping away the pageantry, your vows become more prevalent. Privacy makes it easier and more natural to truly be vulnerable.
Feel Supported
Another of our top 7 reasons you should elope is elopements celebrate the intimacy of relationships. Everyone included should make you feel comfortable, appreciated, and fully loved for who you are. No one is entitled to be present on your wedding day, and the ones who are should joyfully participate and prioritize you. The feeling of obligation to others may certainly be present, but don’t let that persuade you to include others if they don’t make you feel supported.
Inviting the wrong people can hinder the positive vibe you aim to achieve. One who truly supports and loves you should understand and lovingly accept if they aren’t present for your vow ceremony. The right people will always be a consistent part of your life, help you uphold your vows, and encourage your goals and overall success. With fewer people at your elopement, you are sure to spend quality time with your guests.
Here are 3 questions to help you identify those who are a good fit at your elopement:
• Does that person make you feel safe and valued?
• Will that person prioritize and encourage your hopes and dreams for your wedding day?
• Will that person continue helping you and your partner uphold your vows?
Spend Your Budget on You
It’s no secret that a traditional wedding, even a small one, is expensive. Essentially, the majority of your budget goes to feeding and entertaining your guests. Why not spend your money on you to celebrate one of the most important dates of your life?
Not only will an elopement likely save you money, the money you do spend goes solely toward enhancing your experience. Instead of paying for others to indulge, invest in your experience and memories. What’s more, elopements are not limited to one day! You can extend your celebration through an entire vacation and create the ultimate “elopement-moon” to commemorate your marriage.
Elopements Are Environmentally Friendly
Lastly, rounding out our list of the top 7 reasons why you should elope is that they are environmentally friendly. According to Zero Waste, the average wedding produces 400 pounds of trash. This is 4x the average amount of trash that one person in the US creates in one full year! From paper invitations and decorations to single-use cutlery and food waste, weddings contribute nearly 1 billion pounds of trash annually. Much of this waste isn’t biodegradable and ends up in landfills, which creates methane and increases our planet’s temperature.
But, here’s the good news! You don’t have to contribute to the problem – you can be a part of the solution! By ditching that fancy wedding, an elopement gives you the option to produce little to no waste. Having a vegetarian menu, using only compostable food items, and limiting your guests are just a few ways that you can reduce your carbon footprint. Your elopement can even become carbon negative with a conscious approach and a little extra effort! Planting trees or renting attire are great ways to do this. Here are more ideas on how to reduce your wedding waste.
