5 reasons you should elope

Why you should consider an elopement

Hey stranger, fancy seeing you here. I know you found your way to this post because you were late night Googling “reasons we should just elope.” Well, luckily I’m here to feed them to you!

But first, I just want you to know I’ve been in your shoes before. I too went down that rabbit hole, fishing for confirmation bias on the internet. I’ve felt that same fear and weight of uncertainty in our wedding decisions.

Early on in our own plans, we also considered an elopement. (I’ve been an intimate wedding and elopement photographer for the past 4 years- it only made sense!) But even so, there’s still much to learn as a photographer-turned-bride. It doesn’t make decisions, like paring down a guest list, any less maddening. It’s freakin’ hard!

I know you’re ultimately going to make the decision that feels best for you and your partner, rambling blog posts or not. For now, I’m just your anonymous internet friend chanting “YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT” from the sidelines.

Without further ado, here are 5 good reasons you should just elope already!

1. Skip being the center of attention

Are you really not into the wedding day “production” of putting on a show for your guests? If you and your partner are more introverted by nature, the thought of being the center of attention on your wedding day might make you cringe. If you decide to elope, you get to dodge that bullet.

When you choose to elope, you are choosing to make your wedding solely about you and your partner. At most, an elopement will be the two of you, an officiant, and *maybe* even a photographer to document it. By default, this creates an incredibly romantic atmosphere and makes it even easier to infuse your wedding day with more meaning.

2. Eliminate the stress of paring down guests

This one goes without saying. One of the biggest reasons couples choose to elope is to escape the stress from planning. I can tell from experience, most of that stress comes from organizing the guest list. Specifically, paring it down to a manageable number of people without offending too many of them.

For couples with big families or friend groups, this is a daunting task. I think we all know too well how quickly the guest count can spiral. Eloping keeps the focus on the two of you, without worrying about hurting anyone’s feelings. Sometimes this all-or-nothing mindset is the only thing that will free you from guilt.

3. Elope to save money or spend on bigger priorities

I’m sure you’ve already googled the average cost of a wedding in the United States…every wedding blog ever will bore you to death with those statistics. Without a doubt, eloping is the most wallet-friendly way to get married. Without guests to worry about, you can choose to save big or splurge on your biggest wedding priorities.

You can take a trip down to your local courthouse, or even roll the wedding day and honeymoon into one big trip. If you’ve always envisioned wearing a designer dress, you can! If you want to stay in a ritzy hotel across the globe…you can do that too! Honestly, if you picked your top 3 priorities to splurge on, I’m sure you would still be spending significantly less on your elopement than a big wedding.

4. Make it into an adventure-elope!

It’s no secret it’s tough to travel with bigger groups of people. You will probably get the inevitable guilt trip about making guests spend money. Blah, blah, blah. And if they’re spending money for you, there will be unsolicited opinions and expectations.

An elopement offers an opportunity to ditch all of that. You can check uncharted territory off of your bucket list. The best part? No one except your partner gets to weigh in. The only thing that matters is how much fun you two will have at said location, not what others make of it.

5. Avoid Family Dynamics & Drama

Most families aren’t perfect. You can bet we all have some kind of crazy family dynamics at play. Maybe your parents are remarried and not on speaking terms. Maybe your sister is dating your best friend’s ex-husband. Or maybe your grandma has a lot to say about your partner’s religion/ethnicity/sexual orientation/etc. Needless to say, this can amount to a whole lotta drama.

The mainstream wedding industry often manufactures a cookie-cutter family “ideal” that just doesn’t work for all of us. In the traditional sense of the word, eloping is an opportunity to run away from it all. Don’t let family drama get in the way of one of your most important milestones together. Celebrate on your own terms.

I understand the question “should we elope?” will either be one of the easiest, or most challenging, wedding decisions you’ll make.

If you’re still on the fence about eloping like we were, I wrote another post on 10 Reasons to Have an Intimate Wedding. (Intimate weddings can be the perfect happy medium for people like you and I).

And for even more elopement resources and inspiration, I highly recommend Intimateweddings.com!