Your Guide to Unique Elopement Ideas
Make Your Elopement Unique to You
Planning Your Unique Experience
You’ve started planning a traditional wedding and it just doesn’t feel right. You’re more stressed out than you hoped. You don’t look forward to having such a large event and you don’t like to be the center of attention. Maybe a unique elopement is a better option for you! If you prefer experiences, like the idea of it being just the two of you or a small group of friends + fam, and want to focus more of your love – you should consider eloping.
If new experiences, traveling, or hiking make up a lot of your life together – you may even want an adventure elopement!
I like to tell folks to start by writing down these three things they want for their day: landscape type, adventure type, and guests or no guests? Answering these three questions can begin to create a framework for the day you deserve. The rest will come as you get inspired and begin to envision what a wedding day can look like!
There are a ton of ways to make your wedding day unique to you. No matter who you do or don’t invite, no matter where you say “I do,” and no matter what you enjoy – you can craft a day that’s memorable and meaningful to you both. I’m here to help. Here are some of my favorite unique elopement ideas. Each idea can be transformed into a day that is right for you + your love!
Unique Elopement Ideas!
1. Explore a new location
Whether it’s somewhere in your home state, or on the other side of the planet, going to a new location is a great way to ensure you make new memories. You take yourself out of your comfort zone, you may visit new landscapes, experience new culture + try new food, and go on an adventure you’ve never had before. The best part of eloping (apart from the meaningful wedding day) is that you can turn your destination elopement into an epic honeymoon. Instead of catering to 100+ people go on that bucket list trip you’ve always wanted!
2. Include an Adventure You Love
You + your partner may love to hike, climb, picnic, or paddle together at home. Why not bring those adventures you love into your elopement day? The things you love to do together make your relationship unique. Making memories on a new trail or climbing a new route can help make your wedding day unique too.
3. Go on a Brand New Adventure
On the opposite side of the familiar, a new and adventurous experience can also make your wedding day super unique to you. This may look like a helicopter ride, an ATV tour, hiking on a glacier, or sailing through a fjord. A new adventure can help bring you closer together and create lasting memories.
Here are some more ideas for new adventures:
- Go canyoneering in the desert
- Take a float plane to a new location
- Sail to an island
- Jeep up a mountain pass
- Hike on an otherworldly glacier
- Go on a hot air balloon ride
- Helicopter out to your ceremony spot
- Try a via ferrata
- +so much more!
Does one of these experiences sound right for you? I have adventure-inclusive packages for the locations I primarily work in. While I’m always open to new adventures, you can get some ideas for your wedding day! I’ll take care of booking your experience. This way you have less stress for your wedding day + more time to plan your epic trip! I’ll even get you local trip suggestions so you never have to adventure alone.
4. Don’t Forget Your Love Story
A unique wedding day starts with you. How did you meet? What little things do you enjoy doing together? What have you always dreamed of doing? Elements from your own lives can help make your day special. This can be as simple as having a picnic with your favorite foods or as elaborate as ensuring all your favorite people have a part in your ceremony. It’s often the little details in the bigger picture that make a day that much more meaningful. An epic landscape and big adventure will make any day unique. But what you bring to that adventure is simply unforgettable.
5. Include the People (or Pets!) That Mean the Most to You
Whether you opt to invite your friends and family, bring your dog and cat along, or elope just the two of you – there are ways to involve who you love in your day. If inviting guests take them along on your adventure to create some memories with them. Have them be part of your ceremony. Let them show their love in how they help on your day.
If you choose to elope the two of you, you can still include those you love. Take them wedding attire shopping with you. Have them write letters for you to read the day of. Video chat with them after your ceremony. Or celebrate with them when you get home and share the story of your elopement.
When your pets come along they will just be good boys and that’s all we can really ask for;)
6. Make Your Ceremony About Your Love
A lot of people think eloping is just to get photos in an epic place. While this is partly true, it’s more about you both coming together to continue to build a beautiful life together. Traditionally, we join our lives in a ceremony. Your elopement day ceremony isn’t something to rush through or overlook. It can be simple but meaningful. It can hold traditions – old and new. It can speak to your heritage. It should be made your own and represent an authentic coming together of two people.
I also highly recommend writing your own vows whether you share them during your ceremony or in private;)
7. Stay Somewhere Bougie
Hear me out, you really should be treating yourself during your elopement. There’s a lot of good emotional energy being put into an elopement day. You’re going to be real present with one another, you may be having new experiences that are naturally tiring, you may have traveled far to make it happen, and you may be thinking about your loved ones on your day. So you deserve to stay somewhere bougie! Whether bougie to you is a camper van in the woods to disconnect, or a fly-in resort in the backcountry, or a hotel room that has a dang bathtub – book it. Where you stay is gonna allow you to be more ready for the day ahead and create some dang good memories itself.
8. Expand Your Elopement Day in a Multi Day Celebration
A multi day elopement can help you further celebrate your love, explore the location you are in, and give you more time to connect. This is a great option if you are inviting family, want to elope one day and explore the next, or you want to do a few experiences that won’t fit in a single day. A wedding weekend can allow you to focus on your guests one day and then on yourselves the next. A multi day exploration can allow you to get in that hike, heli ride, and boat tour you see as part of your celebration. Your options for adventure increase a ton when you have more time together!
Ready to Craft Your Elopement?
I can’t wait to help you plan your adventurous wedding day. Let’s take your love on a wild adventure!
