Traditionally, elopements have been the route-most-travelled for couples who don’t feel like a traditional wedding is right for them. However, as COVID-19 has forced many couples to postpone their weddings – we think this is about to change!
We have spoken to elopement expert, Brittany Snow of Elopement Collective, and she has provided us with brilliant tips and advice on eloping in 2020.
Here’s what you need to know…
“We believe that it is simply good for you to marry, and that your marriage should be your number one priority, but to be married you have to get married, and luckily for us we have so many options to getting married. You get to choose clothes (or not), witnesses (or not), catering (or not), in fact you get to choose everything. So amongst the many options you have to get married, one that we value and love is an elopement. Traditionally elopements were for people running away from their family or community to wed without their blessing. But today it’s about getting married in a beautiful, intimate, and meaningful way without the burden of having to invite everyone on your family tree along with your entire Facebook friends list.
So, you should opt for an elopement if the idea of a big wedding doesn’t fit with how you want to get married. You should opt for an elopement if you’d rather be married than get married.”
Brittany Snow, Founder of Elopement Collective
“The best aspect of an elopement is the empowerment we see in our couples as they are liberated from the burden of hosting a massive wedding. For so many people a wedding is a burden they were not emotionally or psychologically born to host, but they still deserve to get married in a beautiful and powerful way. We value good photography, a meaningful ceremony, an epic setting and of course really really pretty flowers- it’s the best of both worlds.”
Brittany Snow, Founder of Elopement Collective
Five tips for couples thinking of eloping would be:
1. Your marriage is first and foremost yours with your partner, so before you talk about weddings or elopements, talk about how people like the two of you together, celebrate things like getting married. Ask each other what is important, and not important to you personally.
2. Because the to-do list for an elopement is a hundred times smaller than a wedding, aim for it all to happen near sunset. That’s our secret, we schedule the ceremony and portrait photos to happen in golden hour, then once the sun has set you can celebrate.
3. After sunset just book a table at a restaurant. Focus on sharing a meal and drinks together, don’t worry about an elaborate reception that would add stress to a stress free day.
4. Elopements don’t have guests, but they can have witnesses. We like to imagine that the witnesses to your elopement would be the same group of people you might invite into the maternity ward if a baby was on the way. It’s about an intimate group of your closest humans. Or you’re welcome to go it alone and let your photo and video team be your legal witnesses.
5. The only thing you should “stress” about for your elopement is wearing clothes that make you feel like a million dollars, don’t worry about the wedding uniform, just dress up so you feel hot; and secondly, personal vows. With no crowds watching, choose to say words that are important and valuable to you both.
Brittany Snow, Founder of Elopement Collective
“Nothing like a little world-wide pandemic to put everything into a sweet perspective. Elopements are a way to get married that was made for COVID-19 times. It’s like we saw COVID coming and planned a business for it! Whether you can have two, five, ten, or twenty witnesses, that’s pretty much a forced elopement, so there’s never been a better time to elope because instead of apologising for not inviting Tim for work, you can now blame it on a pandemic, and I think we can all agree that it’s about time COVID-19 carried some of the weight it’s been throwing around.”
Brittany Snow, Founder of Elopement Collective
What do you think, Fairies? Is eloping on the cards for you?
Digital Content Coordinator: Zoe Kanlis
Featured Image: Joey & Jase
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