Thinking of eloping?

Let’s face it, it’s going to be a long time before weddings will get back to ‘normal’.

Restrictions on guest numbers are changing all time and with all the uncertainty around ‘Traditional’ weddings, elopements are starting to look like a good option for those of you who just want to be married and maybe have the party later once this all blows over.

We’ve put together a list of the pros of eloping based on our experience as photographers and also as a bride and groom who did it too!

We were officially married on September 24th 2019 when we eloped in the Isle of Skye. Then we had another ‘wedding day’ with friends and family at Wylam Brewery on September 27th 2019, so when it comes to this subject, we know what we’re talking about!

You can do what you want!

The great thing about elopements is that you can elope anywhere. Whether it’s in the city or in the middle of nowhere, there are so many possibilities.

Our main reason for eloping was because we wanted some awesome photographs at some epic locations and where better than the Isle of Skye!

You can legally get married outdoors in Scotland and as soon as we found this out we knew this would be the plan for us.  Things are a bit different in England, civil marriages have to be held at a registry office or another approved venue.

That doesn’t mean you cant elope entirely. You can just do a work around.  You can do the ‘legal bit’ at the registry office any time and then hire a celebrant to ‘marry you’ wherever you would like to elope afterwards.

It is just about you two.

This isn’t implying that a regular wedding day isn’t about you both, of course it is. However, when you have a long guest list, a massive bridal party and a huge venue it can be easy to lose focus of what the day is really about, the two of you!

Wedding days fly by so quickly and many couples describe them as a whirlwind. Trust us, we agree after our full wedding day. We barely remember anything.

When you elope however, you spend the whole day together. You’re not spreading yourself too thin around all your guests who want to speak to you (spoiler: they all just want to ask if your having a lovely day and where you’re going on honeymoon!).  Instead you’re more present and in the moment together.  We remember every part of our day in Skye, not so much the day in Newcastle.

Authenticity

Want to have a ceremony that is completely unique to the two of you? When you hire a celebrant, you can!

As wedding photographers we see a lot of ceremonies, at this point we have them memorised word for word so it was important to us that chose to use a celebrant so we could have a more personalised, unique ceremony.

Traditions didn’t really resonate with us and we wanted our wedding day to represent us as a couple and not to be bound by expectations of tradition and having to do things ‘just because’.

We love our food but Chris is not a ‘fancy’ food person so after a day of climbing up mountains and running through heather, we called into a local fish and chip shop on our way back to the Air B&B we were staying in.  It felt a lot more authentic to us than a three course meal at a local Michelin star restaurant, and there are a few in Skye!

Flexibility

Having an elopement allows you a far great amount of flexibility when it comes to getting married.  Since we hired a celebrant who was with us for the day, it meant that we could change our plans last minute if we needed to.

Things are a little unpredictable on the Isle of Skye.  We had the Scottish weather to deal with but we both accepted that we might get a bit wet at some point.  We had done a recce of the area we were thinking of having the ceremony a year before and we got absolutely soaked by sideways rain as soon as we got off the boat!

With this in mind we had back up locations at different parts on the island that we would use instead if the weather didn’t look favourable.  Our celebrant was flexible and was happy to go with the flow.  In typical Scottish fashion it actually did start to rain during our ceremony, we accepted it as part of the day and it was gone again by the end!

LESS STRESS!

Planning our elopement was relatively stress free, something a lot of people could do with this year! Less stress is easier, we can vouch for that.

There were no family politics to deal with, no special dietary requirements to cater to, no unnecessary drama from people or pressure from other people to have the ‘perfect fairytale’ day.

We’ve done quite a few micro weddings now for couples who all originally had a bigger day planned and every single couple said that they wished they’d planned a smaller wedding all along. So much easier and far less stressful.

Beyond your dreams

There are simply some things you can not do on a wedding day. You can’t climb up to the top of a mountain at sunset to capture breathtaking images. Well you could, but you’d have to leave your guests, which most people wouldn’t do.

A lot of people end up doing the same thing on wedding days. Elopements are about having an experience that is outside of the box.

Elopements allow you to have wedding photographs that are out of this world and an incredible experience to remember forever.

If all that sounds good to you then we would love to help you!

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