Eloping gives you the freedom to build your wedding around what you actually want to experience.

Maybe that means waking up before sunrise and hiking somewhere quiet to exchange your vows. Maybe it means getting ready slowly in a cabin, inviting a few of your favorite people to your ceremony, and ending the night with dinner and champagne. Maybe you want to backpack for several days, ride horses along the coast, explore another country, or stay close to home and get married somewhere that already means something to you.

There is no single way an elopement has to look.

You can create a day that honors your relationship, gives you time to be fully present with each other, and includes the people, traditions, and experiences that genuinely matter to you. If you are still deciding whether eloping feels right or you already know it is exactly what you want, this guide will help you understand what an elopement can be and how the whole thing actually works.

Is an elopement right for you?

An elopement may be right for you if the idea of planning a large wedding feels more exhausting than exciting.

That does not mean there is anything wrong with having a big wedding. Some couples cannot imagine getting married without a full dance floor and everyone they love in one room. Other couples begin planning and realize that seating charts, vendor lists, expectations, and coordinating an entire event are pulling their attention away from the part they care about most: getting married and experiencing the day together.

You can still have a meaningful wedding without planning a large celebration. You can exchange vows, invite the people closest to you, wear whatever you want, have a first dance, cut a cake, and include the traditions that matter to you. You simply get to decide which parts belong in your day.

My job is to ask a lot of questions, help you understand what you want to experience, and work through the location, timing, and logistical details that bring it together.

What does it mean to elope?

Elopements are about freedom. They give you space to celebrate your relationship in a way that feels like the two of you rather than following a plan simply because it is what weddings are expected to look like.

Some couples come to me already knowing they want to elope. Others know that a traditional wedding does not feel right, but they have no idea what the alternative could be. That is completely normal. When there are suddenly fewer rules, it can take a minute to imagine what is actually possible.

Start by asking yourselves:

• Do you want an intimate ceremony, or would you feel happiest surrounded by a larger group of people?
• Who truly needs to be there for the day to feel complete?
• Would you rather spend most of your wedding day hosting guests or experiencing the day together?
• What do you already love doing as a couple?
• Is there something you have always wanted to experience together?
• Do you want to hike, climb, paddle, travel, explore a new city, share an incredible meal, or spend the day somewhere completely quiet?
• Which wedding traditions feel meaningful to you?
• How do you want the day to feel when you look back on it?

Modern elopements do not have to be secret, rushed, or limited to two people. You can invite your parents, siblings, closest friends, children, or pets. You can celebrate with family before or after the elopement. You can also spend the entire day alone together.

An elopement can be quiet or completely adventurous. It can take place ten minutes from home or on the other side of the world. The important part is that the experience reflects the two people getting married.

When you give yourselves permission to choose what you actually want, you also give yourselves room to be fully present. You are not performing a wedding for everyone else. You are living it.

How does an elopement actually work?

Elopements look very different than they did twenty years ago. The word used to bring up images of couples running away in secret and telling their families afterward. That can still happen, obviously, but it is no longer what defines an elopement.

Today, an elopement is an intentionally small wedding experience centered on the couple. Beyond that, it can become almost anything.

You do not have to leave behind the beautiful or heartfelt parts of a wedding just because you are eloping. Write your own vows. Get ready separately. Have a first look. Walk down an aisle. Exchange rings. Include your family traditions. Pop champagne. Eat cake. Have your first dance barefoot in the rain.

Keep what matters. Leave the rest.

Many elopements loosely follow the rhythm of a more traditional wedding day, while others look completely different. We build the timeline around the experience instead of trying to squeeze your experience into a standard wedding schedule.

When you begin imagining the day, think about which of these moments you want to include:

• THE GUEST LIST: Modern elopements do not have to include only you and your partner. You can invite a small group of people who will honor the experience, support your decisions, and make the day feel even better. Your dog is also a very legitimate guest.
• VOWS: You can write personal vows, repeat traditional ones, keep them short, or fill several pages. If you want privacy, you can exchange them away from your guests or ask me to photograph from a distance.
• THE WALK DOWN THE AISLE: An aisle does not require a church or rows of chairs. It can be a mountain trail, a quiet meadow, a forest path, or a stretch of beach.
• A FIRST LOOK: You can get ready separately and see each other for the first time before your ceremony, even if you are sharing a cabin or hiking to the same location.
• TRADITIONS: Cultural, spiritual, religious, and family traditions still belong in an elopement. You can include the ones that carry meaning for you without feeling obligated to include everything else.
• A FIRST DANCE: You do not need a dance floor. You can dance on a mountaintop, beside the ocean, underneath the trees, or in the kitchen of your Airbnb while dinner cooks.

The logistics will depend on where you go and what you want to experience. If you plan to backpack to your ceremony location, for example, we will think about the trail, your gear, flowers, changing clothes, hair, food, weather, light, and what happens if conditions change. I have an entire guide with practical tips for planning a backpacking elopement.

I help my couples research locations, think through timing, prepare for weather, build realistic timelines, and create backup plans. You will still make your final decisions, complete permit or marriage-license applications, and book your lodging, transportation, guides, and excursions.

An elopement is not a wedding with less meaning. It is an intentional way to begin your marriage with an experience built around who you are together.

Where can you elope?

Nearly anywhere that can legally and responsibly accommodate your ceremony.

That still leaves a very large world to choose from.

You could get married in the mountains, beside a lake, deep in the forest, on a rugged coastline, in the desert, inside a city, at a cabin, or in your own backyard. Your elopement can take you somewhere you have always wanted to visit or bring you back to a place that already holds part of your story.

Start by thinking about environments rather than trying to find one exact location immediately. Do you feel most alive in the mountains? Do you want to hear the ocean while you say your vows? Are you imagining moss, rain, and enormous trees? Would you rather wander through a city, eat incredible food, and end the night in a hotel with a bathtub?

Then think about the experience surrounding the ceremony. Your location is not only a backdrop for photographs. It affects how you travel, what you wear, how much privacy you have, what activities are possible, and how the entire day feels.

Although you have far more flexibility than you would with a traditional venue, you cannot simply hold a ceremony anywhere without checking the rules. Public lands may require wedding or special-use permits. Some locations limit group size, decorations, chairs, food, music, or the amount of time you can spend at a ceremony site. Private property requires permission, and fragile environments may not be able to accommodate a ceremony at all.

If you want to get married in a National Park, check that park’s current wedding information rather than assuming the rules are the same everywhere. Depending on the park and the ceremony, a special-use permit may be required.

International elopements require another decision: do you want to become legally married in that country, or complete the legal paperwork at home and have a symbolic ceremony abroad? Marriage requirements vary by country and may include residency periods, translated documents, affidavits, medical tests, or other paperwork. The U.S. Department of State is a good starting point, but you will also need to check the current requirements of the country where you want to marry.

None of that is meant to take the excitement out of choosing a location. It simply helps us find a place where you can have the experience you want without trespassing, damaging the landscape, or discovering at the last minute that your ceremony is not allowed.

Elopement location ideas

If you are staring at the entire planet and have no idea where to begin . . . honestly, I get it. Start with the kinds of places and experiences that make both of you want to pack a bag immediately.

Here are a few ideas:

• Hike part or all of the Tour du Mont Blanc, a roughly 170-kilometer route through France, Italy, and Switzerland. You could build your elopement into a multi-day trek and choose a legal, low-impact place for a symbolic vow exchange along the way.
• Spend a week or two driving Iceland’s Ring Road. The full route is approximately 1,322 kilometers, or 820 miles, and passes waterfalls, black-sand beaches, glacier landscapes, volcanic terrain, and small towns. Road and weather conditions can change quickly, so the season and amount of time available matter.
• Climb one of the towering dunes near Sossusvlei in Namibia. The dunes there are among the highest in the world, and Big Daddy rises approximately 325 meters above the surrounding landscape. Access, ceremony rules, weather, and guided travel should all be researched before building an elopement around it.
• Plan a rafting experience through the Grand Canyon and spend your evenings sleeping beneath the stars. Commercial and noncommercial river trips have very different requirements, and private trips require experience and permits distributed through the National Park Service. Begin with the park’s official river-trip information.
• Take a helicopter to an approved mountain landing area and exchange vows somewhere that would be difficult to reach on foot.
• Plan a multi-day backpacking trip with a few of your closest friends and choose one part of the experience for your ceremony.
• Travel to northern Norway during aurora season and build several possible viewing nights into your trip. The Northern Lights are never guaranteed, but the waiting, exploring, and time together can still be part of the experience.
• Explore Morocco with an experienced local guide, stay somewhere incredible, and build your ceremony around the landscapes, food, and culture you came to experience. If an animal-based activity is part of the plan, research the operator carefully and choose one that prioritizes animal welfare.

These are starting points, not ready-made plans. A location that looks incredible in a photograph may require months of preparation, difficult travel, permits, a guide, or a completely different season than you expected.

That is part of why I ask so many questions. I want to know whether you actually want to hike for ten days or simply love the idea of mountain views. I want to know whether waking up at 3:00 a.m. sounds exciting or deeply offensive. I want to know whether you want rain, heat, snow, city lights, complete solitude, or a place where your family can join you without climbing a mountain.

The location should serve the experience, not the other way around.

I’ve got plenty more ideas, too. What does it mean to elope if not living out some of your wildest dreams with the love of your life? 

That’s the best part about an elopement: you and your partner can honor your love, your way. An elopement takes away the expensive parts of a big wedding (like the venue! And catering!) and the restrictions around location possibilities and instead opens up the world as your playground. 

Wherever you decide to elope, just know that I’ll be there right alongside you capturing some incredible photos to share with your family and friends when you return.  

How do you elope?

Once you know that eloping is right for you, the process becomes much easier to understand.

1. Decide what you want to experience

Before choosing a date or location, talk about how you want the day to feel. Think about who you want there, what you want to do, how much physical activity sounds fun, and whether you want one full day or a multi-day experience.

You do not need all the answers yet. You only need a starting point.

2. Choose a general location & season

Mountains, forests, deserts, beaches, and cities each come with different weather, access, crowds, and seasonal limitations. Once you know the kind of environment you want, we can begin narrowing down actual locations.

3. Research the legal requirements

Marriage-license rules, waiting periods, officiant requirements, witnesses, and deadlines vary by state and country. Decide whether you want the ceremony itself to create the legal marriage or whether you would rather complete the paperwork separately.

4. Confirm access, permits & local rules

Check whether the ceremony location requires a permit, reservation, entrance pass, parking permit, timed entry, commercial guide, or other approval. Apply within the required window and keep a copy of every approval with you.

5. Book the pieces of the experience

Depending on your plans, this may include lodging, transportation, flights, guides, excursions, meals, gear, flowers, or pet care. Leave enough breathing room that the day still feels like an experience rather than a list of reservations you have to race between.

6. Build a flexible timeline

Your timeline may include getting ready, a first look, travel, hiking, vows, portraits, food, activities, and time to do absolutely nothing for a while. We will consider the light, distance, weather, crowds, and how long things take in real life.

We will also create a backup plan. Rain, wind, snow, wildfire smoke, road closures, illness, and trail conditions can change the plan, but they do not have to ruin the experience.

7. Get married

Wake up, get ready, and go experience the day you created together.

Some couples begin the morning at a cabin with coffee and music. Others wake up in a tent and finish hiking to the place where they will exchange vows. You might get dressed before leaving your lodging, change near the ceremony location, or wear your wedding clothes for the entire adventure.

You can have a first look, walk down an aisle, exchange rings, read your vows, include your guests, share a picnic, cut a cake, or have your first dance in the middle of nowhere.

If you want to hike, climb, paddle, explore, or take a helicopter flight, that experience can happen on the wedding day or become part of the days surrounding it. Your elopement does not have to fit into a four-hour block simply because that is how another wedding was scheduled.

At the end of the day, getting married is a huge commitment . . . and an EXCITING one.

Your elopement can be quiet, ridiculous, emotional, rain-soaked, physically demanding, completely relaxed, or some strange and wonderful combination of all of those things. It can hold traditions and adventure. It can include your family and still give you private time together. It can feel unmistakably like the two of you.

And when the day is over, your photographs become the artifacts of everything you experienced. The nervous laughter, the weather, the mud on your clothes, the way your partner looked at you during your vows, and the moment you realized you were actually married.

If you are ready to begin imagining what your elopement could become, tell me what you want to experience. You do not need to have the location, timeline, or logistics figured out yet. That is where we begin.