Elope...and then have a formal wedding later?

Forget the label “true.” A traditional wedding is about the party. A party celebrating your love. It’s not about celebrating the moment that you became married on paper. And your friends and family will be thrilled to be able to celebrate with you without the added stress of having to attend a ceremony. And without the stress of COVID.

View Quoted Comment Yikesssss sounds like you’re a crappy “friend”

You should definitely do it!!!!
My husband and I eloped Dec.23,2020. We wrote our own vows . It was very special and intimate just the two of us... but we still wanted to celebrate with our family. On Dec 23, 2022, we are having our wedding with a ceremony( with the typical traditional vows) where we could celebrate with our family... it doesn't feel the same as if you were getting married the first time but in some way it feels better because you got married already and it's less nerve wrecking. It doesn't feel like everything has to be perfect anymore.

I don't understand people. Who is to say what is special to someone or not? It's about what YOU want as a couple. I know a few people who were married alone and a few years later had their big wedding. There are many reasons why some couples elope and can't have the dream wedding right away. If you are still in love it shouldn't make a later wedding any less special. It's not everyone else who is getting married ...it's about you. Go for it! I say if you never had your dream wedding do it! Whatever makes you happy. Who cares what other people think?!

Do what feels right for you. We eloped during covid and are planning a event for friends and family. It's your story.

My FH and I are in the same situation. His grandparents mean the world to him and he is worried they may not make it to Nov 23, and we want them apart of our celebration. BUT most of his family lives out of state and one month is not enough time to secure photographer, rush alterations, and everything else we still need to do.

So we have decided to have his parents bring his grandparents down to Florida for a vacation this November and we would elope with his grandparents and our parents on our wedding date. Then next year we will still do our big wedding, but it will be technically our 1 year anniversary. He pitched the idea to me and I mauled over it for weeks, and I love the idea.

Good luck with your wedding and congratulations.

Honestly I really don’t think it matters when you sign your paperwork and when you have your wedding. I’d been with my husband for 7 years when we signed our marriage certificate. Your wedding day is your wedding day, not your marriage day. We went into the court and signed the papers for strictly legal reasons so we could gain the benefits of legal marriage while we saved for our real wedding which wasn’t until 2 years later. All of our friends called him my husband before he even proposed because we’d been together for so long. Those 7 years didn’t become invalid just because we got married. We don’t tell people how many years we’ve been “married” we tell them how long we’ve been a couple and if they ask when we got married we tell them the date of our big wedding and all the happy memories from it. Court paperwork was just court paperwork. Our wedding day was our only wedding day. Who signed what paperwork when isn’t what makes a wedding. At the end of the day we are a couple that loves and supports each other and our wedding was full of the people we love and care about which is what made it a wedding to us.

I honestly don't think anyone cares when you do the legal paperwork. My brother and his wife weren't legally married on their wedding day but had a really nice ceremony and reception. They signed their legal paperwork a month later! How were people married before legal paperwork??? Did society consider them any less married than you and I? Ofcoarse not. They were just as married as anyone else!!! Because a wedding is whatever YOU want it to be. I have known dozens of people who do a courthouse wedding/elopement of some sort and then celebrate with everyone later.