To elope or not to elope?

I'm not eloping I'm having a 70 person wedding this Saturday. However if I could go back in time and redo my wedding I'd 1000% elope. My wedding has been a disaster. It's been drama filled, we've lost our venue do to covid 3 months before the wedding, our officiant had to back out 2 days before the wedding because of covid, my work gave me a hassle to have off for the 2 weeks for my wedding and honeymoon. I so wish we eloped.


If you feel that a small elopement is more you guys than I think you should definitely go for it. Also I'd like to add be careful with these wedding packages and do the research on all the vendors they have. These packages aren't always sunshine and rainbows. Some bring you in with these amazing prices for all that you are getting and it seems to good to be true. Then you book it and find out that it was to good to be true because their vendors are terrible, unresponsive, unwilling to do what you want or they can't. There has been a few brides on here complaining about vendors they got stuck with in their wedding packages. So be careful and do the research, it will save you a headache in the long run.

Sounds like you really know what you want, so go for the elopement! We are having 16 people at our wedding including us. So much money saved, less stressed, more time spent with the people who matter the most.

Think about what your ideal wedding looks like and follow your heart in that direction! It sounds like your heart is set on eloping, and if that's the case, then go for it! You'll be happier in the end for following your instincts and probably saving a ton of $$.

We're not eloping and we're too far in to change that much but if i could go back I'd put my foot down and have the destination wedding that I wanted. So I say go for what you want!

There is nothing wrong with eloping if that is what you want to do. Don't feel obligated to have a large wedding if its not you. Eloping can be a great way to save money and customize your experience to be more about you and less about hosting a large group.

We had a Covid elopement (just a ceremony, first dance, cake cutting, and some pictures) then a small wedding celebration this year with 47 guests. I'm a super big fan of small weddings!

I am however hesitant about wedding or elopement "packages" because it leaves very little room for customization. If you don't have a wedding vision and just want to go the simple route, they can be great, but I know I wouldn't have wanted to be "stuck" with a vendor that we didn't care for. Some people really just want to be married, have some sort of celebratory event, and aren't concerned with the details, and for those couples packages can be perfect.

But regardless I would say elope if you want to. It's your marriage and you can have it done however feels most comfortable to you.

We live in FL & got married in July. Our venue had an "intimate" wedding package for 20 people (including couple) for $4,000 (which includes the tax & gratuity ~ package price before those add-ons was $3,000). This package included: the officiant (who would play 3 songs of our choice, which we had to provide to him), cake & champagne toast/reception (for an hour), photography (2 hours), flowers (credit toward our choice of flowers $300), and beach location with back up indoor in case of rain and wedding night room in a very nice hotel (which was our venue). The cost for additional people would have been very reasonable. We "started" with this package and added a few things (like additional time for the photographer). This would have been a GREAT deal had this package been our perfect vision &/OR we could have NOT had other people putting their two cents into our wedding. We ended up adding appetizers, alcohol (his family is Italian & apparently can't have a wedding without it & his parents offered to pay for it!), and an actual dinner.

You see we THOUGHT we could add additional things without meeting food & beverage minimums ~ which was wrong! So once the door opened to his parents paying for the alcohol we HAD to add food AND meet the minimums which was $3000 (plus tax & gratuity) for the F&B but we also had to add TIME to the reception since the package only included an hour & dinner, drinks & desert couldn't be served in an hour ~ all this added up to almost another $5000 (of which his parents paid $2000). Mind you we had additional guests as our final guest count was 33 including us & 3 children under 18 (we also provided the same dinner for our 3 vendors who stayed for the entire reception).

WE had a fantastic wedding and it was simply perfect for us! From the food to the cake to the photos & the officiant it was perfect and exactly what we really wanted & we didn't feel like we "cheaped" out on anything! For us it wasn't a destination but the same package for those out of state would have cost the same.

The Moral to this story is READ the fine print and understand the minimums for "add-ons" before you sign the contract. Pay attention to the taxes & fees as I stated our package went from 3K to 4K with ONLY the taxes & fees.

Good luck and make sure whatever you decide is what the 2 of you really want for your special day!

Thanks so much for the advice, ladies! We talked more and we’re really leaning towards eloping. I’m gonna do my research and fully explore our options. I feel so relieved and honestly much happier.