Why elopements are awesome, cheap, and seriously the coolest

Why elopements are awesome, cheap, and seriously the coolest

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A long, long time ago, in a land very far away, "elopements" meant couples traveling long distances to marry in Elvis-themed wedding chapels. Today, that is still awesome. But the term "elopement" is evolving into a much more inclusive, plan-able, customizable, amazing way to have a tiny wedding.

I'm half of Pop! Wed Co, where we plan elopement weddings for couples from all over the world - but I'm also half of the humans Steven and Maggie, planning our own elopement wedding with all sorts of awesome. In my experience, elopement weddings are at once amazing, full of awe and love, affordable, and totally relaxing - yet incredibly thrilling all at once.

When you don't belong to the "my wedding is a party" club, you might feel like you're missing out on some of the cool wedding stuff - centerpieces, decorations, venues, et cetera. But that feeling will last for about four seconds.

On the fifth second, you'll realize that elopement weddings can have as much or as little detail as you want. They can happen ANYWHERE, including awesome rainbow art galleries and even local vintage shops. You can put up a wedding backdrop or use your venue as its own backdrop. If you're a centerpiece aficionado, you can make centerpieces for your elopement, and they'll look rad on a picnic table/playground/anyplace you put them.

You can even invite absolutely anyone! For our wedding, we're inviting our parents, Steven's brother, and our three best friends. But we didn't want to leave anyone out, so we're going to see our favorite band that evening and everyone's invited. It won't be a party or reception, no fuss, just an awesome ska show (because there is nothing more fun on the whole planet!).

Plus, you'll save a metric shit ton of money by eloping. The trick to an elopement is that it's still a wedding, but without all the venue-music-guests-chairs-aisle-microphone-tables-food-etc. So you'll save a ton, because what vendors provide for elopements aren't generally the same services they provide for event-type weddings.

Like, you want wedding flowers, but there are no tables to put them on? Awesome: a bouquet or two is way cheaper than a whole set of wedding flowers. Looking for a venue? If your group is small you can get married just about anywhere. Just show up and go for it. Catering? Use a service like Postmates, pack a fancy picnic basket, head over to your favorite restaurant, or hey, why not order food delivery by drone.

We priced out our whole wedding budget and were really generous - including a $4,000 photographer (no surprise what our wedding priorities are) - and the whole thing came to $8690. That's with a $500 GoPro bouquet, $1000 for awesome outfits, and tons of other little goodies. Our wedding is going to be insanely awesome, filled with things that will make it special for us. And since we're not feeding 200 people or renting out a giant piece of land, it's laughably affordable ( the average DC wedding is $30-35,000).

With elopements, you can take the most important parts of a traditional wedding and incorporate them into your own celebration, totally catered to the two of you. No guests to worry about, no stress about being on time, no rushing to say thank you to everyone who has to leave before nine to catch the shuttle.

And the photos are triple the awesome.

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