Nov 22, 2019

Our Joshua Tree Wedding: Why We Decided To Elope

While the idea of eloping is definitely not right for everyone, I'm a firm believer that it was right for us. I have never been the person who imagined having the "big wedding". Which as a wedding stationer in the industry, spending everyday working with brides and grooms planning their special day, probably sounds a bit strange. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love all things weddings - I live and breathe weddings every day, I love being a part of my clients weddings and hearing their love stories and I love going to other people's weddings.

So why did we elope? The day after George proposed we started talking about our wedding plans. We did discuss the option of having a big traditional wedding but for a number of reasons it just didn't feel right for us and it soon became clear that elopement was so us. There is absolutely no right or wrong way to get married and I'm very conscious that this blog post doesn't come across as though I'm saying 'you shouldn't have a traditional wedding' - because I'm all for traditional weddings - I mean, they're the reason I get to do what I do every day. But if you are interested in taking a more unconventional route, here are some of our reasons for choosing elopement:

We wanted it to be intimate

There are lots of other small reasons that validated it further once we made our decision to elope, but this was the most important one for us. As a couple, George and I are definitely introverts. The thought of getting up in front of everyone and saying our vows was terrifying. We wanted our day to be personal and intimate and without meaning to sound selfish, just about us. The idea of waking up together, spending the whole day with each other and writing our own vows and sharing them only with each other felt so romantic. We like to do our own thing without conforming to what's 'normal' and we felt that it was really important to stay true to ourselves.

We didn't want to spend too much

I wouldn't say eloping is cheap - it depends on how you do it and the details you want to include but I'd say for us it was definitely the more cost-effective choice. We still spent a lot of money on our day but it was tied in with the costs of our 3 week trip to America. The main difference with the costs involved with eloping is that everything we paid for was specifically for us - we didn't have to factor in any of the costs for guests food and drink, favours etc. Elopement gives you the opportunity to spend money where it matters most to you.

We wanted life to be stress free

Let's be honest... planning a wedding can be stressful. For us, there was only a little bit of organising to do and even that felt like hard work, I'm not sure I could have handled the wedmin that comes with planning a big day. To all of my couples I have the pleasure of working with - I give my utmost respect to you all, how do you make it look so easy?! On our wedding day we woke up, had breakfast together, and then got ready and drove down to our elopement spot together with our photographer Alexis, who was absolutely amazing. After the ceremony Alexis dropped us off home at our airbnb and we ate Pizza. Eloping is the easiest way to have a stress free wedding.

We could combine our wedding and honeymoon

We decided early on that we wanted to get married in the Joshua Tree National Park, so we planned to make it into a 3 week trip to San Francisco, LA and Hawaii for our honeymoon. It’s was the perfect way of getting our dream destination wedding and honeymoon all in one without having to pay for two sets of flights.

We Could Avoid Potential Awkwardness

It wasn't that we felt anyone would cause an issue at our wedding, but we didn't want to put anyone in an uncomfortable situation on what is supposed to be a day about love and happiness. If we had taken the traditional route, we know we would have spent our day worrying about other people instead of ourselves... so we decided to put us first.

So there you have it. Of course, there were also some negative sides to eloping - the main one being that we didn't get to have our loved ones around us on such a special occasion. But the positives totally outweighed the decision for us and if we could go back and get married again we would choose this option every time.

I'll share more about the finer details of our elopement soon, including the amazing suppliers who made it all happen.

Photography by the super talented Alexis Ralston Photography.