Why I Ditched My Big Hometown Wedding

Every single day, we get a phone call from at least one bride who started planning a big traditional wedding, but totally wants to ditch the stress of it all.

Every. Single. Day.

It is totally common to start planning your big day, but lose track of what is really important to you in all of the minute details. Eloping really comes down to what is important to you.

These are real words from real couples who ditched a traditional wedding and chose and elopement instead. Whether it is because they were stressed, wanted to eliminate the huge guest count, or focus on themselves, everyone has a reason to elope!

Eloping to Escape the Stress

“We wanted to do something small and stress-free, so this seemed like a great option!”

“After a very stressful several weeks of trying to plan a wedding in Washington State (i.e. after visiting several winery venues and actually breaking down the cost of everything), we realized we were getting more and more frustrated with the planning and were not excited or enjoying the process at all. We recognized that we didn't need a big, fancy ceremony and that we mainly wanted to just celebrate with our loved ones in our own way. We decided we wanted an intimate ceremony with immediate family only, followed by a Hawaii reception with the guests and [his] extended family, a Washington reception with my extended family, and a third celebration with our closest friends. We choose Hawaii so [his] grandmother could be present (she might not have been able to travel) and because we wanted nice weather and beautiful photos for our ceremony!”

Eloping Because You Have No Time to Plan

“We met in Hawaii but now [she] lives in Virginia. We're getting married in Hawaii because we love it there. We want a coordinator to handle everything because between our two jobs, we want to make sure everything gets covered and have this be a stress-free time.”

“We do not have time plan a full wedding and we want it to be beautiful and cost efficient.”

“We have been engaged for almost a year, and both of us just care about getting married and celebrating with close family, and nothing more! We each get overwhelmed easily with the event planning aspect of a wedding. Also, both of us are very busy right now, the bride is a surgery resident and the groom is in full time graduate school, working full time, and leading a military reserve unit on the weekends...we have no time for planning a big wedding and want to focus on what matters: the act of commitment and celebrating with our family.”

Eloping to Focus on Family

“We were never interested in a big wedding. We want our wedding to be about us and our families.”

“It was a beautiful, romantic wedding with the people closest with me 💗”

“We wanted a very small, simple destination wedding that would provide an intimate experience for us and our guests, and an elopement sounded like the perfect way to do it!”

“We would like to share this special moment with just the people most important to us, our family and closest friends. This feels more meaningful than a throwing a huge party where we wouldn't be able to spend much time with our guests.”

Eloping to Stay True to their Personalities

“We are not religious or traditional as persons, and have family spread all over the world, so this felt like the perfect thing for us to do. Also, Hawaii have a special place in our hearts.”

“We were never that fussed on having a big wedding and would prefer to go on holiday overseas and enjoy a smaller ceremony with our closest family/friends”

“We are not interested in a traditional wedding. All of our friends said make it about you, it’s your day.”

“We started planning a big traditional wedding but along the way it just felt like it really wasn’t for us anymore, it was more for the guests. So we decided, hey why not fly out to Hawaii where we were going to honeymoon anyways and get married in a tropical paradise. Our families were on board, because who wouldn’t want to go to Hawaii!!”

“Were going to be on vacation in Hawaii the week of the 24th and wanted to get married before I start nursing school this September. Neither of us enjoy being the center of attention so eloping is more appropriate. We feel like getting married on vacation would be a great way to start our lives together.”

Eloping to Keep it Intimate

“We have family and friends travelling from Australian and the East Coast of the US. We chose to elope to shave some guests, and make it easier for loved ones to join.”

“We wanted a truly intimate and personal ceremony where we can focus on each other and nothing else. Not inviting the parents was a big decision but a right one since we want our marriage to be really something between us two as lovers, rather than a union of two families.”

“After planning my twin sister’s very large wedding coming up in April, [he] and I decided that a large wedding was not for us. Trying to minimize a guest list would be nearly impossible with my very large close family so we decided that a destination wedding would be the best way include only our closest friends and family.”

Eloping to Focus on The Love

“We want to elope so that our day committing to each other is focused solely on us.”

“We love the intimacy of an elopement. Its more about us than the guests. We love traveling and want to spend our money on the experience not on a traditional wedding extravaganza. Plus you can't beat that scenery and photo op.”

“We want to get married in a very intimate and beautiful setting, surrounded only by the people we love the most and who love our love the most.”

“We have always known that we wanted a smaller elopement style wedding because it is more our style and speed. Our relationship is the most important thing to us and we want to celebrate our love in an intimate setting with people who know and love us. Tyler and I got engaged in Maui and it was incredible so we decided to bring it full circle and elope in Hawaii as well.”

Eloping to Go Somewhere Epic

'“We love everything about Hawaii - Oahu specifically, has a special place in our heart. We want our loved ones to experience the magic of Hawaii, that we experienced!”

“We met travelling on holiday in Thailand. We love everything we do together but most of all the privilege of seeing the world. We are definitely a partnership and so long as I am with [him] I feel like I have everything I need. For this reason we chose to make the choice to elope - to have an adventure somewhere new and embrace a beautiful and spectacular location for a very intimate ceremony. Eloping will allow us to focus on what’s important to us - each other rather than all the small aspects that can become ‘important’ when planning a wedding at home.”

“We are choosing to elope because to us, marriage is about us, not having a big flashy wedding to please our parents/ family and friends. We are fairly simple people and we both love to travel and experience new things together. Eloping will let us have a very memorable and enjoyable start to our future together.”

“This is an opportunity for us to do something for ourselves but also include our son and immediate family. As a couple we seek to travel and collect experiences in our lives so eloping made sense to us by getting to travel for our special day and sharing new experiences with our family and friends.”

“We want to keep our wedding intimate with just our closest family members on our sides. Hawaii was always one of our favorite destinations and we always dreamed of getting married here.”

No matter what the reason, eloping is always a good idea! What is your reason? We’d love to plan your elopement wedding!