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Location? Finalized! Date? Set! You and your fiancé are ready to have your perfect elopement day. But wait, what about the flowers? Your attire? Will you celebrate with cake? There is a lot that can go into planning and coordinating your elopement to make sure you are crossing all the Ts and dotting the Is. Thinking about all of these items sooner rather than later will help ease the potential stress leading up to the day you say “I do”. I’m here to help show you how to plan your elopement from scratch.
I’ve laid out some additional things to consider when planning your elopement. Along with the considerations, some questions you’ll need to answer and also some insight to what I did on my elopement!
Decide on your wedding attire
Will you go traditional with a wedding dress/ suit? Depending on your day, try to imagine if you will be doing an elopement activity in your attire? If it is physically demanding, will you wear your attire the entire time? Or will you change at some point? On our elopement we each wore traditional wedding attire. I was cognizant when choosing my wedding dress to make sure it could be comfortable and lightweight when hiking (though I changed into my hiking boots after!)
Hair and makeup
Will you hire someone to assist with either? Or will you do it yourself? For our elopement, I had hired someone to help with makeup but did my hair myself! Because it was during the pandemic, I facetimed with my hair dresser and she walked me through how to do an updo on myself.
Florals
Flowers are such a nice and classic addition to your elopement day. They bring in the nature around you and add a little bit of tradition as well. Will you have bouquets and/or boutonnieres? If yes, start imagining the colors and flowers you’d like to use. It’s great to search pinterest or instagram to send over designs to the florists so they can understand the vision you are going for. Start reaching out to florists in the area and see if they are available for your elopement date. Especially if you will be eloping in the near future, you’ll want to make sure of availability! (fun fact: my mother made my bouquet from Trader Joe’s flowers!)
Bakery treats
Obviously as I am a sweet tooth fan, you can’t forget about the cake! Will you celebrate with cake, donuts, pie? Would you bring the bakery treats with you for immediately after the ceremony? Or enjoy them at a restaurant? Or have a late night snack back at your hotel/Airbnb together?
Post ceremony/reception meal
There are so many amazing options for your first meal as a married couple! You can set up a picnic for after the ceremony (imagine enjoying some charcuterie after hiking to say your vows!) You could hire a private chef to cook for you back at your home or airbnb. If it’s close by, you could celebrate at your favorite restaurant with a favorite meal! If you are eating at a restaurant, be sure to make reservations before and ask for a more private area.
Accommodation reservations
To end your epic elopement day, will you want to spend it at the place you call home? Or continue the celebration to a nice hotel or unique airbnb close to your ceremony site. Convenience is certainly worth paying a little more as you both will be exhausted after the day! Also staying at a spot can start a new tradition to visit there every year for your anniversary.
Budget
It is really important to have conversations with your fiancé on what is important to both of you. Would you rather spend more on florals for a bouquet/boutonniere or hire a private chef? Is staying overnight close to your ceremony location a better option then driving home after? Once you’ve decided what is important to you and what you’d like to include on your elopement day, start researching vendors and set a budget. Again, understanding the additions that are important to both of you will help when setting a budget and knowing who to work with for vendors.