What are the top reasons to elope?

Maybe you are like me when I was planning my wedding several years ago and you have no idea what an elopement even is. Or maybe you are on the fence about whether you want to have a big traditional wedding or elope. No matter where you are in the wedding planning process, you deserve to have a day that is authentic and a representation of your relationship.

If the thought of a traditional wedding doesn’t feel like “you,” eloping could be the perfect way to celebrate. I interviewed my past couples to get to the bottom of why real couples like you are choosing to elope. Here are 10 heartfelt reasons to elope, along with insights from real couples to inspire your own decision.

1. Embracing The Unconventional Wedding Day
2. Intimacy and Privacy
3. Less Stress and Finding Joy
4. Adventure and Experience
5. Skip the Family Drama
6. Personalization and Authenticity
7. Love of the Outdoors
8. Spending Money On Experiences
9. Simplicity and Desire for a Relaxed Day
10. Travel and Combining With A Honeymoon

Reason To Elope 1: Embracing The Unconventional Wedding Day

The number one reason that couples choose to elope is that they want an unconventional wedding experience. They don’t want the big traditional wedding and all the stress that it brings. For many couples, the idea of a traditional wedding doesn’t align with who they are or how they envision celebrating their love. Younger generations, in particular, are increasingly breaking away from conventional norms and embracing the freedom to craft a day that is truly about them.

Why Traditional Weddings Don’t Always Work

Traditional weddings often come with unrealistic expectations: a detailed itinerary, considering the needs of hundreds of guests, and traditions dictating every element, from the venue to the attire. For many, these elements can feel impersonal, limiting, or even overwhelming.

One couple shared, “Planning a big wedding turned into pleasing people other than ourselves. One day, we just looked at each other and said, ‘we should just elope.’” This sentiment resonates with many who feel that traditional weddings put more focus on others’ expectations than the couple’s true desires.

Younger couples today are increasingly rejecting the cookie-cutter wedding experience. They value experiences over extravagance, authenticity over appearances, and connection over convention.

Why Non-Traditional Weddings Feel Right

Elopements allow couples to design their day around what makes them unique. Want to exchange vows at sunrise on a mountaintop or celebrate with a picnic by a lake? Want to include your dog in the ceremony, wear hiking boots instead of heels? It’s all possible with an elopement. As one couple put it: “We wanted the day to be completely about us—our love and commitment—without the stress of balancing everyone else’s expectations.”

Elopements allow you to:

• Choose a location that means something: Whether it’s the beach where you first met, the mountain you have hiked together a thousand times, or a bucket-list destination.
• Do activities you love: From hiking to canoeing, your day can reflect the adventures you’ve shared.
• Skip the outdated traditions: Skip the bouquet toss or seating charts if they don’t resonate with you.

A Day That’s True to You

The beauty of eloping is the freedom to ditch the traditions you don’t want and create a wedding that truly reflects who you are as a couple. It’s about being true to yourselves, saying no to societal norms, and celebrating in a way that feels authentic to you.

As another couple shared, “We chose to elope because our relationship was not necessarily viewed as traditional. Eloping brought an intimacy and freedom that fit who we are as a couple.”

This trend isn’t about rebelling for the sake of it—it’s about redefining what love and commitment look like and making your wedding day a true reflection of your relationship.

Reason To Elope 2: Intimacy and Privacy

The number two reason that couples wanted to elope was the desire for more intimacy and privacy on their wedding day. For many couples, the idea of standing in front of hundreds of people, all eyes on them, is cringe-worthy. Elopements offer a great alternative—a chance to focus entirely on your partner and the love you share, without the pressure of performing for an audience.

For Those Who Don’t Want to Be the Center of Attention

For introverted couples or those who value intimacy over being at the center of a big party, a traditional wedding can feel daunting. The idea of walking down an aisle, giving speeches, and being in the spotlight for hours can create more stress than its worth. Eloping removes this pressure entirely, creating space for you to be fully present with each other.

One couple shared, “Eloping with just the two of us allowed us to focus solely on one another. We were able to pour our hearts out in our vows without feeling so many eyes on us.”

A Day Just for the Two of You

Elopements allow you to set the tone for your day:

• Private vows: Share your most heartfelt promises without worrying about public speaking or being judged.
• Quiet moments together: Whether it’s a sunrise hike or a private dinner under the stars, your day can be filled with moments that matter.
• Meaningful interactions: With no large guest list to manage, you can give your full attention to your partner and soak in every emotion.

One couple reflected, “Being free from stress and anxiety enabled us to fully enjoy the entire day. It was intimate, personal, and deeply connected—exactly what we envisioned for our wedding.”

By eloping, you can prioritize what truly matters: your connection and your love. Instead of worrying about entertaining guests, you’re free to focus on celebrating your relationship in a way that feels deeply meaningful and authentic to you.

Reason To Elope 3: Less Stress and Finding Joy

You know what drove me crazy when planning our own wedding? It turned into a balancing act of managing everyone else’s expectations. Parents wanted one thing, friends suggested another, and suddenly the wedding didn’t feel like our day anymore.

Unfortunately, this is true for so many couples planning a traditional wedding. Without the performance of a big traditional wedding, couples can feel free to express their love to one another in a raw and authentic way. There are less distractions, less stress, and less pressure. Eloping takes away the endless decisions and stress, leaving you free to enjoy your day.

A Day Centered on Joy

Without the long checklist of tasks and social obligations, eloping allows you to approach your wedding day with ease and excitement. Couples often reflect on how freeing it felt to simplify:

• Space for spontaneity: You have the flexibility to embrace unexpected moments.
• No rigid schedules: You can move at your own pace.
• No performance: It’s just you and your partner, celebrating in the way that feels best.

“Zero stress. We spent the day together, doing what we loved most, and everything felt natural and easy. It was just about us.”

Reason To Elope 4: Adventure and Experience

Reason number 4 is actually connected to reason number 1 for a lot of couples. For couples who live for the thrill of adventure, eloping can be perfect way to celebrate. Your wedding day should reflect your lifestyle—bold, adventurous, and experience-driven.

Grabbing Your Wedding By The Horns

Many couples who choose to elope share a mindset: life is meant to be experienced to the fullest. They crave new experiences, crazy adventures, and meaningful moments. Their wedding day is no exception. One couple described their elopement as “a chance to spend the entire day doing our favorite outdoor activities—canoeing, hiking, and watching the sunset. It was the best day ever.”

Eloping gives you the freedom to create a day that matches your adventurous spirit. Whether it’s hiking to a secluded mountain peak, exchanging vows on a Hawaiian beach, or saying “I do” in the middle of the ocean, your wedding becomes a journey you’ll never forget.

Living Life to the Fullest

When you elope, the possibilities are endless:

• Incorporate your passions: Love kayaking, climbing, or skiing? Make it part of your day.
• Chase epic views: Choose a breathtaking location that leaves you in awe.
• Embrace spontaneity: Decide in the moment to stay longer at a spot or take a detour for a perfect photo opportunity.

One couple recalled, “We exchanged vows at the top of a trail, then hiked back down in time for a sunset dinner. Every part of the day felt like us—full of adventure and joy.”

The Journey of a Lifetime

For couples who love pushing boundaries, eloping is about more than just getting married. It’s about starting your life together with an adventure. Your wedding day isn’t just a milestone; it’s a legacy that you will leave behind for years to come!

Reason To Elope 5: Skip the Family Drama

Traditional weddings can sometimes bring family tension to the forefront. Eloping lets you sidestep those challenges and focus on your happiness instead of navigating complicated dynamics.

The Emotional Toll of Big Weddings

Planning a traditional wedding involves a lot of people, and unfortunately it also involves unsolicited advice and opinions as well. It can easily overwhelm you and make you feel anxious on your wedding day. And nobody wants that. Guest lists, seating charts, and decisions about traditions can lead to frustration and even resentment.

One couple shared, “Planning a big wedding turned into pleasing people other than ourselves. Eloping let us take control and make the day about us.”

Eloping removes the weight of everyone else’s expectations. Instead of worrying about who sits where or whose feelings might be hurt, you can create a day that reflects your values and priorities.

A Day For You and Less Drama

Sadly, not everybody has a close-knit family where they can feel free to be themselves either. For some, even the thought of having your family there is probably extremely uncomfortable and stress-inducing. The reality is, sometimes even close families with the best intentions can add a lot of unnecessary stress to a wedding day.

No matter what, you deserve to have a wedding day surrounded by people that support you 100% with no judgment or negative feelings. If you grew up with a traumatic family situation or if you have a healthy relationship with your family but want to focus on your spouse, you don’t need an excuse to elope. The day YOU get married is YOUR day. Spend it how you want to begin that chapter of your life.

Read more about how to tell your family you want to elope.

Reason To Elope 6: Personalization and Authenticity

Your wedding day should reflect who you are as a couple—your story, your quirks, and your values. For many, a big traditional wedding just doesn’t feel like who they are.

What Does It Mean to Be Authentic?

We live in a social media world where the word authentic is thrown around daily and has started to lose its meaning. However, being authentic is about one thing: showing up as your truest self. It’s about embracing what makes your relationship unique and unapologetically honoring that.

One couple put it best: “We’re kind of weird, and eloping let us lean into that. We didn’t have to worry about what people might think if we cracked jokes during our vows or took silly photos mid-hike. We blasted our favorite songs, danced like idiots on the trail, and spent the day being 100% us. It was freeing to let go of judgement and have fun. I don’t think we could’ve done that in front of 200 guests—it wouldn’t have felt right.”

A Day That’s All Yours

When you elope, there’s no pressure to conform to anyone else’s ideas of what a wedding should look like.

• Want to hike to a mountaintop in your wedding attire? Go for it.
• Prefer to exchange vows barefoot on the beach at sunrise? That’s your moment.
• Dream of incorporating your favorite hobby, like canoeing or rock climbing? Eloping makes it possible.

Eloping gives you the freedom to design a day that feels true to your relationship and your life. You can shed traditions that don’t resonate and focus on the ones that do.

“Eloping gave us the freedom to write our own story. We wore hiking boots, ate Taco Bell on the trail, and shared a first dance to our favorite song – it was so us. The whole day felt like a reflection of the life we’ve built together, and we wouldn’t trade that for anything.”

Reason To Elope 7: Love of the Outdoors

For couples who feel most alive in nature, eloping outdoors isn’t just a preference—it’s a calling. Nature is the place where you feel most connected to each other and the world around you. It’s your peak human experience. For you, a traditional venue just doesn’t compare to the mountains, forests, or beaches around the world.

“Nature has always felt like home for us. From camping trips to stargazing on our first date, it’s been a part of our favorite memories. Eloping outdoors just felt right—it was intimate, peaceful, and a reflection of everything we love.”

A Way to Be Eco-Conscious

Eloping outdoors is also an eco-conscious choice that aligns with the values of couples who care deeply about honoring the planet. Traditional weddings, with their large guest counts, excessive waste, elaborate décor, and single-use items, often leave a heavy environmental footprint. Elopements, on the other hand, are naturally more sustainable. By focusing on simplicity and minimizing waste, you can have a wedding day that feels meaningful and aligned with your love for the outdoors.

Many couples choose to incorporate eco-friendly touches, like supporting local vendors, avoiding disposable items, or even contributing to environmental causes as part of their celebration.

Reason To Elope 8: Spending Money On Experiences

If you value experiences over stuff, you are like most couples who choose to elope. People that elope would rather have an epic all-day adventure in a new place than spend money on a big party. It’s not that eloping couples don’t want to spend money at all on their wedding, they just want to invest that money differently.

The average wedding cost for couples getting married in 2024 totals around $33,000, up slightly from $29,000 in 2023 (according to Zola). A good portion of this money is being spent on cheap party favors, centerpieces that will be thrown away, plates, napkins, attire that will never be worn again, and just a bunch of stuff. Not only is this expensive, but also wasteful.

Freedom To Spend Money How You Want

Eloping can give you the freedom to spend your money in a way that is less-wasteful and more in line with what you value.

For some, this means traveling to a bucket-list destination. As one couple who eloped in Hawaii said:
“When we imagined our wedding day, we wanted it to be intimate and meaningful in a beautiful setting. A Hawaiian beach felt like the perfect spot—scenic, peaceful, and personal. We couldn’t have done that with a big wedding budget, but eloping gave us the chance to make our dream a reality.”

Close your eyes and think. If you and your partner could go anywhere and do anything for a day, where would you go and what would you do? Forget the fancy napkins, plates, and giant centerpieces, instead go on the helicopter ride over mountain vistas you’ve always dreamed of. Go hiking up your favorite mountain at sunset or cliff jumping into the ocean.

Value Experiences Over Things

If you value experiences, full GoPro memory cards, and making memories that will last a lifetime, you would likely enjoy eloping. By eloping, you create a day filled with meaning and purpose—designed around your priorities and love story. The best part? You can do it without the financial stress that often comes with a traditional wedding.

“Instead of worrying about a seating chart or overpriced table decorations, we put our money into an amazing trip and the best photographer to capture our day. It was worth every penny.”

Reason To Elope 9: Simplicity and Desire for a Relaxed Day

Eloping gives couples the gift of time. Without the strict timelines of a big wedding, you can take the day at your own pace. You’re free to enjoy a slow morning having coffee together, savor the moments, and truly soak in the day without rushing to the next thing on the schedule.

Couples often share with me how freeing it is to design a day that feels like them—stripped of all the extras. Instead of juggling time for cake cutting and bouquet tossing, an elopement is all about what you want to do. Whether it’s taking a scenic hike, indulging in a leisurely picnic, or dancing under the stars, you’re in control of your day’s flow.

As one couple put it:
“We woke up in our favorite cabin, made coffee together, and watched the sunrise before starting our day. There was no pressure, no rushing —just us, enjoying every single second.”

Another couple reflected on their experience:
“The relaxed pace of our elopement was everything. We had time to laugh, cry, and share moments without feeling rushed. It made the day feel even more special because it was so uniquely ours.”

By choosing simplicity, you let go of unnecessary stress and create a wedding day that reflects what really matters: your love and the beginning of your forever.

Reason To Elope 10: Travel and Combining With A Honeymoon

Eloping gives couples the perfect opportunity to combine their wedding and honeymoon into one incredible adventure. When you choose to exchange vows in an incredible destination, you’re already in a place where you can begin your honeymoon immediately after saying “I do.”

Instead of planning a large wedding and then organizing a separate honeymoon, couples could invest in a destination that felt like it could also be a place for their honeymoon—whether it was the mountains they love to hike, or a National Park they’ve dreamed of visiting.

“We eloped in the Smoky Mountains, and after our vows, we spent a few days hiking and relaxing in a cozy cabin. It was so special to celebrate just the two of us, surrounded by nature.”

Elopement Turned Honeymoon

An elopement-turned-honeymoon lets you create once-in-a-lifetime memories, blending the beauty of your wedding day with the adventure of traveling together. As one couple put it, “Getting married in Hawaii meant we had an incredible wedding and a built-in honeymoon. It was the best decision we could have made.”

Setting The Tone For Marriage

Traveling and eloping together sets the tone for your marriage: focused on shared adventures, authentic experiences, and the moments that truly matter. I can think of no better way to start your forever adventure together!

Should I Elope? Advice from Real Couples

Now, I want to start by saying that eloping is not for everyone and nor should it be. If you have always dreamed of that big wedding in the white chapel, or getting married at the same place your mom did, or want to host the biggest wedding blowout-bash that anyone has ever seen, by all means – do it! You should have a day that feels meaningful to you.

However, if you are on the fence about a big traditional wedding and are wondering if eloping might be right for you. Here is some advice from couples just like you who were in the same spot:

• “We started planning a big wedding, but it quickly became clear it wasn’t for us. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or unsure, ask yourself: What will make you happiest at the end of the day? For us, the answer was an intimate, stress-free celebration with just us.”
• “Think about what truly matters to you. If you want a day that’s focused on your love and nothing else, eloping might be the perfect fit.”
• “We struggled with the decision at first, worried about what others would think. But in the end, your wedding is about your love. Let that guide your choice, and you won’t regret it.”
• “Looking back, we wouldn’t change a thing. Eloping meant celebrating on our terms, in a place we adore, with no pressure to be anything other than who we are.”
• “We worried about disappointing family, but our elopement ended up being such a joyful and meaningful day for us. And when we shared our story afterward, everyone was just happy for us—it was a relief to know we made the right call.”
• “Don’t let others dictate your day. It’s your love story—make it yours.”
• “When we let go of everyone else’s expectations, we found the courage to create a day that celebrated who we are. Eloping gave us the freedom to truly be ourselves.”
• “You won’t regret making a decision that feels true to who you are as a couple. Eloping is freeing, personal, and unforgettable.”

Still Not Sure: Questions To Ask Yourself About Eloping

If you’ve read all these reasons from couples, and advice they have about making a decision to elope and you still can’t decide. That’s okay! It can take time to figure out what you really want. Here are some questions that might help guide you:

1. Do we want a wedding day focused entirely on each other?
2. Does the thought of a big wedding feel stressful or overwhelming?
3. Are we drawn to the idea of a meaningful, authentic wedding day?
4. Would we rather spend money on experiences or travel instead of a large event?
5. Do we dream of a wedding day that feels relaxed, joyful, and uniquely ours?

If you find yourself saying “yes,” eloping could be the perfect way to start your forever.

Are You Ready to Elope?

If you’ve made it this far, you might already be leaning toward the idea of an elopement.

Have you found yourself nodding along with the advice or reasons shared by the couples in this blog?

Does the thought of ditching the stress and embracing a relaxed, adventurous day feel like the perfect way to celebrate your love?

Are you ready to craft a day that reflects who you truly are as a couple, free from expectations or pressures?

Then I think it is time to start planning your own elopement!

But where do you start? Not to worry! I am here to help guide you every step of the way.

I have some resources to help you get started, like how to elope, how to make your elopement unique, and some great elopements to help inspire you with your own.

Planning your elopement should be as stress-free and exciting as the day itself, and that’s where I come in. I’m here to help you turn your dream into reality. From helping you choose the perfect location to capturing every moment, I’ll guide you every step of the way.

Ready to start your elopement adventure? Reach out—I’d love to hear your story! Because the best adventures never end, and yours is just getting started.