Elopement Series: Why we eloped

Jake and I eloped this past year in September!! To revive this blog, I wanted to start an ‘Elopement Series’ detailing the various elements of our elopement. A couple ideas for future blog posts for this series: what we ended up spending our money on for the elopement, the preparation for doing my own hair & makeup, and how people reacted to our elopement news. However, seems natural to first write about why we eloped.

Even before we got engaged, we were a bit hesitant about the thought of having a traditional wedding and 100% puzzled by the hefty cost. Once we were officially fiances (honestly still a funny, foreign word that we never got used to), we still hadn’t warmed up to the idea of having one, let alone planning one. Not to be controversial, but we really didn’t want to go through the stress that comes with planning a wedding full of details and traditions we don’t care about, concessions that we’d inevitably have to make to please others, for a lot of people we’d be obligated to invite but don’t really know AND we’d probably be out tens of thousands of dollars. We toyed around with the idea of an intimate destination wedding, but even that seemed like a stressful endeavor that we weren’t too keen on partaking in.

We took a step back and evaluated what was really important to us and came to the conclusion that traditional weddings are just not for us. Don’t get me wrong, we love celebrating our friends and families at their own weddings should they choose to celebrate in that way! But the thought of going through the motions just because that’s what people normally do… that didn’t seem practical nor right for us. In our normal day to day, we rarely have even small dinner parties, and we generally shy away from attention. Could we really imagine playing hosts to a huge party with all eyes on us? N-O, NO, NO NO NO NO NO. Did I say no? Lol

All we wanted to do was have a low-key day where we dressed up, exchanged vows in a beautiful location, and have it documented for memories. And that’s exactly what we did. We ended up writing our own personal vows and privately exchanged these words in a secluded area on the edge of a cliff somewhere in Banff, under an old Douglas fir tree, with a beautiful mountain backdrop. Just the two of us. (And our wonderful photographer who was both a wonderful guide and an incognito photographer when the time called for it.) We spent all day together just enjoying each other’s company, without a care in the world. No distractions and no doing things we didn’t want to do. In fact, we were back in the hotel ordering room service by 1pm and took a long, leisurely afternoon nap. It was blissfully simple and perfect and stress free.

Eloping isn’t for everyone, but it was the absolute right choice for us. We really couldn’t have started our marriage off on a better note. I highly recommend it to any couple who feels the way we did about having a traditional wedding!!

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