Have You Considered Eloping?

Let me be 100% real with you. I love shooting big weddings, I really do, but elopements are where my heart is at.

My husband and I started dating at the very end of 2014, and we moved in together four months later. When you know, you know, right? The first time we ever hung out, we went exploring for hours, and that’s exactly what the rest of our relationship has looked like since then. From the very beginning, we would spend hours and days on end just driving around and exploring every corner of whatever area we were in. We will take a dirt road over a paved one any day and that’s a promise. Our first camping trip together was in Zion National Park, and it’s one I’ll never forget, although I would never camp inside the park again. We prefer not hearing our neighbors doing the it. LOL

In February of 2016, we went on a trip to Page, AZ because I had been DYING to go for a couple years. The morning of the 12th we walked up to Horseshoe Bend at sunrise and that is where Codi proposed. So obviously I said yes, and we immediately started planning a wedding. Like literally that day. Codi wondered what the point in waiting a year was and said he wanted to be married to me ASAP, so we planned a small wedding just for our closest friends and family for that following June. We never even planned on a big wedding because it just didn’t feel like us. We had actually always said that we would elope if we ever got married, but when he actually proposed I felt so guilty about leaving our family out of it.

The plan was to have a big camping weekend in our favorite spot in Idaho, and we were SO excited. We had 30 people on our ideal guest list, but by March that somehow got out of control and people were being invited that I had never even met. To my wedding of the closest 30 people to us… It so quickly became something we didn’t want, and one night I lay in bed, just panicking, and I told Codi that I changed my mind, that I didn’t even want a small wedding anymore. He said something along the lines of, “I told you so” and I called our photographer that same night. I asked her what available dates she had coming up and we set a date for the end of April.

On April 25, 2016 Codi and I got married in the pouring rain in St. George, Utah. The only people present were us, our officiant, our photographer, and her husband, who did video. It was seriously the most AMAZING day that was all about US. We had literally zero worries and that is honestly how it should be on the day that you marry your best friend. We got ready together and had donuts for breakfast and just did whatever the flip we wanted. It was the happiest day of my entire life (until my son was born, sorry babe). I wish I could go back and do that day over and over and over.

My family was so supportive and SO happy for us, and I knew I had done the right thing. And the thing is, that even if someone isn’t happy for you and if they make it about themselves, well they are the selfish ones. When someone truly loves you, they accept you for who you are and what you choose to do with your life, including the way you get married. It is no one else’s business how you want to commit your life to your significant other.

If you want to have a huge party with 600 people, let’s freaking party! But if the thought of spending such a special day with people who don’t truly love and respect you sounds like a nightmare (even if they are your family), then DON’T DO IT. Seriously. Your wedding day is for YOU, and don’t you let anyone try and make you feel guilty about it. Get married with zero witnesses (besides me, duh), with 20 of your closest friends, or with 1,000. I truly don’t care, but what I do care about is that your day is what you want it to be. Picture your wedding day right now. Can you see yourself dancing with your dad in front of hundreds of people, or just a handful? Do you want to spend 90% of your day away from your partner? Can you see yourself hiking to a crystal-clear lake with mud on your shoes and wine in your Hydroflask? Imagine spilling your heart and soul to your partner. Who is present? What does your perfect day look like?

Just know that whatever the answer is, I will be there for you and I’ll support you every step of the way. Church pew or mountaintop, I will be there to happily document your day and to cheer you on, because what else are friends for?!