Elope Abroad

want2elope

My OH and I have no interest in a big wedding and would love to elope abroad, just the two of us. Has anyone done this that can give us some advice?
We want it to be a civil wedding/honeymoon with no guests. I haven't set a specific budget but would love to get it all done for between €2 - 4K. Can we book this ourselves online without a co-ordinator? Is it possible to book it all without having to travel to the country in advance to set things up? We are thinking of Europe, preferably Italy or Greece but I'm open to suggestions! Thanks

tinkerbell

Yes it is possible to do it yourself without a wedding co-ordinator. However you need to make sure you do your research and do it properly, the internet has great info on what you need to do to make sure a marriage ceremony happens properly, i.e. that you have all the documentation you need in order, etc.

username123

Myself and OH did it a couple of years ago.

Heres how we did it:
We researched places on the internet to find out what the legal requirements were in different places (for example, for Gretna Green you have to present in person a period of time before the actual wedding, for some countries blood tests are required and for other places there is a minimum residency requirement).

When we found some places that were low on legal requirements we narrowed it down to places that we actually wanted to visit (ie, have the honeymoon there), and then continued online research.

We eventually chose a destination country (for us it was South Africa) and then got in touch with a travel agent, explained what we wanted and they put together a package for us that included our wedding in our chosen destination. We were given a variety of options for the wedding, and we chose what suited us. The minister contacted us prior to us going over and we had both phone and email communication with him, where he explained what documents we needed to bring.

When we arrived in SA the hotel catering manager and the minister had a meeting with us to finalise details and the minister also had an informal chat with us which he then incorporated details of into the ceremony (like when we had met etc...). The hotel catering manager organised a driver, photographer, 2 witnesses (herself and the photographer), champagne, a picnic lunch, and our evening dinner plus our room decked out with candles and flower petals (that was a nice surprise) and basically anything we wanted.

It was totally amazing and Id advise anyone to elope - it was great fun phoning home afterwards

Cadyboo

username123 wrote: »

Myself and OH did it a couple of years ago.

It was totally amazing and Id advise anyone to elope - it was great fun phoning home afterwards

Your wedding sounds amazing! What did your family say?? And did you have a party when you came home?

username123

Thanks Cadyboo. Yes - it was brilliant. The ceremony itself was outdoors in a safari park - so there was always the chance of a lion jumping out on us - the driver had a rifle just in case

We got a private game drive after the ceremony where the ranger took us much closer to the animals than the standard game drives - we were followed by a photographer with a telephoto lens so there were some amazing pics of us in the middle of a herd of elephants etc!!

Eh, most people were fine when we rang home - very excited for us etc... One or two were a bit miffed that they hadnt been told - but as NO ONE knew they couldnt say much and they calmed down quickly!

We threw a party a few weeks later, not a sit down meal, just a DJ, bar, finger food. SO I got to wear 2 different wedding dresses Neither of which was a traditional white dress!

finnegan2010

Does Eloping mean going away and getting married without telling anyone?
Or telling family etc prior and going away yourselves and having a private ceremony with the family knowing what was going on but just not there? Just read previous post ok that answers that. My sister did this and there was some real snide remarks made by other family members "went off and got married hadnt even the manners to ring her parents before hand and tell"
In my opinion all power to you, sounds a great idea. I dont think 20k on a marriage is money well spent anyhow! Madness i tell ya

want2elope

Username123 your wedding sounds amazing, thanks for the tips.
I think our familes would be ok with it, we've made no secret of the fact that we don't want a big wedding and neither of us have a strong faith so no worries about the whole church wedding either. I would love to just go off on hols and come back married and maybe have a few drinks in a pub to celebrate. I've watched so many friends spend a year or more of their lives focusing on nothing but there weddings and it's just not for me!

username123

want2elope - thats exactly how we felt as well, in fact it took us 2 years of being engaged before we married because we kept putting off organising it as neither of us wanted the big traditional wedding.

One thing I will say about eloping, is that its very very special that its just the two of ye on the day - we almost felt like we were being bold and got such a buzz out of it just being the two of us - you can really focus on each other and what marriage is all about as opposed to having to entertain guests and think about other things.

We had a very sociable time of it when we got home as lots of friends and family came calling, organised dinners, nights out etc to celebrate. When we did throw the big party we both felt we would have preferred to be guests at it instead of organisers as we barely got to see each other all night, and only spoke to people briefly because there was so many to get around to - I would have hated that to have been my wedding day and was so glad it was just my 'afters party'.

JackieO

Hi OP, we are also planning on doing this. I'm just not into the whole big wedding thing. We are planning on going to New York. Its quite easy to get married there from the research I've done. We're just going to have a city hall wedding I think and then maybe head to the Carribean for our honeymoon. Can't wait.:D

Check out the following....

http://elopenewyork.com/

Also, if you look on trip advisor there are loads of NY wedding reports.

artyeva

we eloped last november to las vegas. neither of us are wedding people, and we always knew we didn't want to get involved in all the pomp and ridiculousness that goes on in a lot of weddings here in ireland, so we eloped. vegas was his idea in the end, and i'm so glad and grateful that we did it the way we did. because weddings are such a core business there, if you can imagine something, you'll find a vendor to do it. you can spend a small fortune, or you can go on a budget. you can be as tacky as you want, or you can have something really elegant and intimate. you can be outrageous or traditional, you can have a religious ceremony with all the bells and whistles, or a simple civil ceremony. the only formality involved was going to the courthouse and getting the licence - and all we needed for that was our passports/driving licences. we didn't have to register anything when we got home, it was all so stress and bullsh** free it was an absolute breeze

we wanted cheap, elegant and fun, so we stayed downtown, had the ceremony in a really nice elegant chapel on the strip, hired a photographer [husband and wife team], had a meal and a cake, and stayed on for an amazing honeymoon. there's so much more to vegas and nevada than elvis and gambling and i'd go back there in a heartbeat.

if you're thinking of vegas and want more info just drop me a pm and i can give you a more details and contacts and stuff. i couldn't recommend it highly enough!!!

want2elope

Hey guys thanks for all the advice so far, it's been a bit hectic lately as we've just bought a new house but the date is now set for our anniversary next year. We haven't fully decided on destination yet but it's looking like New York might be the winner. I'm not so excited about waiting till next year but I really like the idea of getting married on the anniversary of the date we got together!

MsRockstar

Hey everyone,

i'm also trying to plan an elopement with my H2B, its very stressful. I really don't feel that you elope especially when it will take the next 6 months to organise for just two of us.

Trying to organise Italy and its tough considering you need witnesses and a million documents. Got a rough estimate off a wedding planner and it was over 1.5K, which isn't really what we wanted to spend.

It seems to be really impossible to find direct contact details of the Town Hall in Rome to book directly with them.

Trying to have a low cost option without too much hassle. Has anyone been successful?

TrevorNelson

Hi ya,

I thought the whole idea about eloping was to avoid the sterss?!

We're getting married in Mauritius this year and it's very straight forward. We've decided to go ahead with a civil ceremony just because it's less hassle. All you need is your birth certs and passports. The cost of the wedding is around 500 euro. Plus you're getting a lovely honemoon
We went to a travel agent and they sorted everything out for us.
Once you know where you want to go it takes very little to make it happen. If you have any questions PM me

Lola92

username123, I just wanted to say that your wedding sounds amazing, I would love to do something like that with my OH but it might be awkward to bring our young daughter also. I would not like to leave her out when we get married

Congratulations by the way!:)

username123

Thanks Lola.

Im sure you could arrange something that you could bring your daughter to - maybe bring just close family with you so its less an 'elopement' and more an 'intimate' wedding?

I did go to one wedding in Cyprus that was only 30 people and there were small children with some guests, it was absolutely lovely, the small intimate nature of it with just that many people was really gorgeous.

neris

My cousin did that years ago. Went to las vegas for the weekend and was total war in her family when they came home

TrevorNelson

neris wrote: »

My cousin did that years ago. Went to las vegas for the weekend and was total war in her family when they came home

It might be a bit of a shock for the family. Our families and friends know about our plan and everyone is very supportive. We will still have a party when we come back. Can't imagine getting married without telling anyone...specially the parents. It's not like you're going anything wrong - it's just your decision to spend that special day the way YOU want to.