This May, Frank and I will be eloping in Spain! This and some other big life changes are keeping me pretty busy. So for this post, I thought I’d have a little fun and explain how we came to this decision and how we planned it.
Why We’re Eloping in Spain
Let me start off by saying I have nothing against traditional weddings. Frank and I decided it wasn’t for us, so we made the decision that honored our life goals. Here’s why.
To save money
This one may seem obvious, but weddings are so expensive! Frank and I have both worked in the wedding industry, and we know all too well the costs of planning a traditional wedding. By eloping, we saved money and can now save it for future big life moments.
To travel
Considering we’ve been under lockdown for almost three years, the thought of traveling abroad has seemed like a pipe dream. We had both been talking and planning about going to Spain, and with the money we saved by eloping, we could easily afford it.
To stay on our terms
Luckily, we’re both very fortunate to have families that are understanding and respectful. I don’t doubt that planning a traditional wedding would be fun. But, by eloping, we could do exactly what we wanted without having to coordinate with anyone. From the planning to the day of, it’s just about us.
To plan less
Yes, believe it or not, planning a 3-week trip through Spain was so much less time-consuming than planning a wedding. The wedding itself was entirely painless to plan. The only “wedding planning” we’ve done so far is to settle on a photographer (more on that later) and buy our outfits. The rest we plan on figuring out when we get there.
To keep it quick and get it over with!
Big weddings are meant to be a full-on event, and rightfully so! So much work goes into planning them, and people come from all over to share in the big night. That said, we knew the wedding was just one aspect of a memorable vacation.
Doing a quick elopement allows us to be present and fully appreciate the day. Then the next day, it’s on to another adventure.
How We’re Doing It
If you choose to elope, your journey will no doubt be unique. For what it’s worth, here’s how we planned our elopement.
We decided what we needed, wanted, and could do without
We knew we had to have photographs to capture the day. This meant we’d also need a memorable wardrobe. We had originally looked for someone to perform a ceremony, but in the end, we settled on omitting a full-on ceremony in favor of something less formal.
Our photographer said that many elopement couples forgo a traditional ceremony and do it privately before or after the photos. Currently, we’re thinking of having our own one-on-one ceremony in front of the camera.
We hired professionals
The one thing we knew we couldn’t do ourselves was to take quality photographs. Since our engagement photos turned out amazing, thanks to Leesha King, we knew we’d have to get the best of the best.
Luckily, we didn’t have to search for long before we ran into Jake and Genessa. They helped us pick our photo locations, recommend different vendors for the day-of, and even gave us suggestions for planning the rest of our trip in Spain. Considering they also cater to adventure elopements was another big plus since they understood exactly what our vision was.
We settled on a location
We decided to travel to Spain long before we knew we’d be eloping. As for narrowing down where in Spain we had envisioned a beach wedding, because why not? From that point, we narrowed down our choices of wedding photographers to ones that catered to the Spanish islands.
When we found our photographer, they gave us a handful of suggestions on where in Gran Canaria we could take our photos. It was that easy!
We made adjustments
You can’t really have a semi-spontaneous elopement across the world without having to be a little flexible. For example, we learned pretty quickly it’s almost impossible to get legally married in Spain unless one of us was a Spanish resident.
What’s Next
Frank and I won’t be leaving our family high and dry! When we get back we’ll have a small, fuss-free get-together to enjoy the Pacific Northwest summer and reminisce about our trip to Spain. Oh, and drink some Spanish wine, of course!
