 Hey , Jodie here. Today, I want to tell you a little story about us in the hope you don’t make the same mistakes that we did.13 years ago, Matt proposed. It was the most romantic proposal that you can think of…. he turned to me and said “so, shall we get married then?” *Swoon* We got straight into wedding planning. Now, don’t tell him I said this but Matt was right. You see, he wanted to elope. I suppose I did too but I didn’t want to upset my family.So instead we set to organising a big wedding. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t huge – 100 guests in total. We booked the fancy church (Matt loves a church) despite neither of us being religious. Next on the list was to find a venue… we looked at a few but, if we are honest, our heart wasn’t really in it. So we booked out the grounds of a pub and put in a marquee. Add to that our reception meal of a BBQ and it is fair to say we were trying to keep things relaxed. After all, we are not really big-wedding people. In the lead up to wedding I was obsessed with making sure that the kids bubbles had a heart shaped wand. To this day I couldn’t tell you why. Maybe I was focussing on that to avoid having to think about the wedding that I didn’t want. In fact, I detached myself from the wedding altogether and Matt actually arranged the whole thing. |
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| The wedding came and went and we had a nice day. Did we love it? Nope. We were happy on the day, of course we were. But at no point did the wedding feel like “us”. Matt still can’t believe what he wore – a cravat?!! A surprise pregnancy meant that we didn’t really have time to take all this in and thoughts of our wedding receded pretty quickly until we just didn’t think about it at all.It was only when, a few years later, that we stopped shooting “big” weddings and focussed on elopements that we realised just how much we messed things up. You see we spent thousands and thousands (£18000 ish) on a day we didn’t want and a day that didn’t represent either us or our love for each other. As a quick aside, our Scotland Elopement Packages cost way less than that for 7 days of magic. We barely spent any time with each other on the day but instead were resigned to “doing the rounds” around our guests.We don’t want you to make the same mistakes that we did.If you want a big wedding – fab! Go for it! We photographed hundreds of these in our photography career and they can be such amazing days for the couples involved. But if you want an elopement, DO IT! Don’t feel the need to follow traditions or do it to keep people happy. Chances are, half the people you invite (and pay to feed don’t forget!!) probably won’t even be in your life a few years later and the family you didn’t invite so you could invite the ‘friends’ you no longer talk to, will still be upset about it all these years later. Have a wedding that feels right to you two. Dare to dream, dare to elope! Screw tradition. |
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| Thinking about eloping and you’ve got some questions? Contact us and we will be happy to help. Looking for an elopement adventure in 2025? We want to hear from you. |
