Intimate Wedding or Elopement | How to Decide if You Want to Include Guests

Some photographers will tell you that your elopement can’t include guests, and while that’s their prerogative, I don’t fall into that category. I do have a specific distinction on determining if it’s an intimate wedding or an elopement. If your guests are being seated for your ceremony and you are having a formal reception to follow, it’s a wedding. If you have guests standing and then we go on an adventure before coming back for an informal dinner OR just spending the rest of the day just the two of you, that’s an elopement. So how do you decide which is more important to you and what would you rather do? It all comes down to preferences! If you want to legally get married with all your people around, but want to have private vows in a magical place, let’s do it! Or if you want to stand cliffside with your people around you while you say ‘I do,’ then let’s jet off to Northern Ireland, and you can bring your people!

An elopement doesn’t mean you have to exclude the people important to you; you can absolutely include them if you want to! You can head to a pub with your favorite people to share a pint before your ceremony, head to your chosen location to say your vows, then go your separate ways; you can always come back together for dinner at a local pub, nice restaurant, or hire a private chef to come to your Airbnb to make dinner.

There are so many ways to still include your family and friends on your biggest day, all while still keeping it personal and an intimate elopement.