Advice for Planning an Elopement or Wedding in Broken Bow, Oklahoma

How exciting! You’re planning a wedding or elopement in Broken Bow, Oklahoma! Broken Bow is gorgeous and has so much to offer for small weddings or elopements. This is my advice, as a photographer, to have the best possible day you can when planning in Broken Bow.

The first thing I recommend: Book your cabin or venue.

You can do this on VRBO or Airbnb, but make sure they allow weddings first and check your guest count. Remember, this is your background for 90% of your day! Make sure you like it!

For a wedding, hire a planner!!

You can skip this step if you’re having a small elopement, but if you want to do a wedding with all the moving parts, I cannot recommend a planner enough! SSY Events and Forever Borrowed are two people I highly recommend!

Book any vendors you need.

Photo, video, content creator, caterer or private chef (so fun to do for an elopement or really small, intimate wedding!), florist, cake, DJ, activities, and anything else if you need it! Grab your vendors as soon as you have planned out your budget and priorities. It will make your day run so smoothly.

From here, if you’re eloping, you’re basically done! You can relax and rely on your photographer to capture your beautiful elopement! If you’re having a wedding, your planner can help you take care of almost everything. If you are going to DIY it or go without a planner, I recommend keeping a good Google Sheet to keep track of your vendors!

When it comes to the timeline, some things to consider –

1. When is sunrise or sunset? Depending on what you want your photos to look like and the colors you like, I would plan your ceremony around one of these two times. An hour to an hour and a half before sunset is a good rule of thumb for a small wedding ceremony, and 30 minutes to an hour before sunset for an elopement with personal vows.
2. How much sun is in the backyard of your cabin? If there are a lot of trees, they can block the sun and you would need to plan around that! I highly recommend staying in your cabin at least once before the big day, so you can see if the sun “sets early” or is blocked heavily before sunset.
3. Give your guests a map, or prepare for people to be late. There is minimal cell service, and finding a lot of the cabins is difficult. If you don’t give your guests a map, you may be waiting on them to start.

Enjoy the planning! If you are in need of a photographer who will help you along the way, let’s chat!