Five Reasons Why You Should Plan a Two-Day (or multiple day) Elopement
Five Reasons Why You Should Plan a Two-Day (or multiple day) Elopement
LOVE, LORRAINE ADVENTURE WEDDING and ELOPEMENT PHOTOGRAPHERS
Most weddings that you have attended have more than likely been a single-day event. You show up sometime in the late afternoon, enjoy a beautiful ceremony, and then get into drinks, dinner, and the reception! Is this what you envision for your wedding? What if we told you that your wedding could be two days of celebrating? Yes, you read that right. And we will go even further to say that a multiple-day elopement is even more epic.
Read on to learn more about how epic a multiple-day elopement truly can be. Let’s get after it.
You’ll have more time
First and foremost, multiple-day elopements will give you more time to enjoy your celebration, relax, or even experience an epic adventure as a part of your wedding celebration. We love a good long weekend elopement celebration. It allows you to include guests in multiple experiences rather than racing through a 12-14 hour day with them. Not having guests? Great! This allows you even MORE time with your best friend to go on multiple adventures, seek multiple locations, and sprinkle your celebration with travel experiences. Visiting a new place? Check out the town and get a taste for the locals on day one. Elope on day two, including (but not limited to an) epic hike to an alpine lake somewhere remote. Then, you can relax and head for the Hot Springs or have a Spa Day on day three!
When you have more than one day to celebrate your love, you allow yourself endless opportunities. There are so many things you can do that one day just won’t allow. One of the most glaring limiting factors of a single day elopement is obvious, time!
2. You can spend quality time with loved ones and friends
Imagine your dream elopement. Your friends and family are included in your vision. You want to jam pack your day with an awesome adventure for everyone, and get married. You start building your timeline, and all of a sudden you realize you have a crazy busy day on your hands! Enter the multiple day elopement plan.
This extra time especially applies if you are planning on having guests, that way you can celebrate with them even more and build in quality experiences with them. Why should your love only be celebrated for one day?! And if you’re traveling somewhere epic, they are too. Promote your guests to take the extra time to treat it as a multi-day trip so they can make their own memories of the time you decided to elope!
3. You can plan more experiences and adventures
For those that are seeking experiences and adventure, the multiple day elopement allows you one day for your ceremony and portraits, and a second day for an awesome adventure, with more portraits!
If you want to see real couples multiple-day elopements, check out:
Courtney & Jose: Acadia National Park Rock Climbing Elopement
Jordan & Josh: Joshua Tree National Park Elopement
Courtney and Jose decided to celebrate with friends and family on day one. This first day included their ceremony, family portraits, an epic day of adventuring (just the two of them) through the park, AND their reception dinner with their guests. On day two, they chose to go rock climbing in the park! We ended day 2 with an incredible sunset portrait session along the coast.
Maybe rock climbing isn’t for you, and that’s alright! There are so many epic adventures you can go on during your multiple day elopement celebration. Here are some quick ideas we love:
Rent ATVs or Snowmobiles and explore the backcountry
Rent a Jeep and go off-roading somewhere remote
Go Mountain Biking, Skiing or Snowboarding
Take a Hike, Go Camping, or Snowshoe through the Aspen trees!
Have a Picnic at the summit of a Mountain
Soak in a natural hot spring. Colorado offers some of the best hot springs!
Horseback Riding, Rock Climbing, and Skydiving
Gondola Ride to the top of a mountain
Plan a Local Brewery Tour
Go River Tubing, rent Kayaks or SUPs, or even rent a boat and spend a day on the lake
Rent a camper van and explore multiple locations. This option not only gives you a place to get ready before your elopement and offers epic photos, but it leads right into our next reason why we love multiple day elopements, multiple locations!
4. You can hit multiple locations of the epic place you have chosen
We like to have a good amount of time to access an epic location and photograph your love with intent. During a 2-day elopement, we can choose to shoot your portraits the day of or even the day after (or both!). Having extra time allows you to access multiple locations! Many of our couples take advantage of this in their planning, and it allows them to get multiple landscapes as part of their photos. Do you want to portraits in the high alpine wilderness, but also have a dreamy sunset session with the mountain range as a backdrop in mind? When planning a multiple day elopement, you can get all of that, and a whole lot more!
5. You can DIY some parts of your Elopement
This may sound daunting at first, but if you are an advocate for saving some cash and doing a little bit of extra work, there are a lot of things you can DIY for your elopement! One thing that Lauren enjoys most is tablescaping. Hosting your family and friends for a nice dinner? A solid rental company can provide the table and chairs, and the rest of the decor you can source yourself very easily. If you are hiring a florist for your wedding, they can put together some floral arrangements specific to your dream tablescape, or we can use some leftovers to decorate the table. This is a great example of being more involved in your wedding vision, and a fun, creative way to express yourself!
Don’t worry, you aren’t alone! Many couples respond to the idea of a multiple day wedding thinking “how could I possibly need two days?!” or the dreaded “why would I pay to have a photographer for multiple days?”. Your wedding is a beautiful part of your story, and it deserves to be captured in full no matter what you choose for your wedding celebration, in full. As your photographers, we want to tell the full story of your epic adventure into marriage.
Even after reading this post, you may still feel that you can squeeze quite a bit into one day. Transitions between activities, driving to and from any locations, and ensuring that everyone included has time to eat, rest, and stay motivated without raging through a single day can take a lot of time.
We have built an example timeline for you to see just how much two days can offer you when it comes to your elopement!
Two Day Elopement Example Timeline:
day one
08:00 am: Arrive at your Airbnb for detailed photos of the property
08:30 am: Begin getting ready, take your time. Enjoy it in a calm environment (people and space). We will capture photos of all of the details as well.
09:30 am: First Look at your Airbnb or at a decided location (extra time may be needed for travel)
10:00am: Ceremony Begins
Post Ceremony: Family & Friend Portraits, Sneak in some lunch!
12:00pm: Couple & Photographers Leave For Adventure and Portraits in Rocky Mountain National Park.
1:00 - 5:00pm: How about a 4x4 Jeep adventure, or an epic hike and an intimate picnic? The options are endless!
5:00pm: Head back to the Airbnb to meet friends and family
6:00pm: Dinner at the Airbnb with a private chef. Storytelling, toasts, and then party time!
Day Two
4:00pm: Meet at trailhead. Double check packs for essentials.
4:30pm: Begin hike to an Alpine Lake.
5:30pm: Summit beers, champagne toast, or a picnic as the sun sets.
6:00pm: Sunset portraits through blue hour.
7:00pm: Hike back down to the car.
8:00pm: Arrive back at the trailhead.
And there’s no need to limit it to two days. Your elopement celebration can last as long as you’d like! We have photographed multiple weddings that were two days or more!
No matter how long your wedding celebration is, it is important to think about your day as an adventure without limits. Starting the planning process without any limitations top of mind allows you to dream up an experience you’ll love. Rather than planning with a strict time allotment (say 8-10 hours) this unlimited brainstorming allows you to plan with intention, and pushes you to be honest with yourself about what you truly want your wedding experience to look like!
As your photographers and guides, we are here to ensure that you make the absolute best of your time, all while celebrating the heck out of your love!