Here we go, the big showdown, eloping vs wedding, which one is going to come out a winner? Well, that really depends on you, and what you want from your big day. But if you find yourself sitting there asking yourself “should I have a wedding or elope?” then this is for you!
I wish I had the time and space to explain all the benefits of eloping, but I want to try to keep this short. So here's what I'm going to do. I am going to run through my top 11 benefits of eloping when compared to having a traditional wedding.
Before we jump into the main fight, let's just get a few basics out of the way first so we're all on the same page.
What is an elopement?
We have to start with the basics. An elopement is any type of wedding where the focus is solely on the couple. There are no compromises. The event is all about the intimacy and the relationship.
As a result, elopements tend to have fewer guests, if any at all, usually a maximum of around 15. They don't tend to follow a formal structure or timeline, and tend to be held outdoors, or at a private property, as opposed to a traditional wedding venue.
Don't be confused, an elopement is just a “style” of wedding. At its core, it's no different to a wedding. But the way the day unfolds, the focus of the day, and how you approach it can be polar opposites.
If you want to know more about what an elopement actually is, check out my Busting Elopement Myths article.
Why Elope?
Elopements are really fun. Let's just start with that. There are an array of other reasons why they are so epic. Some of these benefits will be obvious to you, others maybe not so much.
One of the main reasons people choose eloping when compared to a wedding is the intimacy it provides. For me, this is one of the best benefits of eloping. You won't spend your time shaking hands and taking group photos. Instead you'll spend your time holding each other, having picnics on a cliff's edge or sitting around a firepit with a bottle of red.
So let's do it. Let's get into the reason you're here. Eloping vs wedding, which one will come out on top?
PRICE
Elopements are less expensive
This is probably the first thing people think about when they get engaged and start planning their wedding. How expensive they actually are! And you're not wrong, traditional weddings, especially if you are having a large wedding can get expensive fast. In fact, the average wedding in 2026 now costs about $40,000, and that is the AVERAGE!
Eloping can cost you a lot less money than having a traditional wedding. I want to emphasise the word 'can' here, because there are no guarantees. Eloping is generally less expensive, simply by way of having limited, or no guests to pay for. But other things can rock up fast. For example, I have done elopements where couples have flown guests in helicopters to a glacier to get married in New Zealand. I've also done backyard weddings here on the Coast. Guess which was more expensive...the elopement.
It really comes down to working out what you prioritise when it comes to the day. If you are really excited about your photos and your dress, but don't really care about flowers or makeup, use those priorities to dictate where you spend your money.
So while eloping is generally more cost effective, that will be heavily determined by what you plan for your day and what you prioritise. And if I can be honest, I think elopements being less expensive should be a bonus of eloping, but not the main reason to elope...
Intimacy
Eloping is more intimate
Another one of the benefits of eloping that shouldn't come as much of a surprise is that elopements are significantly more intimate. Think about it. On a normal wedding day, you get ready apart, see each other at the ceremony (surrounded by guests), then run around doing portraits, then jump into the reception. In my experience, if you get an hour together, that's pretty good.
Now this is not to suggest that I think weddings are bad. I love weddings. I had a traditional wedding. But, call a spade a spade. Elopements are just more intimate.
One of the biggest concerns I get from brides and grooms is that they get anxious about being the centre of attention, or that they don't want to feel like they are “putting on a show” for everyone. First of all, a totally normal way to feel for anyone. Eloping is certainly going to help you avoid this feeling.
Choosing to elope is all about putting yourselves first. If you want to have this private moment together, or just with a few friends and family, eloping is the way.
The great thing about eloping is the flexibility it offers too. Perhaps you will invite some guests along, but you really want that intimate moment together. Why not do your vows in private (I can organise somewhere cool), and then simply meet up with your group, tie the know officially, and you've had the best of both worlds. That ceremony could literally be 5 minutes, in front of maybe 10-15 guests!
But there is another thing I love about eloping. Something you can avoid almost entirely..
Avoid Drama
Eloping avoids drama
Ok, let me start off by saying first, having a traditional wedding is not a guarantee of drama. In fact, I can count on 2 hands the amount of times I've witnessed drama at a wedding I shot (and I have been shooting almost 10 years). However, as a guest, damn have I seen some TV worthy stuff..
Emotions are high, drinks and being drunk. Mix that with large crowds, and you give yourself the environment for drama to kick in. You have people who might not get along, divorced parents, people with a secret crush on you who are angry you're off the market. It sounds like I'm being silly, but I'm not.
When it comes to eloping, people, if they invite any guests, tend to only invite guests super close to them. They know them on an intimate level, and they know how they'll behave on the day. You won't have your cousin's new girlfriend there who gets too blind drunk and acts like an idiot, and you won't have to put up with an old school mate who decides this is the time to try illegal substances for the first time, right before your ceremony (yes, I have seen it happen...more than once).
So if you want to forgo the potential dramas associated with weddings, eloping might be the way. But there are still more benefits to eloping, so let's keep reading...
Less Stress
eloping is less stressful
I interviewed over 250 of my previous brides and grooms to work out what their biggest regrets were from their wedding day, and it was fairly unanimous. They stressed too hard over everything.
Big things? Yes. Little things? Of course. What about things that didn't even matter? You better believe it! Things they couldn't control? For months!
What they were stressing about isn't exactly important, but let me just say this. They often included invitations, guest lists, seating charts, budgeting, weather, and a whole list of other things. Effectively, almost 100% of my brides and grooms said they stressed over their wedding. They believed it was pointless to do so, and they wish they had have just chilled out.
So why not elope?
Less stress is one of the major benefits of eloping. How do we achieve this? Well, I can't speak for others, but for my couples, I do all the planning and coordination. So all the time-consuming, overwhelming research is done by me. Your timeline, your vendors, your location... I take all that stress from you.
What about coordinating 100+ guests? Don't have to. Making it back in time for the mains and speeches? Not necessary. What about trying to spend as much time together, whilst simultaneously trying to spend time with everyone you invited? No need to choose.
If you want to avoid stressing, both financially and logistically, let's chat about planning you an elopement. And while we are at it, there's more benefits of eloping to discuss.
less planning
less planning
This piggybacks quite nicely on the last point. Eloping almost always comes with less planning and less organising than a traditional wedding would.
Given the fact that instead of having to organise around 15–20 vendors for a wedding, an elopement usually has only a small handful, photographer, celebrant, florals, hair and makeup, this means less planning, less organising, less coordinating between vendors, and of course, less financial planning in order to make the payments.
This is a huge load off. Most vendors call their invoices due 30 days before the wedding. So there is a considerable amount of planning required to pay all your vendors balances at the same time, only a month form your big day. But there's more.
Because most couples who elope tend to elope midweek, why stick to the traditional Saturday wedding when you don't have to worry about guests, they don't necessarily need to organise their wedding 12–18 months in advance. More often, elopements can be planned in as little as a couple of months, but usually 6 months. This, in itself, comes as a huge relief to so many people. Planning 18 months ahead is crazy.
Again, a lot of photographers will help you plan your elopement, so not only will there be less planning, there could be almost none. You'll get your dream day with almost no time-consuming legwork.
So there you have it. Eloping...less planning, less stress. Now for some really fun benefits.
locations
You can elope...anywhere
Surprise surprise, a photographer thinks one of the biggest benefits of eloping is the epic photos you get.
But seriously, I'm not lying. Can you get amazing photos at a traditional wedding? Of course you can! But you don't have the flexibility and freedom that you get with an elopement.
Pick anywhere in the world. Do a full day of portraits, hiking around a mountain, or jump in a helicopter. Want to elope in a cave in Iceland? Sure. It's completely up to you. And since you are not having to consider other guests, their travel costs, their mobility, there is nothing holding you back bar your own desires and probably financial state.
Now, let me caveat this by saying elopements don't always have to be epic, adventurous, three-day treks. Some people elope by going to the courthouse and signing the paperwork. Others elope in a private airbnb in the country. Whilst the options are more epic, that doesn't mean you have to choose them.
So don't get hung up by all the stuff you see online. Your elopement doesn't have to be a trek through the Himalayan Alps. It can be whatever you want it to be.
In saying that, the locations are endless. It could be the top of Mount Everest, in your backyard, or anywhere in between.
Sit down with your partner, talk about it, work out what your vibe is, what kind of location is “you guys” and where you want to have your memories captured.
photography
storytelling is easier with elopements
Hear me out. Obviously this one really benefits me, because it allows me to capture such epic locations on a weekly basis, but it's more than that.
One of the biggest benefits of eloping is going to be the quality of photos you get. Not just the fact that elopement photos tend to be in more adventurous and epic locations than traditional weddings, but also that they tell your story better in my opinion.
Without having to focus on 100 other guests and a strict timeline, your photographer will be able to focus on your story. Focus on your connection, the little things. Yes, you will end up with some unreal portraits, but the rest of your day is going to be just as amazing. We will be able to help craft a day that truly speaks to you.
You'll get unreal photos at a wedding too, but being placed into a pretty standard wedding timeline/structure, your story is forced to fit into that framework. Eloping means there is no framework. I once had a couple get tattoos and play mini golf on their elopement day, just because they wanted too. They were avid golfers, and tattoo enthusiasts, so telling their story was a walk in the park.
life is an adventure
eloping is an adventure
We so often get bogged down in our everyday lives, not all of us, but a lot of us, working, sleeping, working, sleeping and so on, that we forget to have fun.
It's a really well-held concept that the modern person is working themselves to an early grave, so focused on “doing the right thing” that we forget to have fun.
Eloping can be an easy way to push the fun aspect of marriage. Don't get me wrong, weddings can be loads of fun, mine was, but if we look at what we discussed above, it is easy to see that weddings can become more stressful than fun, and too strict to facilitate adventure and freedom.
Elopements, on the other hand, are just fun. Fun, fun, fun!
No matter what sums up your relationship, camping on a mountain, surfing in a costal remote town, or hiring a cottage in the snowy mountains and staying indoors by the fire all weekend, do it. I guarantee we can make that your elopement!
Elopements should be fun, so enjoy them!
genuine & authentic
Your wedding should be genuine
We've all heard it and seen it, people putting on a big, “perfect” wedding, which everyone knew was just a show to impress other people.
I've seen it so many times, couples miserable during their wedding because they had 500 guests and only really knew about 30 of them. This isn't genuine. It's not being true to yourself or you as a couple.
Eloping is a stark contrast to that type of traditional wedding. Elopements allow authenticity in that you are only doing what you actually want and what means something to you.
On top of this, people are starting to focus on the authenticity of the actual day. The “show” a wedding puts on kind of clouds what it is supposed to all be about.
Weddings are supposed to be about celebrating love, however that makes sense to you, with the person you love.
Eloping helps get past this. On a mountainside, or a beach, or in a forest, there is no show. There are no material aspects to care about. There are just two people, in love, saying things from their heart and marrying their best friend.
Custom
Eloping is customisable
Yes, weddings are very customisable too, for sure. But eloping is customisable on another level. Want to say your vows while you're being tattooed? Go for it. Want to jump out of a plane, land and get married there? Sure thing. There are no limits (bar the law) to the ways in which you can customise your elopement day.
And at the core of it all is your wedding. You two getting married in a way that feels right and authentic to you.
Further to that point, even your meals are customisable. Most weddings have a pretty set kind of menu since they are catering to guests. Sure you can bring in a pizza truck, or a taco truck, and that would be epic! But eloping means you can customise it, on the day. What do you feel like? After you've done your portraits, run around all day having fun...what do you fancy? Well, you have it, it's that simple.
So is eloping for you?
It's hard to say without having spoken to you if I can be honest. Having photographed elopements solely for nearly 4 years of my career, I have met a lot of people whom I have told that eloping is not for them. They then went on to have a traditional wedding, and had the time of their lives!
Eloping is something you should genuinely want to do. The benefits that come above are all great evidence that it is an amazing option, but at the end of the day, you have to want to elope. If you have your heart truly set on a wedding, then eloping is going to feel wrong, no matter how much money you save, no matter how many epic locations you can take portraits at. It just will.
The best way to know if eloping is right for you is the reach out, send me an email. Tell me what you're thinking or planning, and I will give you my honest advice. From there, you can take that and do what you will with it, I just want to help!
