Adding traditional touches to your elopement

Are you worried about missing some of those more traditional touches that come with a wedding?

Maybe it’s the speeches, getting ready with your friends or family, being walked down the aisle, seeing a parent’s ‘first look’, a hen do, a stag do, a cake, a first dance…

There’s alternatives for all of these – if they really mean something to you, you can absolutely have them and still have an elopement.

Here’s how we actually achieved a taste of all of these in our elopement:

Speeches: We had a dinner the night before with our witnesses, and my now husband, did a little thank you speech.

I’d written him a poem which I saved for being just us two back at the hotel.

Our witness created a game for the night of the wedding (think Mr & Mrs), which was a fun and easy way of us to laugh and celebrate even with no reception.

Getting ready with friends and family: Our witnesses were the grooms sister and her husband. I had two friends who flew out as they wanted to be there (lucky me, I know!). Both of us had friends or family to get ready with. Us girls even had the matching PJs.

Being walked down the aisle / seeing a parent’s first look: I walked myself down the aisle, which felt more appropriate with the small crowd, and I also had a call scheduled with my mum before I headed down. Cue many tears!

Hen do / Stag do: We’ve had a hen & stag, but the elopement helped keep them both low key, which fits nicely in with the story of an elopement. It felt a little bit contradictory to have a huge hen or stag when the traditional elopement is to not tell anyone!

I’ve ended up having a post-elopement party with my friends and we went to the spa. They were all on board and wanted to celebrate, and did it in the context of our actual elopement.

For the groom, he had a joint stag do with some friends in London and they went for sushi and drinks. Again, I believe elopements help these go under the radar and keep them low key.

If you do want a big stag or hen, why not!? But ours have ended up fitting nicely around our elopement journey.

Cake: We got a cake! We found a local baker who delivered it to our hotel while we were getting married. It was small, served 8, and we enjoyed it with some takeaway pizza, and Bollinger from duty free on the terrace on the night of our wedding.

First Dance: We aren’t dancers and would have avoided a first dance like the plague, but we popped the tunes on and had a playlist ready including ‘our’ songs. This felt personal, especially still having songs to remind us of the night.