Eloping - What did you do?

DF and I have decided a full blown wedding is going to end up being way too stressful, plus we want to get married like now (though we know we have to wait 1 month and 1 day from when the notice is submitted), so we've decided to elope. Problem being that could be anything from simply walking into the registry office and signing the papers with whoever is nearby as witnesses, right up to a ceremony in a pretty location with the pretty dress and flowers and a suit for my Mr with a small group of family/friends to hear us exchange the vows we each wrote. So now I'm beginning to feel slightly overwhelmed about it all. DF is happy to do whatever will make me happy which, as nice as that is, can make it somewhat frustrating since I pretty much need to work it out myself. I know that I'm not really interested in any 'elopement packages', since we won't be saving a whole lot doing it that way which defeats at least part of the purpose of eloping. But aside from that I kinda feel like curling into a ball and hoping someone else plans it.

So help me work it out. If you eloped, how did you do it? What did you like, what would you change? And how did you announce to everyone after? Or if you know someone that eloped, what did they do?

Well we were living on the other side of the globe from all our family so it was a bit of a different situation.

We let everyone know we were getting married (had to wait 6 months for the registrary office here, so had plenty of time). Our parents wanted to come and we asked a couple of friends who actually lived nearby to be witnesses. Had a small ceremony at the registrary office with our two witnesses, parents and a couple of other friends who happened to be in the area. We hanged out with our visitors for the rest of the day.

It was nice and exactly what we wanted for the ceremony. Sometimes I regret not having more of a party with more friends and family there, but that's the way it went. I've got some friends who got married at the registrary office with a small ceremony and then 7 years later decided they wanted a wedding party so they organised one then and had one. So you can always do that. (We might have a moving home party if we ever do that)

Yeah all our friends and family knew, they all live in WA and we are in NSW so we sent invites to immediate family and told them It was going to be tiny so don't feel obliged, turns out they all came. So it was just us, our best friends as MOH and BM, our parents and we each have a brother and a sister and their partners. Had a small ceremony with a celebrant and then all went out to dinner :)

We were living remotely in the nt at the time. DS was only a couple of months old and we are both non fussy people. There was only 2 places we could fly to direct from where we were so we picked cairns. We got married on a beach with a celebrant and a couple of lovely old people as our witnesses. We had a photographer and that was it. We were staying at a resort for a week and this was our one indulgence and honeymoon. We called family and friends once we were home again. It was great and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I was 36 weeks utd when DH and I got married. We put out an invitation to our friends for our 'engagement party' at our house and had only told a handful of them that we were actually getting married at the registry office the day before the party.

The registry wedding was fine, it still felt special, we had our nearest and dearest with us, and went out for dinner afterwards with them. It was a success, and we didn't have to take out another mortgage to do it, or have any of that pressure.

The next day we had our engagement party and when we stood to say our own speeches..... We told everyone there we'd just been married the day before.

People were shocked! One person in particular (would have never picked him) a friend of DH's was really upset and disappointed. But everyone was still happy and excited for us.

My biggest thing I would change would that I wasn't pretty! I was huge and swollen and it also have not got any nice photos taken by a professional...... A pro photographer may have been able to make me look prettier! Instead one of DH's mates took photos for us.

I'm hoping one day DH and I can renew our vows and I can be prettier and have some nice photos taken in a pretty location, but apart from that, my wedding was suffice. my married life is very happy and fulfilling.... Doesn't matter how we signed the papers!

I'm a Marriage Celebrant and have a few elopements coming up.

First couple are not telling anyone and there will only be me, them, their children and the photographer and videographer on the day (the photographer and videographer are going to be the witnesses), then once it is all done they will then go home and make the announcement to the family.

Another couple are having parents (including step parents) and a best friend each as the witnesses, they are then going out to dinner afterwards and have planned a party the following evening that they are inviting friends along to as a celebration - they are going to wear their wedding gear to the party.

Last couple don't want any fuss at all and they are getting married in their lounge room at home on a Saturday morning - no wedding dress nothing. They are only telling her sister who will be one witness and my DH is coming along to be the other witness. As they are wanting a low key wedding it will probably take me 10 minutes to marry them.

So 3 very different types of elopements and they have chosen ones that suit them.

My DH and I 'eloped' - we picked a nice location, booked the celebrant and had 2 witnesses (DH's boss and his boss's wife). We married on a Friday, then went away for the weekend. When we came home Sunday afternoon, we visited my parents and announced it by showing them our marriage certificate. They were shocked, surprised, mostly happy. I printed out onto some pretty paper, a short note announcing our marriage, and posted it out to family and friends, plus made a slideshow and emailed it to the internet savvy friends.

Apparently my sister copped it a bit from my parents. They made their feelings clear in the weeks after that they weren't happy to have missed it, but nothing much was ever said to me about it! My poor sister haha, no idea why they vented to her, as she wasn't in on the secret or anything!

My only regret is the witnesses... DH had a falling out with his boss a year or two later and left his job. We no longer speak to either of them.

Miss_Dee,
I went/am going through the exact same thing. We were planning a huge elaborate affair, costing close to $25,000. I got sick and had to quit my job. That was the game changer for us. We realised the big fancy do wasn't all it was cracked up to be, so we started talking about "eloping". At first we planned to find a celebrant, a park and go out to dinner, but surprise our immediate family by not telling them but inviting them, realised that wouldn't work as most live interstate and getting them all here would be impossible without telling them.
So we decided just our bridal party and immediate family, they are paying for their own meals as it's not a typical reception, it's "going out to dinner". We then thought about it, as we have booked a chapel, there is no reason people can't come to the ceremony, so we are having around 50-60 at the ceremony at 6pm, then our bridal party plus immediate family at dinner (which is still 26 people, damn me having "2"
families)! Perfect for us! I already had my dress on order and we had bought our rings already, so taking out those, our wedding is only costing $2000 including celebrant, photographer and venue hire (chapel). Everything else has just worked out. We gave ourselves 3 months from deciding to the day, it's a month away now but I am so happy with our decision and it's going to be far more special than our original plans :-)
To us the important thing is being married, not all the frills that go with it.

Thanks everyone. I think we've decided on having a BM and MOH, plus our parents and grandparents with a nice ceremony somewhere that will get recorded for those that won't be there. Now to get organising!

We eloped - although I never really thought about it like that til your post! Ours was a registry office wedding. I do regret not feeling special for the day, but I think that was more my mindset than the actual circumstances, I was not in a good place at the time.

We invited only family to the registry office, and then went and took pic in a local park with our own digital cameras. We had let people know that we'd be having a reception/party that night, and not to bring presents but to pay for their own meals, because we were flat broke. We were very pleasantly surprised by who made the effort to come and who didn't :) If you wanna see our wedding pics, click my FB button and friend request me.