How to include your family in your Elopement
Including Friends and Family in Your Elopement
Dreaming of eloping but want to find ways to include your family in your elopement? Maybe your friends to? Well there are tons of ways to incorporate friends and family into your elopement, from including a select few the day of, having your loved ones write loved notes, or throwing a big party. Here are my absolute favorite ways to include your family in your elopement.
How to Include your Family in your Elopement: Before the Big Day
1. Wedding Shower: Have a shower or sprinkle. Gather your loved ones together at your favorite brewery, tea house, garden party, or back yard cook out for a wedding shower.
2. Bach Parties: Just because your best buds won’t be attending the elopement, does not mean you can not celebrate with them! Host a co-bach party in the mountains and go hard with all your besties. Or each host your own (ask me for ideas).
How to Include your Family in your Elopement: The Night Before
1. Dinner Party: Invite the people closest to you to a dinner party at your airbnb/VRBO to kick off your wedding weekend. Consider hiring a private chef or caterer to remove any stress,. You can even invite a guest or two to give a speech. Think summer garden party vibes on a wrap around deck in the morning, a cook out on the beach, or a cozy dinner at a ski chalet.
2. Apres anyone? Considering a ski/snowboard elopement? Host an apres ski happy hour for your closest people.
3. Dinner Reservations: Rent out a room or make dinner reservations for your favorite people to join you for dinner to celebrate – consider a winery, a cozy fondue spot, or a lively tapas restaurant
How to Include your Family in your Elopement: The Day Of
1. Getting Ready Party: Spend the morning getting ready with your closest friends and family, as they send you out on your elopement.
2. Inviting a few very special people to your vows : You can still invite your loved ones to your elopement ceremony. I consider keeping it under 12 an elopement, or you can still have an intimate wedding/micro wedding with inviting under 50 people. Keeping it intimate, but including your closest people.
3. Champagne Cheers: Meeting a group for a champagne toast and dessert following your elopement ceremony before heading off on the rest of your day.
4. Love Notes: Have friends and family send cards and advice for you to read together on your wedding day.
5. A party: spend the day with one another and then meet your group out at a brewery.
6. Campout: Invite all your friends for a big campout and bonfire following your elopement ceremony.
How to Include your Family in your Elopement: After the Big Day
1. Send “we eloped” announcements to friends and family
2. Hold a celebration: back yard bbq, brewery meet up etc. with your friends and family to celebrate your elopement
Overall, your day should feel like you – it can be a combination of a private vow ceremony and a massive campout or dance party – it can be a small gathering of your immediate families watching you exchange vows on a mountain top, followed by an intimate dinner, it can be a ski party on the mountain – really whatever your wildest dreams are – that is what your day should be. Make your big day represent your love story – and that can include as little or as many people as you want.
