3 Reasons Eloping is Better than a Traditional Wedding

You’re engaged! You’re probably basking in your newly-engaged glow! Congrats! Now what? While some spend their whole lives dreaming up the perfect wedding day, there are others who choose to elope! Planning the big day can be a juggling act. From creating invitations to coordinating with your florist, caterer, venue, and all of the other details and vendors that make up a traditional wedding… planning can be stressful. Let’s be honest, it can be dreadful! But, choosing an elopement may be the easiest way to take the stress out of your big day.

Eloping allows you to eliminate all of the unnecessary details and have a laid back, stress-free wedding day! Remember as you embark on the journey of deciding how you’ll spend your wedding day that your wedding is only one day, but your marriage is a lifetime. Spend your day in a way that represents your relationship the best. A little unsure of what exactly an elopement is? Check out my definition here. Think an elopement might be right for you? Here are 3 Reasons Eloping is Better than a Traditional Wedding!

3 Reasons Eloping is Better than a Traditional Weddingreasons you should elope reasons eloping is better than a traditional wedding

Eloping Avoids Family Drama and Stress — A Traditional Wedding is Overflowing with Drama

Let’s face it -traditional weddings are not about the couple, they’re about the family. Aunt Judy wants to sit at table two and bring six of her friends who would have never made your guest list.
(*eyeroll*) Eloping allows you to bypass this step completely and just focus on getting married! Eloping may also come with some hurt feelings from your family and friends. However, you can avoid this by letting your close family and friends in advance about the elopement. After all, this is your big day, do what feels right for you as a couple!

reasons you should elope reasons eloping is better than a traditional wedding

2. Eloping Makes Your Wedding Day About Your Relationship

Without the mass of people and all the opinions to consider and take in, your wedding becomes about just you and your partner joining together in marriage. Isn’t that what your wedding day should be about anyway?! Eloping makes your wedding day more intimate, and memorable for you and your fiance because you get to celebrate exactly how you want to. Plus, you’ll get to skip cramming your friends and family into a reception hall, and figuring out who wants the chicken and who wants the beef plate. Win-win if you ask me!

reasons to elope

3. Elope to Avoid Financial Stress

Although this isn’t the biggest or main reason couple’s I work with choose to elope – it is definitely a perk! If you opt for having just a few close friends and family – or even nobody at all, you get to choose exactly where and on what that you spend your money on! Eloping allows your day to be exclusively about your relationship and cuts out the frivolous items that the wedding industry has forced couples to believe are necessary at a traditional wedding.

The first year of marriage often brings many new adventures for couples –combining finances, purchasing their first home, etc. Being able to spend your money on what you truly want rather than putting on a show for your guests allows you to be happier as you embark on your life together! Eloping also gives you the chance to go out all where you want to. Why not buy your dream dress and why not hire that incredible elopement photographer?! (ehm, that would be me! 😉

Hopefully, these reasons eloping is better than a traditional wedding has helped you understand why eloping is better than a traditional wedding! Your wedding day should be the most personal and intimate day of your life. I would love to help guide you through planning for your dream elopement (and be there to take some awesome pictures that you’ll cherish forever!).

Elopement Photographer

I’m a Destination Elopement Photographer for couples all around the world who are hopelessly in love and crave adventure in the outdoors! One of my goals with every wedding or elopement I capture is to create a memorable experience. This is about your story and giving you beautiful and quality memories that you can relive, cherish, and hand down as a legacy for generations!

Part of creating a memorable experience is to get to know the two of you as a couple which will make you feel SO much more comfortable in front of my camera! I am so lucky to be able to work with couples who become more than just clients to me. They become some of my closest friends! I would love to be your elopement photographer and I can’t wait to help you plan your dream elopement! You can contact me >HERE< and I am so excited to hear from you!

Check out my other related blog posts:

How to Avoid Crowds During Your Outdoor Elopement

Ultimate Elopement Planning Guide

Elopement Checklist

How to Elope with Family

How to Plan an Airbnb Elopement

3 Reasons Eloping is Better Than a Traditional Wedding | Courtney Lynn

 

comments +
  1. Totally agree about elopements making wedding days more intimate and memorable!

  2. Abbi Hearne says:

    Oh I love this! So many great points!

  3. Sara says:

    Such great advice! and these shots are all so stunning. Your a lighting magician.

  4. Emma says:

    I agree, eloping gets rid of the riff raff that happens on wedding days… when you elope you can just focus on the two of you and I like that! Where would your favorite place be to elope?

  5. All the good points! Great information for couples looking to elope!

  6. Such a great article and I LOVE the photos you showcased! The variety of locations shown in your images just proves your points!

  7. Kara says:

    Elopements can be a beautiful way to have the stress-free day of your dreams!

  8. sam says:

    such true reasons to elope! especially avoiding family drama, that’s such a factor for so many couples and eloping rids them of that!

  9. Traci says:

    Reason number two you listed for the win!

  10. Nicole Thomson says:

    I loved your point about drama! I had a small traditional wedding and wish I had eloped!

  11. Yaaaas to all the tips you have provided! Yes yes yes!

  12. Supraket says:

    Hahahaha, I agree every bit of it! Though at times it’s because of the family that weddings happen!
    Lovely blog!

  13. […] By eloping you eliminate having to worry about your guests and get to actually focus on the two of you. It’s your wedding day–isn’t that how it should be?! If you need more evidence check out these 3 Reasons Eloping is Better Than a Traditional Wedding.  […]

  14. […] 3 Reasons Eloping is Better Than a Traditional Wedding […]

  15. […] 3 Reasons Eloping is Better Than A Traditional Wedding […]

  16. […] 3 Reasons Eloping is Better Than a Traditional Wedding […]

  17. […] 3 Reasons Eloping is Better Than a Traditional Wedding […]

  18. […] 3 Reasons Eloping is Better Than A Traditional Wedding […]

  19. […] happy couple wants! Deciding to choose eloping is one of the easiest ways to put the brakes on any family politics and drama by more or less taking the family out of the […]

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Courtney made the process SO easy! She does more than just photograph your day. She cares about you having the BEST elopement experience possible! I'll never be able to thank Courtney enough for making our dream day happen!

Contact me about your Elopement!

You probably have a million thoughts running through your head making you a bit overwhelmed.

How does this work? What can I do during my elopement? How do I choose my location? Is the ceremony legal? Can I elope with family?

One of the reasons you're probably eloping is because you want to have a stress-free day, but with so much uncertainty on how to plan an elopement how is it even possible?!

No need to stress, you're in the right place! This is where I come in and do the heavy lifting for you.

I'm Courtney, and I specialize in documenting adventurous elopements for couples who love the outdoors, but role is so much more than just an elopement photographer.

I'm here to guide you through every single step of planning your elopement and to give you a clear path tossing that stress out the window!

So, if you're ready to have a unique elopement experience that's actually focused on you, then let's friggin' do this!!


You know you want to elope,

and you know you want it to be meaningful and adventurous, but where do you start?!

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Courtney has a very warm and bubbly personality that shows through her work! She made my husband and I feel SO comfortable throughout the whole day.

We were very confused on how to start planning our adventure and she was there to answer a lot of our questions in the beginning and honestly with a very short time frame! We planned and got married in 6 weeks, because we knew we really wanted her there for our day and that is what she had available! It was a challenge well accepted for all three of us.

Our day was perfect. She captured our true essence of love and laughter and each photo shows it. There weren't very many set up photos unless we asked for them. She just gets you in the moment!

You can absolutely tell that Courtney loves what she does and wants your day to be perfect. She listens to you and really tries to understand you as a couple first and then uses that within her photography skills.

If you are looking for an adventure/elopement photographer I would highly suggest Courtney Lynn. We will be looking at and reliving our elopement forever thanks to her amazing photos. You won't be disappointed!

Amber & Ryan

Courtney was so helpful during the whole process! She helped put together a wonderful day!  She really wanted to make sure our wedding was just right for us. She made our elopement perfectly formulated for us, and I can't think of a more beautiful day!

One of our concerns going into an elopement was wanting to have pictures that let us remember the entire day. Courtney was there from start to finish and captured the whole day! Because of her outstanding work, we can share it with our loved ones, and they can experience the event almost as if they were there. We also really appreciated that she captured genuine moments between us instead of making it a photoshoot.

It felt like we were hanging out with a friend, and we think that helped us enjoy our day to the fullest.
If your dream wedding is an adventurous elopement day, I couldn't recommend Courtney more. She went above and beyond and was such a joy to work with throughout this whole experience.

She made us feel at ease and relaxed. Some wedding photographers are all about capturing posed moments that can be really awkward; that's NOT Courtney's style at all. Not only was she down to do whatever we wanted and go on little side adventures, but she made us feel comfortable.

She captured our true personalities and who we are as a couple! When looking at our gallery, our love for each other and our personalities can be seen in each image! She is extremely talented and did a phenomenal job of capturing the beauty of our wedding location. If you hire her, you will not regret it!

Sadye & Matthew

We are SO happy we decided to go with Courtney for our wedding photos! Originally we were supposed to elope in Italy, and she helped a TON with planning things like travel and what our day was going to look like.

Then the pandemic hit and we realized we probably weren't going to be able to go to Italy. So, we decided to change locations to Glacier!

She made it super easy and stress free, and helped plan what our new day in Glacier was going to look like!

Courtney was super easy to spend the entire day with, very friendly and fun to talk to! Even though our day didn't go exactly how we planned due to the weather, we all just went with the flow of it and it still turned out to be an amazing day!

If you're in doubt, just hire her!! You won't regret it one bit and you will get so many incredible photos to look back on your day!!

robbie & Aryton

When my now husband and I started planning our elopement, we were confused to the max. We didn’t know where to start or how to go about planning anything. We knew we wanted to get married in Ireland, but had too many options on exactly where. After doing some research of elopements, I was scrolling on Pinterest and came across some BEAUTIFUL photos taken by Courtney!

Courtney  made the process so easy! She is organized, professional, sweet, and so so funny!! Courtney does more than just photograph your day, she cares about you having the BEST day! She helped us plan EVERYTHING! Even down to the little details, like what type of shoes to wear! She helped us narrow down where, giving us her informative opinions on each of our options! She gave us cool ideas that we could incorporate into our special day. No idea was too big! When the day came, we had the absolute best time exploring and getting married! After we exchanged our vows, we went to celebrate at a local pub (Courtney’s idea ;) ). It was a blast!!

Our elopement was an absolute DREAM COME TRUE! I will never be able to thank Courtney enough for making it happen. So for anyone on the fence, swaying back and forth about whether or not work with Courtney on your big day, SWAY NO MORE! You’ve found your person!! My day couldn’t have been any better and my pictures are beautiful and capture the fun we had!!! I can’t wait to work with her again!

Taylor & andrew

"Planning for our day and the day itself would have been completely different without Courtney. We only knew that we wanted to share our vows in the Tuscan countryside and have beautiful photos, and Courtney planned the perfect agenda for that to happen.

She coordinated our timing around sunset, and not only were the photos breathtaking, but the actual evening was too. I remember looking out over the vineyards as the sun set, the view becoming more and more stunning by the minute. There were no moments that felt forced or posed, every shot was comfortable and fun and full of love.

Courtney is such a sweet, kind, fun person and we truly enjoyed spending the day with her. Courtney helped us to turn our dreams into reality, and we hardly had to do a thing. She allowed us to be in control of our day but gently took all of our wants and needs into consideration while making everything happen. Lastly, our pictures are just magical. Courtney is an incredibly talented photographer, and I feel so lucky that we were able to work with her. I would recommend her over and over again to anyone eloping."

Ellie & Zac

"Let. Me. Tell. You. It's not the technical aspects of photography that are the most difficult. It's the human aspect. Remembering that as a Photographer, you may be behind the lens but you are still a human, in front of other humans, in some of the most raw and intimate of moments.

Courtney balances both of these necessities (but rarities) with poise, great direction, and an overall kind calmness that just makes you breathe a sigh of relief. If you've come across Courtney's page and see what you like already, BOOK HER NOW. Don't spend another second looking for another Photographer that doesn't bring anywhere near the amazing light and spirit that this girl brings right here. Thank you again Courtney for allowing my husband and I to marry each other all over again! The images are stunning and I can't wait to blow them up and hang them in our home."

Shannon & Brandon

"Working with Courtney was an extremely easy experience, seamless, positive and obviously fun. My wife and I went on our honeymoon and wanted to surprise her with a surprise honeymoon adventure session.

Courtney worked with me to make that dream gift for my wife a reality. Meeting and posing for a photographer for the first time can be intimidating, but with Courtney it was anything but that.

Courtney is extremely positive and helpful and made us feel very comfortable in front of the camera. She played some of our favorite songs and before we knew we were just having fun and she was catching them every second. Perhaps the best part of our session was that Courtney knew all the characteristic and peaceful places of where we were, which made our photos even more extraordinary.

She kept the focus on my wife and me. When we shared our images with friends and relatives, everyone complimented on Courtney's aesthetics and the emotion she was able to capture. I can't thank Courtney enough for exceeding all our expectations with this photo shoot!!"

NINA & JASON

"Pick her -- she's the best! Courtney is amazing! Seriously! If you're thinking about eloping you should snatch her up to capture your day. She makes the entire experience fun and relaxed plus the pictures just blew us away. I will never forget our magical time in Venice and I'm obsessed with the gorgeous photos Courtney took of us. She's so so good!"

Jami & Tim

Courtney is not only a talented photographer, but she makes you feel so comfortable even though being in front of the camera can be nerve-wracking! She did such an amazing job with our day and if I had to pick my favorite photo it would take FOREVER, because I love so many! Definitely consider her if you want adventurous and beautiful photos coupled with an amazing experience!

walker & mac
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Don't take it from me,
Take it from my past couples!

You’re in the right place!

I’m here to guide you through EVERY. SINGLE. STEP.

Let’s toss that’s confusion out the window and focus on how you want to get married!

Let me relieve those feelings of being lost, save you time, tell the story of your day and let’s get started creating a day that you’ll never forget!

So, if you know you want to elope,
but feel unsure on where to start, 

contact me & let's get starting creating your dream elopement!

...and you want an amazing storyteller to document your day

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Let's freaking do this!!