Eloping.

[jbants]

Well my fiance and I's original wedding date was May 29th 2009.. but planning this traditional wedding that neither of us really want (our families do..) is just causing stress, causing us to argue, and costing money we don't have. SO we came to this decision last night..

We're eloping to Hawaii in 2 weeks!!!I just needed to share that with

Comments

[xhollydayx]

We're having a "planned elopement" (we're getting married June 14 in Oregon - we live in Ohio). So we're not eloping, but we also couldn't deal with having a wedding. Congrats!

[classiclindsey]

Whoa weird. My FH lives in Ohio and I'm out here finishing school. But we're having the wedding in Oregon where I'm from. ;)

Out of curiosity, why Oregon for the planned elopement?

[xhollydayx]

For real?? We live in a suburb of Cleveland (Lakewood, for what it's worth) adn I go to university in Kent.

We went with Oregon for a few reasons: 1) we have several friends there, 2) it's far enough that many people won't deem it worthy of a trip, 3) however, it's close enough that it's not really a destination (like Greece, where I really wanted to do it), 4) not super expensive, 5) beautiful city, 6) I could get married in a garden for a fraction of what it would cost me here (I wanted to get married in Cleveland's Botanical Garden, but I was looking at least $20,000 - PLUS they charge people $5/car to park), and the best 7) there are more microbreweries in Portland than in the whole STATE of Ohio. (FH's old roommate, close friend, adn friend of mine moved out there and keeps trying to entice us to come live there - so he'll just be our minister).

[classiclindsey]

Whoa. My dad lives in Lakewood. Ha. My FH lives in Hudson and I'm in Columbus finishing up school. I have a number for friends at Kent (including my MoH).

And good choice on Portland. That's where I live (near the Pearl District). We'll be getting married in Cannon Beach though. :)

[ckgriffin]

We didn't elope, but we did do a small destination wedding to Maui. I don't blame you for wanting to avoid the stress of planning a traditional wedding.

Ours was all planned via email and a couple of phone calls, and it was perfect.

I don't know if you are planning a beach wedding or what, but be aware that all the beaches in Hawaii are public beaches, so you may get extra on-lookers if you do a beach ceremony.

[jbants]

Yep it will be a beach wedding and on lookers are fine because at least SOMEONE other than just my husband has to see how beautiful i'm gonna look that day! haha! :)

[jbants]

What was your experience of having your wedding in Maui? How much did it cost all together, etc? Any details are helpful because I only have about 2 weeks to plan!

[ckgriffin]

My quotes wouldn't really help you. We actually had a fairly traditional wedding (although we were in Renaissance garb) in a church there that looks like a English Castle. We spent about $4000 just for the photography (which was worth it).

You can have a wedding there as simple or as complex as you want.
I'm not sure which island you are getting married on, but realize that most of the places you can get your marriage license from are actually people doing it out of their house. So you need an appointment to get your license and I would highly recommend calling ahead. Other than that all you need is an officiant licensed to perform weddings in Hawaii. There are plenty of them who will do it for cheap. No permits or anything required for having the ceremony on the beach.

[___thefidge]

holy crap, girly! My FH and I decided to do the same thing a week ago. I was going to make a post about it (as its finally some news i can post).

our situation is a whole lot like yours, were just looking for an intimate wedding and a way of saving 10 grand and putting it toward our first home.

what websites have you checked out so far?

[jbants]

I just googled 'elope hawaii' and there's TONS of good sites. You can have an official ceremony for as little as $95 on some sites!!

[___thefidge]

isn't it insane. you can have an amazing wedding and honeymoon for like 1500. ah, i can't wait. ps. your dress is beautiful, bcbg makes some surprisingly pretty wedding-ish dresses.

[poptartsreasy]

I haven't eloped but I LOVE our dress!! I actually saw it a while back and have it saved as a maybe. Are you guys taking any picture while you are there? I would love to see how the dress looks on a real person ;-)

[alli_h]

love the dress too!