Forget the flower arrangements, seating charts, and $30k price tags. The hottest wedding trend of the past couples years doesn’t involve a ballroom or a banquet. It’s just two people, an officiant (and/or photographer), and a mountaintop or a remote beach. Eloping is all the rage – and for good reason.
This run-off-and-do-it-yourself ceremony style is gaining a reputation across social media and among wedding professionals as the ultimate romantic act. Elopements are intimate, authentic, and deeply meaningful (not to mention ridiculously budget friendly).
Many couples are ditching the big wedding entirely, choosing instead to walk into the forest, climb a mountain, or say “I do” barefoot on the beach – sometimes with only their officiant (often a friend or family member ordained online) as witness.
As these ceremonies surge in popularity, we consulted with elopement experts Alex and Lisa of Vow of the Wild to learn more about recent trends they’re seeing and what advice they have for couples planning an elopement ceremony in 2025. Here’s what they had to say:
Q: What are some popular elopement trends you're seeing?
Answer: One trend we've seen get more and more popular over the last few years is couples opting to have two "ceremonies." Many couples want the private experience of saying their vows to one another with no one else around (except maybe their photographers/videographers). This allows them the opportunity to be emotionally vulnerable in a way they may not feel comfortable doing in front of even a small crowd.
However, they also want to have the experience of officially becoming a married couple while surrounded by their closest friends and family. So, they opt to have someone close to them officiate a more formal ceremony, giving them the best of both worlds.
The other trend that comes to mind is couples leaning into their personal interests more and more. If they love fishing and paddle boarding, why not do that on your elopement day?
Some couples love Star Wars, and want to take a few photos with their custom lightsabers in their full wedding attire. Others have a relationship built on making each other laugh, so the groom wears a set of ugly fake teeth for the first look to make his partner crack up.
Or we've even seen a couple who really loved space travel and astronomy so much that the groom wore a real NASA space suit for part of the day. Whatever you're into, we fully encourage couples to embrace that to make their elopement day specific to them.
Q: What are your top Dos and Don’ts for eloping?
1. DO document your ceremony
Whether it's a quick photography session at the local courthouse or a full day adventuring in nature, you'll thank yourself later for having a professional come to capture some of those memories.
So many great photographers are out there that will make it a fun experience and not a dull photo shoot. So even if you typically feel awkward on camera, they can help you navigate that and end up with some beautiful images you'll feel proud to hang on the walls of your home.
2. DON'T wait until the last minute to write your vows
Most of us don't take the time to really put words to how important our partner is to us on a regular basis, if at all. This is maybe the one and only time that you can really wow your partner with words that reflect the actions and feelings you typically use to exhibit your love.
One simple way to do this is to start jotting down some phrases or ideas in the notes app on your phone in advance. Whenever you're feeling particularly close to your partner, jot down your thoughts or the circumstances that led to that feeling. Think of small and big ways that your partner shows up for you that makes you feel seen and appreciated.
Keep track of the traits you admire about your partner, or the times you've been proud of them. Having those small pieces of info will really help you when it's time to sit down and actually write your vows to one another. Don't forget to also include silly inside jokes and stories to balance some of that sappy stuff with some levity, too!
3. DO consider getting a videographer for your elopement
There are a couple reasons for this. If you're eloping, but you want your family and friends to feel like they got to experience it, there's no better way than a video.
Being able to see you two interact in motion and hear your vows really is a special experience for your grandma who couldn't make it, or your parents who secretly (or not so secretly) wished they could have been there. But also, it allows the two of you to relive your elopement day in a way that just isn't possible in photographs.
Make it an anniversary tradition to sit down and watch a highlight video that recaps everything you promised to one another that day, and the way it felt to be in that moment.
4. DON'T let someone else pressure you into compromising
Give yourself the experience that you want for your elopement day. If you want a stress-free day with nobody else's expectations hovering over the experience, communicate that.
There may be some hard conversations with loved ones, but we find they often come around once they see some photos or videos of the two of you in wedded bliss. If you want to compromise a little, our recommendation is often to have a day for you and a day for them. That way you still get a day that's truly what you wanted in full.
Q: What’s the best way to personalize an elopement ceremony?
Answer: Opting to have a friend or family get ordained online so that they can officiate a ceremony is hands down one of the best ways to make an elopement catered to the couple. No hired officiant knows the couple the way that someone who has shared huge parts of their life will.
That experience allows you as an officiant to include inside jokes in your speech, stories that no one else would know, and to have your own emotions show through during all of it. It's a comfort to couples who didn't want a production of a wedding day to have the person they love and trust at their side while they're being vulnerable, during one of the most important moments of their life.
Q: What advice do you have for friends and family planning to officiate an elopement?
Answer: One thing we always tell officiants: when writing a speech, whether it's from scratch or based on a template, lean into things that are personal. Maybe the embarrassing story of the groom forgetting his wallet on the first date lightens the mood a little bit, or how the bride talked her partner into a third dog.
As a friend or family member, you know why these two are such a good fit for one another, so include in your speech the moments you lived with them that made you so certain they had met their perfect match.
Q: What was your experience getting ordained and officiating a wedding?
Answer: Initially, my own reason for getting ordained was simply as a way to offer another service to couples whose elopements we were photographing. Giving them one less thing to worry about was important to me, and I hadn't really thought much beyond that.
But once I got ordained through ULC, a few months later we were about to have our first experience where I needed to actually officiate. I sat down and thought about the experience couples got from friends and family officiating for them. I couldn't offer the same deep knowledge of them or their relationship, but I could still fill some of the other needs for their ceremony.
I wrote a speech that started out their ceremony by setting the tone for why they were in this moment. Giving context to why what they were about to do was so important and meaningful – it really put them in the right headspace for saying their vows to one another.
Now, I get so much fulfillment from being asked to officiate for couples. Some of the closest bonds we've formed throughout our decade of documenting elopements were with couples whose marriage licenses I've had the honor of signing. It means a lot to me, but it might mean even more to them, and that experience is what makes our work so fulfilling.
