An elopement, just like a wedding, can be anything you want it to be. You may think that if you’re eloping it’s go to be all about doing things quickly and without fuss, but that doesn’t have to be the case… As today’s wedding proves!
Niky and Vlad, who were married in July in Montana, had a full day of celebrating – from before sunrise to after sunset. The kicked off by waking up before dawn and hiking up their favourite trail (in full wedding garb!) for their sunrise ceremony. Afterwards, they did photos, stopped off at a skate part for Vlad to show off his moves, had burgers for lunch and then went back up the mountain for a sunset picnic complete with cake and pizza!
Emma and Will rented a house for their June wedding and the bride’s father married them on the beach. Their friends sang to them during ceremony, Emma’s niece was their flower girl and she choose sequin dresses for the bridal party because she wanted everybody to sparkle!
Lydia and Nico met through Bumble – âNot the most glamorous of relationship starts,â she laughed, âbut Iâm sure similar for a lot of couples these days! I was known as âLydia đâ in Nicoâs phone for at least a year – which had a double meaning when it came to designing our invitations. I used the iconic bee from the mosaic ďŹoors in the Battersea Arts Centre, our venue, but one bridesmaid thought it was to represent Bumble! A happy coincidence.â
Marissa and Nick bonded over their mutual love of Dashboard Confessional on Twitter in 2014. They finally went on their first date just before Nick left for Warped tour with his band Vanna, and the rest, as they say, is history!
Our real bride columnist Rachel got married in September this year. Weâre following her journey of planning a feminist meets rock n roll wedding.
Iâm sad to say Iâm the only person I know who has ever been âfiredâ as a bridesmaid. I was eighteen and the bride was in her early twenties. As the big day came closer, I realised I was expected to pay for my own shoes, dress, hair, make-up, travel and accommodation over the wedding weekend, and for the hen weekend, including all the activities and meals out. I absolutely could not afford to do this, and neither could one of the other bridesmaids who was also in her teens.
I constructed a careful message to the bride, explaining that we simply didnât have the money and asking if we could maybe talk on the phone about how to make it work for everyone. Minutes later, I received an all-caps response telling me âTHIS IS MY WEDDING DAY!!! NOT SOME BIRTHDAY PARTY!â and that I neednât worry because I was no longer welcome at her wedding⌠âOR HER LIFE!â.
When I responded, she didnât reply and we havenât spoken since. I now realise that this probably wasnât about me at all, there was clearly a lot else going on and she snapped, plus we were all very young. I still think itâs sad that one day became more important than years of friendship, though. I still think itâs sad that when her marriage ended a couple of years later, we were no longer friends.
When it comes to writing this column, there are a thousand directions I could take. Iâm going to stick to the thing Iâve known since that experience when I was eighteen⌠that my friendships with the people I ask to be part of my bridal party are more important to me than one day of my life, even if it is my wedding day.
In Japan, it is traditional for couples to have a set of formal pre-wedding photos where the couple will wear their wedding attire and pose for formal pictures. âThey are different from engagement shoots in the West,â photographer Mao told us, âas theyâre still quite uptight and traditional. My concept is to shoot these in a fun way that convey the couplesâ personalities and to make the day of the shoot as memorable as the wedding day itself.â
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