What is an elopement? Modern Definition, Insights, & Trends Explained
What is an elopement? It’s a word that carries mystery, intimacy, and a little rebellion. But the meaning has evolved dramatically over the last decade. I’m Sean Oblizalo, and I’ve helped 450+ couples elope when they wanted something a little different from a traditional wedding. Every season. Every kind of couple. And if there’s one thing I can say with confidence: it hasn’t slowed down. Not even a little!
If anything, elopement has become more intentional, more thoughtful, and more meaningful than ever and I’ve seen it first hand! Modern elopements aren’t about running away. They’re about choosing in. Choosing presence. Choosing experience. Choosing a wedding day that feels like you!
Adventure can be part of it, but it’s never a requirement. What matters is the connection, the intention, and the freedom to design a day that reflects your relationship instead of everyone else’s expectations. If you’re still weighing whether eloping is right for you, my top reasons to elope guide is a good place to start!
What is an elopement?
An elopement, or eloping, means an intentional, small-scale wedding focused on the couple’s experience rather than a guest list or a traditional format.
Modern elopements happen in places that matter to the couple. Mountains, national parks, quiet coastlines, canyon rims, alpine lakes. Sometimes it’s just the two of you. Sometimes a small group of people are there. The focus stays fixed: a wedding day built around connection, presence, and the experience of the moment itself. No banquet hall required.
What does eloping mean today?
Today, eloping means choosing a wedding built around personal meaning, not obligation. It is intentional, not impulsive.
Couples aren’t opting out of tradition because they don’t care about their wedding day. They’re opting out because they care deeply about how it feels. The old idea of eloping involved urgency or avoidance — courthouse, Elvis, done. The modern version involves months of thoughtful planning, meaningful location choices, and vows that actually sound like the people saying them. It’s a full send on the day you actually want.
From sneaking off to intentional celebration
That number used to represent a fringe preference. Now it’s the majority. The shift reflects something real: couples are increasingly building their wedding day around what it feels like rather than what it looks like to everyone else. Elopement stopped being the backup plan and became the actual plan. The one people build intentionally, not out of compromise.
It’s just as valid as a wedding
There’s still a lingering myth that a smaller wedding means less meaning. After 450+ ceremonies, I’d argue the opposite. Without guests to perform for, couples are fully present. Vows land differently when you’re not scanning a crowd of 130 people. Silences aren’t awkward. Laughter is real. The day isn’t smaller. It’s sharper. More honest. More you!
The real cost difference between eloping and a wedding
The average US wedding costs $33,000–$36,000. Most adventure elopements, including photography and planning, run $4,000–$10,000.
That gap is worth sitting with for a second. For most couples it’s a down payment, a real honeymoon, or just the freedom to start a marriage without debt hanging over it. And here’s what changes when you close that gap: instead of burning most of your budget on a venue and catering for 130 people you feel obligated to invite, you put it toward the experience itself. An extraordinary location. A full day of photography. A private dinner after the ceremony. Flowers you actually love. The money goes toward meaning instead of logistics.
Read more on Zola average wedding cost report and The Knot 2025 Real Weddings Study
If you want to dig into what a Colorado elopement costs and what’s included, my Colorado elopement packages break it all down
What are the things couple ask about eloping?
After 450+ elopements, the difference between a good day and a great one comes down to location, light, and intentional timing.
Eight years of patterns produce consistent truths. Not rules exactly. Just things that show up every single time.
How does privacy affect eloping?
Privacy removes the performance layer from a wedding, and what surfaces instead is something most couples don’t expect: genuine emotional access.
Without an audience, emotions move differently. Laughter is unfiltered. Tears aren’t rushed. Nobody’s watching the clock waiting on dinner. The intimacy that comes out of that isn’t an accident. It’s what happens when the whole day is built around two people instead of managing a crowd. I’ve watched couples completely fall apart in the best way possible in places where no one else was around. That doesn’t happen in a ballroom.
Colorado elopements also offers something most states don’t: the option to self-solemnize, meaning you and your partner sign your own marriage license with no officiant required. My self-solemnizing guide walks through exactly how that works if you want to explore it.
Does an elopement have to be an adventure?
An elopement doesn’t need a summit or a scramble. The common thread isn’t difficulty. It’s intention and memorable!
I’ve photographed elopements in wildflower meadows, on canyon rims, inside old growth forests, and at the edge of quiet alpine lakes at 12,000 feet. The common thread isn’t the elevation gain. It’s that every one of those couples chose their location because it meant something to them. When the setting carries weight, the ceremony does too.
That said, when couples lean into even a small physical element — a short hike to a waterfall, a sunrise drive up a mountain pass — something shifts before they’ve said a single vow. The shared effort changes the energy. If you’re drawn to building your day around a specific place, my guide to the best places to elope in Colorado and hiking elopement guide are full of real options across every terrain and difficulty level.
Does planning matter for an elopement?
A well-planned elopement feels effortless. That effortlessness is the product of a lot of work done before you ever arrive.
The best days I’ve been part of weren’t spontaneous. They were built deliberately. Location scouting. Permit logistics. Timeline pacing around weather windows and golden light. Real thought given to how the morning should feel before the ceremony even starts. The day feels like it just flows because someone put serious work into making it flow. That’s the planning side of what I do, and it makes a bigger difference than most couples expect going in.
What are the biggest elopement trends?
Elopements have grown 50%+ in the last decade. Destination formats, micro weddings, and multi-day elopements are driving that momentum.
That growth isn’t one thing. It’s financial awareness, shifting priorities, and a generation of couples that has watched the generation before them spend $40,000 on a single day and decided to ask whether that’s actually the point. Turns out, for a lot of people, it isn’t.
Destination elopements
Couples are increasingly turning their elopement into an intentional getaway rather than a single-day event. Colorado and Yosemite both sit at the top of destination elopement wish lists for a reason. The landscapes make the moment feel earned. There’s something about standing at 13,000 feet or in the middle of a granite valley that reframes everything. The off-season mountain experience especially is something I’d push almost every couple toward if they’re open to it.
If you’re considering Yosemite specifically, my Yosemite elopement guide covers permit logistics, timing, and the best locations across every season. And if you’re thinking about a winter trip into the mountains, my winter elopement guide covers everything you need to pull it off beautifully.
Micro weddings
Presence matters more than headcount. A growing number of couples are building their elopement around immediate family only, or their closest three or four people, and finding the intimacy holds even with witnesses in the mix. You don’t have to choose between having people there and having a real elopement. The definition has room. What matters is that the day is built around your experience, not around managing a guest list.
Check out my guide on how to include your family in your elopement for more on making that work.
Experience driven elopements
The clearest through line across all of these trends is a shift from formal structure toward emotional experience. Couples want to feel something on their wedding day, not just execute a program. That’s exactly why elopements continue to grow. They’re built from the start around what a day can feel like, not what it’s supposed to look like.
Multi day elopements
One of the fastest growing formats I’m seeing is the multi day elopement. Instead of a single ceremony moment, couples build a two or three day experience around their wedding, arriving the evening before, spending the morning in the mountains, exchanging vows mid day, and then celebrating together over dinner that night. It gives the whole thing room to breathe in a way a single day timeline rarely does!
What makes an elopement work?
After eight years and 450+ elopements, here’s what separates the ones that feel truly extraordinary from the ones that just felt like a nice day.
A location that means something
The best elopement locations aren’t just pretty. They’re personally meaningful. A place you’ve always wanted to see. A landscape that reflects who you are as a couple. A spot that took a little effort to reach. When the location has its own weight, the ceremony does too.
Colorado has no shortage of these. If you’re early in the planning process and looking for ideas, my guide to the best elopement locations in Colorado covers Telluride, San Juan Mountains, Aspen, alpine lakes, canyon country, and more. If you want to get off the beaten path entirely, my off roading elopement guide is worth a read too.
The right photographer
I’d say this even if I weren’t a photographer: documentation matters. Not because your Instagram needs proof, but because the day will move fast and your memory will fill in the gaps with emotion rather than detail. Years from now, you’ll want to be able to see the light on the mountains, the look on each other’s faces, the moment before and after the vows. That’s what a good elopement photographer gives you.
If you want to see how I approach that documentation and what a full elopement day looks like with me, get in touch!
Are elopements just a trend?
After eight years of documenting elopements, one thing is clear: this isn’t a phase. It’s a shift. Couples are choosing presence over performance, meaning over obligation, and days that actually feel like them.
The couples who come back to show me their anniversary photos, pointing to the exact ridge where they stood, remembering what the wind felt like, that’s the proof. No trends required.
When your wedding day is built intentionally, it becomes part of your story. Long after everything else fades, what remains is how it felt to stand together, fully present, choosing each other.
That’s what I get to help build. And after eight years, it still doesn’t get old.
Ready to start planning? Reach out here and let’s talk through what your day could look like.
Sean Oblizalo is a Colorado elopement photographer and planner based in Denver. He founded Vows & Peaks in 2018 and doesn’t just show up with a camera. He plans your day, scouts the spot, handles the permits, and helps create epic mountain adventures for couples