Strip a wedding back to basics; a couple in love and somewhere to wed, and you might find that an elopement suits you perfectly. Hollie and Adam wanted their day to feel like a runaway fairytale, so they escaped to St Just in Penzance on the stunning Cornish coast, with the focus solely on the two of them.
Writing their own vows made their ceremony incredibly special. With just the two of them, their words were for each other only, and they were then able to spend the rest of the day together, exploring Cornwall and taking some epic photos.
Elopements offer huge scope for having fun with photography, and Hollie and Adam knew that along with the venue, their photographer would be their highest priority and biggest expense. Hollie explained, “I spent hours searching for a photographer who could capture our day perfectly, when I found Tom Frost I was beyond happy, he offered the perfect package for us. He met us at the venue before our ceremony, took photos of us getting ready, helped to calm our nerves and after the ceremony he took us to a hidden beach which we had to climb rocks to get to, it was so much fun. He also took us to cliff tops and showed us around Cornwall.”
“The funniest part of our day was rock climbing in my wedding dress to get to a hidden beach which had not been touched before we got there. Adam had to help hold my dress whilst we climbed very steep rocks. It was very windy and scary at times! We got absolutely covered in sand and soaked getting photos in the sea but it was worth every moment.”
With a £5,000 budget, the couple saved money by using high street retailers rather than bridal boutiques. They told us, “We saved a lot of money by shopping around and spent a lot less because we decided on a planned elopement rather than a big traditional wedding. This meant we could spend our full budget on ourselves and what we wanted rather than paying for guests.”
Planning an elopement may seem like less work, however the little details still matter, as Hollie told us, “I spent hours creating boards with a boho vision in mind. I always knew I wanted to get married somewhere beautiful in the UK and we liked the idea of eloping just the two of us because we wanted a relaxed feel. However I wish I had spent less time worrying about the small things as on the day you forget about all the things that may have been causing you stress before, like what the weather will be like etc. It truly doesn’t matter, you just get lost in the moment. The best part about planning our wedding was knowing at the end of it all I would be married to my best friend; this was only the beginning of our life together.”
