The Best Elopement Guide For Eloping In Ireland
If you’re planning to elope in Ireland, this elopement guide is the perfect place to start! This is a comprehensive elopement guide designed to give you all the information that you need in order to plan your DREAM adventure elopement in Ireland!
I love working with couples to plan adventure elopements all over the world, but especially elopements in Ireland.
If you’re planning to elope in Ireland, here are the things you need to think about:
Think of the time of year you want to elope
Choose a location depending on what’s important to you
Set a budget to determine what you want to do
Pick an elopement videographer & photographer that can work well together
Decide on the type of ceremony you want to have
Pick a celebrant that suits the type of ceremony you want to have
Plan your ceremony
Plan your aesthetic & colour schemes
Book your florist
Book extras (bands, musicians, etc..)
Book flights, accommodation & other hospitality
GET PUMPED BECAUSE YOU’RE NEARLY THERE!
1. Think of the time of year you want to elope
When you’re planning your Ireland elopement, the time of the year is an important thing to think about. A lot of people don’t realise, but Ireland has a big variation in how long the days are in the different seasons.
For example, the shortest day in winter the sun rises at about 09:00 and sets around 15:45 so your days in winter are VERY short. Conversely, the longest day in summer the sun rises around 04:00 and sets around 22:45, so the days are VERY long in summer.
Why is it important to think about sunrise and sunsets for your elopement?
Well, it’s all to do with the light. If you want the best elopement video & photos, you should try and have your Ireland elopement around sunrise or sunset as much as possible so that you can maximise the awesome soft light that is most flattering. This means that if you want a summer elopement, you might have your ceremony early in the evening and then shoot all evening until sunset at say 22:00. Conversely, if you had a winter elopement on a short day, you might have your ceremony around lunch time and then shoot until it’s dark.
** If you’re planning a winter elopement, I’ve written a blog post on the Things To Remember For A Winter Elopement, which might be helpful in planning your winter elopement!
2. Choose a location depending on what’s important to you
Picking a location is an important part of planning your Ireland elopement. I would always recommend discussing this with your key vendors (e.g. elopement videographer, photographer & celebrant) as they may have suggestions and ideas for something unique and awesome. For example, I’m always on the lookout for epic places to go with my couples to make their elopement experience unique and awesome. That’s not to say you can’t just go to the locations that you see on Instagram and Pinterest, but it’s worth bearing in mind as you plan your Ireland elopement so that you are totally happy with what you choose!
There are a few things that you should consider when picking a locations:
How much physical activity do you want?
Some locations you’ll just need to get out the car, walk a few steps and you’re in an awesome spot to have your ceremony or shoot, but some couples may want somewhere more secluded and remote. Remember to consider the weather when planning this, especially in places that get cold. If you have a winter elopement, it may not be wise or possible to hike all day to get to a very remote place if it’s very cold or risk of bad weather. You also need to consider how much physical activity is required to get to your location if you have family joining you that might not be as able as you are (e.g. your kids or parents). In cases like this, you might want somewhere easy to get to so they can take part.
What sort of ceremony are you having?
If you’re just having a small ceremony, just the two of you reading vows to each other and exchanging rings, then you could easily do this on a cliff edge over looking a grand view somewhere a bit more remote that you have to hike to so you’re secluded. IF you want a celebrant and some of your family there, you might need to choose somewhere a bit more accessible and with a bit more space that can fit everyone and where they can access with more ease.
** If you’re planning to elope in Ireland, I’ve written a blog post with The BEST Places To Elope In Ireland, which you should check out for inspiration!
3. Set a budget to determine what you want to do
A really important thing to do before you plan anything is to prioritise what’s important to you for your elopement and then you can plan a budget accordingly. For some couples, the atmosphere of their adventure wedding is the most important, so they may want musicians there and for some couples, the imagery (elopement video & photos) that they have after their adventure elopement is the most important so they want to prioritise that in their budget.
Obviously it goes without saying that this is YOUR wedding day and you should plan it based on what’s important to YOU, but I always try to remind couples that at the end of the day in 10 years time you will have very few physical things from your wedding to remind you of your special day, so I always recommend that you should prioritise a good budget to get a GREAT elopement videographer & photographer.
One of the beautiful things about elopements is that generally speaking, they land up being much cheaper (on average) than big weddings, which allows most couples to book the best adventure wedding videographer & photographer that they can find! I find that most of the couples that I work with don’t elope because it’s cheap, they elope because they love adventure and want to do something epic in a beautiful location.
To summarise, these are the steps I suggest you take when you are thinking about budget:
Think of what’s important to you.
If it’s going somewhere incredible and different to where you live (e.g. you live in the USA but want to elope in Ireland), then you’ll need to prioritise travel. If it’s imagery, find the BEST adventure wedding videographer & photographer that you can and get them locked in so they can help you with your DREAM elopement.
Once you’ve decided what’s important to you, you can then start booking vendors based on what’s most important to you
List your vendors based on what’s important to you so you get the most important aspects of your elopement booked and then as you go through your list, if you run out of budget you can decide either to increase or budget, look for someone cheaper or just not have aspects of your elopement that aren’t as important to you as others.
Get your vendors locked in.
I love when couples reach out to me saying “this is the date range we’re thinking of eloping in Ireland and want you to be a part of it” because that gives us some wiggle room to get everyone on board that needs to be and we can make the elopement awesome! Being flexible allows you to get the very best elopement vendors possible and therefore can help to make your elopement awesome!
4. Pick an elopement videographer & photographer that can work well together
This might seem like an obvious thing to say, but I see it happen so often where couples book elopement videographers & photographers that don’t know each other and have very different working styles. For the most part, elopement videographers & photographers can work fine together and the disciplines are similar enough that you can work around differences, I have seen and do hear of some horror stories.
An example of what you look out for when looking for your elopement videographer & elopement photographer, if your elopement videographer is very cinematic, looks like their work is very directed and a lot of production that goes into it but the elopement photographer has very natural poses and has a more minimal approach, as much as you might love the results from both of these suppliers, it might not give you the best experience on your wedding day!
The experience of my couples is SOOOOOOO important. I want their wedding day to be the BEST day of their lives, so it’s very important to me that I can work well with the elopement photographer that they book! I always ask couples who their elopement photographer is and if I don’t feel like I would be a good fit for them, I speak to them about it and sometimes we agree that it might not be best. At the end of the day, their experience is more important to me than having their booking.
** When couples book me, I always provide them with an Exclusive Vendor Guide, which lists the vendors (including elopement photographer) that I recommend, love working with and whose work is AWESOME!
5. Decide on the type of ceremony you want to have
One of the reasons I LOVE adventure weddings is that you have so much flexibility. There are so many options. You can literally DO ANYTHING that you want (as long as it’s legal, obviously).
Over the years, I’ve shot elopements:
On rugged Irish cliff edges
Inside castles, below castles, next to castles, with castles in the background…
In city halls
In little churches
In restaurants
….
One of the important things to think about when it comes to your elopement ceremony is what type of elopement ceremony do you want to have? If you want a full legal ceremony, you’ll be more limited to where you can have your elopement ceremony and what you can do in your elopement ceremony.
My personal preference and what I always suggest to my couples is that they get legally married where they live and then have a symbolic ceremony in Ireland. This takes the headache of trying to meet all the criteria required by law and allows you to have a ceremony that’s completely you and what you want!
Ireland is not as flexible when it comes to ceremonies as other places (like in certain states in the USA where your dog can be your witness and you can self officiate), so if you want to get legally married here, you will likely need to do the legal part in a church or town hall. If you’re happy to get legally married where you live and then have a symbolic ceremony, the possibilities are endless!
IF YOU HAVE FAMILY AT YOUR ELOPEMENT, GET THEM INVOLVED!
Some of my favourite elopement ceremonies that I’ve captured have been where family members are involved in the ceremony. This is obviously easier when the couple get legally married where they live and have a symbolic elopement ceremony in Ireland.
For example, for this elopement, Alex’s (bride) Dad officiated the ceremony and it was SOOOOO beautiful and emotional. Everyone was crying, including me!
I heard of one elopement that my friends shot, whose couple planned for their family to each have a part in the elopement ceremony, they had printed out all the different parts and then when they stopped in their hike for their elopement ceremony, they handed out the scripts and surprised the family members with having them all conduct or read a part of the ceremony. My friends said it was the most beautiful elopement ceremony ever!
** If you’d like to have a celebrant conduct the ceremony of your Ireland elopement, I work with some of the best celebrants in Ireland and include these on my Exclusive Vendor Guide, which I send to couples once they book me to help them have their DREAM elopement!
6. Pick a celebrant that suits the type of ceremony you want to have
One of the things I like most about adventure elopements is that you can do exactly what you want to do. There’s no set requirements or agenda that you have to fulfil. As long as you’re both happy and doing what you want to do, that’s what’s important.
The same applies for your ceremony. I’ve mentioned previously, but the easiest way for you to elope in Ireland is to get legally married where you live and then have a symbolic ceremony for your elopement. That’s not saying that it’s impossible to get legally married in Ireland, there’s just more hoops you have to jump through, you’re limited by who can conduct your ceremony and where you can do it. If you want to maintain the flexibility of an adventure elopement, you should get married legally where you live and have a symbolic ceremony for your elopement.
In terms of your ceremony, you can go as simple as just reading vows to each other all the way through to having a religious ceremony that a celebrant (or family member) conducts, and of course anything in between those. The possibilities are endless!
From my experience, there are a few things that I think make an elopement ceremony REALLY special. That’s not to say that you have to have these elements to have an awesome elopement ceremony, but these are what I have loved when I’ve captured elopement videos, which I’d like to share as inspiration or ideas for you:
Make it personal.
One of the reasons I love having family involved in your ceremony is that it makes it much more personal. There’s something special about having someone involved in your ceremony that has gone through the ups and downs of life with you, that loves you and wants the best for you.
On the lines of making it personal, one of the things I dislike about traditional big weddings, especially religious ceremonies, is that so often the ceremony words feels like a copy and paste from the last 100 weddings just changing your names. It’s reading from the same script but just changing your names. When I first started capturing elopement videos (before I focused on elopements), I captured three big weddings in a row. All three weddings had religious (catholic) ceremonies in different churches and they all had pretty much exactly the same ceremonies just with different hymns and different names in the vows. I remember thinking to myself that it felt like a cookie cutter for wedding ceremonies. Now just to be clear, I’m not knocking anyone that chooses to have that type of ceremony (I had a big religious ceremony when I got married in 2010), but my preferences have changed and I prefer personal ceremonies that you can do in an elopement [easily] that are therefore unique and specific to a couple.
Use words.
If you watch any of my elopement videos on my website, you’ll know that I love integrating words into my elopement videos. I absolutely love when couples write vows and letters to each other, expressing how they truly feel about each other. There’s something special that happens, a kind of weight that words carry when they’re written down and spoken out. It goes further than the symbolism of “getting married and committing your lives to each other” when you say the words out loud “I vow to commit my life to you” (or something similar).
When I think back on the adventure elopements that I’ve captured, some of my favourites are when couples write their own vows for one another, when family are involved and speak in the ceremony or when someone uses words to contribute to the ceremony.
Don’t do anything that you don’t really want.
Don’t do anything in your elopement ceremony that isn’t you or isn’t what you want. If you don’t want to have a celebrant, don’t. There’s no pre-defined requirements of what you must have in your elopement ceremony. Do what feels right for you.
And finally, when it comes to picking a celebrant that you want to conduct the ceremony at your adventure elopement, make sure you pick one that fits with the type of ceremony you want. If you want something short, make sure they can accommodate that. If you want family involved, make sure they can do that. Ask them for examples of elopement ceremonies that they’ve led.
** If you’d like to have a celebrant conduct the ceremony of your Ireland elopement, I work with some of the best celebrants in Ireland and include these on my Exclusive Vendor Guide, which I send to couples once they book me to help them have their DREAM elopement!
*** If you’d like to see an example of why I LOVE when couples write their own vows, you should watch this elopement video.
7. Plan your ceremony
I always encourage couples to have a video call (at least one) with their celebrant (and anyone else) involved in their ceremony to make sure you’re all on the same page. This is the most important day of your life, so you want to make sure that everything is how you want it and goes to plan.
When couples book me, I always engage with the other vendors involved (photographer & celebrant) to make sure that we’re all on the same page, know the timings, etc.. to ensure that things run smoothly.
It sounds so silly to write this, but as the couple, please make sure that you’re happy with the plan for your ceremony (and elopement in general) and that you’re happy that the vendors involved are on the same page. Don’t feel like you can’t ask for calls to make sure that all your vendors are aligned with you. If you feel like there might be room for misunderstanding, then ask for a call. At the end of the day, you’re travelling a long way from home to elope in Ireland with elopement vendors involved that it’s likely you haven’t met, so make sure you’re all aligned and on the same page.
** One of the options that I offer couples in my Elopement Packages is to work in the capacity of an Elopement Videographer & Guide where I help to coordinate the wedding day, schedule, ceremony & vendors. If this is something that interests you, please get in touch and let’s talk about your elopement dream.
8. Plan your aesthetic & colour schemes
It might sounds silly, but I always suggest to couples to plan what they’ll wear and what their aesthetic is for their adventure elopement before they order their flowers from their florist. This is so that you can make sure it all matches and also helps the florist. Otherwise when you go to the florist and they ask you what the accent colours of your aesthetic are, you’ll have to go back to them later once you’ve figured it all out.
9. Book your florist
Should you get flowers for your elopement?
This is a question I hear often from couples and my answer is always: if you like flowers and think it’ll look awesome, then HECK YES!!
This is your wedding day after all. One of THE most important days of your life. In my opinion, you should make it as awesome and special as possible. I love when my brides get big, beautiful statement bouquets! I think it looks awesome against the Irish landscape and I think it makes your elopement video look so good!
In summary, if you like flowers then you should totally get an awesome bouquet for your Ireland elopement!
10. Book extras (bands, musicians, etc..)
Not many of the elopements that I shoot have extras like bands and musicians, but sometimes they do and it’s a cool addition to your elopement, if you think it fits with what you’re going for.
Some couples prefer a more simple approach to their elopement, so don’t want music or musicians.
Some couples want to hike loads and go to locations that it’s just not practical to carry big instruments, so in cases like this they might have a violinist or guitarist. If you’re planning to hike loads and go to locations that are less accessible, then bear that in mind when planning.
Some couples have their families involved and help with music for their Ireland elopement. This is probably one of my favourite options because it’s so much more personal.
From a practical perspective, remember that your musicians will likely just be playing acoustically (without amplification) outdoors with a lot of ambient noise (wind, waves, birds, etc..) so it is common for the music to be drowned out by a lot of these ambient noises. I’ve had couples that have had fairly windy weather and then you can hardly hear the music. This is probably one of the most important practical things to consider when you’re planning to elope in Ireland and what music/entertainment you want at your elopement!
11. Book flights, accommodation & other hospitality
Generally speaking, I always advise couples to agree their date(s) and get everyone lined up before they book flights and accommodation. The beautiful thing with elopements is how flexible they can be, so make sure you land all your elopement vendors that you really want before you book flights and accommodation.
In terms of accommodation, I suggest that you book an Airbnb or something a bit more rustic than a hotel. I think that an Airbnb looks way better for your elopement video than a hotel room.
HAVE A PINT OF GUINNESS TO END OFF YOUR ELOPEMENT!!
I often recommend to my couples that they should plan to finish off their adventure elopement in Ireland with a pint of the black stuff (a.k.a. Guinness) in a rustic old local pub. It’s always such a fun way to unwind with your loved ones, getting a few photos in a pub, warming up next to a log fire and sipping on one of the most iconic drinks in the world!
** If you’d like recommendations of places to stay for your Ireland elopement, I work with some of the best elopement vendors in Ireland and include these on my Exclusive Vendor Guide, which I send to couples once they book me as their Elopement Videographer to help them have their DREAM Ireland elopement!
12. GET PUMPED BECAUSE YOU’RE NEARLY THERE!
Once you’ve got everything sorted, booked and planned out, get pumped because this is going to be one of the BEST days of your life! I’m so excited for you! Ireland is AWESOME and one of the BEST places to elope in the world! You’re going to love it!
I often hear couples describe Ireland as being “magical”. It’s so true. When you’re standing in the lush green grass overlooking the Irish Sea with an ancient castle as the backdrop, holding the one you love, it will feel magical!
If you’re thinking of eloping in Ireland and would like some help planning something epic, please get in touch! I’d love to help you plan your dream elopement in Ireland!
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