The Benefits of Eloping Without Guests
Updated on April 18th, 2025
As you begin planning your elopement, you and you partner will undoubtedly discuss who you want to invite. For some couples, this is an easy answer and they feel confident in their decision to include or not include guests.
If you’re on the fence about whether or not to invite guests to your elopement, we’ve made a list of reasons you might consider eloping on your own.
The Benefits of Eloping Without Guests - Table of Contents
1. You’ll have more elopement location options
As Colorado elopement photographers, one of the biggest factors we consider when recommending locations to our couples is their guest count. Many of the most beautiful and remote locations just can’t accommodate more than a very small group of people. By eloping without guests, you will open yourself up to so many more location options.
You can choose a more remote destination
What to consider when choosing your elopement location and you have guests:
How close is the nearest airport? Many of our couples are already asking their families to travel across the country for their elopement, so it’s important for them to be able to fly into a main airport and then not have to drive too far.
Are there good accommodation and restaurant options nearby? Particularly here in Colorado, not all mountain towns have the same amenities. Many of our couples who elope with guests specifically choose their elopement location based on how comfortable their guests will be during their stay.
It’s common for our couples to fall in love with a region and then decide it’s too remote for their guests. This happens most often in the San Juan Mountains region of Colorado. It’s one of the most beautiful parts of the state, but it takes about 6 hours to drive there from Denver, and some of the smaller towns lack larger rental homes, higher end hotels, and restaurants with a wide range of opening hours. So while the couple may love the mountain views in this region, they often end up settling for a different part of the state.
When you elope without guests, you don’t have to consider any of those things. You can make a mini road trip out of the long drive from the main airport or you could even fly into a nearby regional airport. And you can make your plans knowing that you’ll be staying in a smaller town with limited amentities.
Ceremony location options
When we talk to our couples about how they envision their elopement ceremony, they often describe wanting to get married surrounded by nature and magnificent views. And when you get married on public lands, you need to be aware of permitting rules, how many people can fit in the space without trampling wildflowers or vegetation, how many vehicles can park at the trailhead, and whether the location has group size limits.
Keeping these guidelines in mind, the number of ideal ceremony locations will decrease as your group size increases. Many of our couples who elope with guests end up compromising on their ceremony vision to find a space that can properly accommodate their guests.
Eloping without guests means that you don’t have to compromise on your ceremony location and you can have the ceremony of your dreams.
2. You’ll have more flexibility with your plans
Inevitably, when you elope with guests, you’ll end up making many of your decisions with your guests in mind. Eloping without guests allows you to make your choices for yourself and your partner. This means that you can do activities that you love, go to locations that are trickier to get to, and create a timeline that focuses on what’s important to you.
Freedom to do the activities you want
When you elope without guests, you don’t have to ask permission or run your ideas by your guests during the planning process. This means that you can easily plan that longer hike, spend time above 12,000 ft, take that off-road trail, spend the afternoon kayaking, hire a helicopter ride, or even just spend the afternoon sketching in a meadow.
You don’t have to worry if your guests will be bored, or nervous, or uncomfortable. Plan the elopement day of your dreams for you and only you.
Have flexibility when choosing your date
In order to avoid crowds and have the best accommodation, vendor, and ceremony location options, we always suggest that our couples elope mid-week and avoid holidays. This can make it more difficult for couples trying to schedule travel with their families because it’s often easiest to get time off on weekends or holidays.
Eloping without guests gives you more flexibility to choose the date that will best help you create your dream elopement day.
Create the elopement timeline you want
Do you want to start your elopement day with a hike through the dark so you can reach a stunning alpine lake for sunrise? Or do you want to stay out late stargazing and watching a meteor shower? Want to do both of those things?
Eloping without guests allows you to build your elopement day without limits or without pausing to make sure it works for anyone else.
Easily pivot, if needed
If capturing elopements for over 10 years has taught us anything, it’s to prepare for the unexpected. We’ve had to make timeline adjustments, swap out locations, or even move to completely different areas of the state due to emergencies such as dangerous weather, wildfires, and road closures.
It is so much easier to pivot your plans when you don’t have any guests to account for. Most ceremony locations do not allow you to change your reservation time, making it very difficult and expensive to change plans at the last minute. It is much easier to get last-minute permits or even find locations that don’t require permits when your group only consists of the couple and their photography team.
3. Have a stress-free elopement experience
Most of the couples we work with say that one of the main reasons they chose to elope was because they wanted to avoid the stress of planning a wedding. When you invite guests to your elopement, it’s very easy for things to begin to expand and spiral, and all of a sudden you’re just as stressed as you would have been having a larger wedding.
You can avoid outside opinions and pressure
When you invite guests, you may feel like you have to listen to and entertain everyone’s opinions and ideas. Whether that has to do with your attire, what locations you choose, what vendors you work with, and what kind of food you have. With guests involved, it is very easy for you to lose control over your day, which can lead you to feeling stressed and even resentful.
Keeping your guest count small can also be a big challenge. Where do you draw the line? Can you invite one sibling but not the other? What if you can’t stand your brother-in-law? Everyone will have opinions on who is and is not invited to your elopement, which can feel very overwhelming.
We originally planned to elope with 8 guests, but during the planning process, Alex’s uncle invited himself and his family. As people pleasers, we didn’t want to tell them they couldn’t come, so this led to us making some stressful changes to our elopement and a 50% increase in the guests we had been planning for. Almost 10 years later, we still have hard feelings about it.
Have uninterrupted time to yourselves
You’re allowed to be “selfish” on your wedding day. You’re allowed to plan a day that revolves around spending quality time with your partner, exploring new (or well-loved) places, and doing the things you love most together. You do not owe anyone, even your closest friends and family participation in your wedding day.
Eloping without guests not only allows you to dream big with your elopement, but also allows you to make some really unique and special memories that will only be shared by the two of you. Worry less about playing host and more about immersing yourself into this once in a lifetime day.
Be vulnerable, do the things you might not do in front of your guests. Say the things in your vows that you may be afraid to say in front of your guests. Your elopement day should not be the day to hold back.
Get the most out of your photo coverage
If you’re planning to hire a photographer and videographer, you’ll most likely have a package with a certain amount of coverage included. Of course you can always add coverage, but if you’re on a budget, you may be limited.
On average, for a simple ceremony, group photos, and a champagne toast, you can expect to spend a minimum of 2-3 hours of your coverage with your guests. If you plan to have a meal during this time, that can easily require an extra 1-2 hours.
Eloping without guests means that you can use your full coverage exploring with your partner. This often means that you’re able to visit multiple locations, do longer hikes, take off-road trails, capture the getting ready process, do more unique activities, and even stay out for star photos.
4. Save money on your elopement
In general, an elopement without guests will cost less than an elopement with guests. So if one of your reasons for eloping is to save money compared to a traditional wedding, you should consider eloping without guests. You’ll be able to save on a lot of things such as travel costs, vendor costs, and even permit costs.
Parts of your elopement that might cost less without guests
Elopement venues + permits
In many states, it is possible for couples eloping without guests to have their ceremony in a location that is free. The larger your group is, the more you should expect to spend on your ceremony and reception locations.
In Colorado, there are a few amazing reservable ceremony locations under $350 for couples with guests (such as Maroon Bells Amphitheater, Rocky Mountain National Park, and Sapphire Point Overlook), but they can be very competitive and their availability is not guaranteed.
Average Colorado permit costs without guests: $0 - $300
Average Colorado permit costs with guests: $150 - $5,000
Travel costs
Even if you aren’t paying travel costs for your guests, the costs for everyone involved increase as your group size increases. Larger homes must be rented to accommodate your entire group, or you have to reserve hotel blocks, multiple rental cars may be needed. And if everyone plans to spend a few days together, you will need to budget for activities and meals beyond just your elopement day.
Elopement vendors
Photography and videography - In general, you will need more hours of coverage for an elopement with guests than without guests in order to fit in all of the things you wish to do.
Hair and makeup - Only pay for the cost of you and/or your partner to get hair and makeup and not guests in addition.
Furniture rentals and decor - Most of our couples eloping without guests won’t need to pay for any furniture or decor for their elopements. Couples eloping with guests may need to rent chairs and decor for their ceremony as well as tables and chairs for their reception.
Florals - Eloping couples can usually just purchase bouquet(s) and/or boutonniere(s) for the two of them. Some may choose to skip florals altogether! Couples eloping with guests may opt to get florals for some of their guests/wedding party as well as pay for floral decor for their ceremony and reception.
Catering - Couples are often surprised at how much food costs. Whether that involves hiring a private chef at your rental home or renting out a room at a restaurant, your elopement meal is going to take up a big part of your budget. Couples eloping without guests can either keep things simple with something like a pizza or a picnic, or splurge by hiring a private chef for just the two of them.
How to still include your family in your elopement
So you’ve decided that you want to elope without any guests, but that doesn’t mean you want to completely exclude your loved ones from your day. We’ve put together a list of our favorite ways to include the people who won’t be there on your elopement day.
5 ways to include your family
Have an elopement send-off party
Ask your friends and family to write you letters
Hire a videographer
Mail out elopement announcements
Have a post-elopement reception
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We have been planning and capturing elopements for over 10 years and have captured over 250 elopements. We are so lucky to work with about 20 couples each year and show them some of our favorite places.
Are you looking for a meaningful and adventurous day in Colorado or Utah? We would love to get to know you!
This blog post was published on April 18th, 2025