Newbie wanting a small wedding with just the two of us

Gretna Green! Surely it's the obvious choice. Unless you feel it's too obvious I guess?

Yeah, I came across that one too! I am not familiar with Gretna Green, but googling tells me that it seems to be the place to elope to?

I guess my worry would be whether it might be tacky or cheesy or feel too much like an assembly line wedding, although I literally had never heard of the place before this week, so that might be completely unfounded.

Can anyone share any experience with Gretna Green? Which venues do they offer for small weddings like that? I just saw the Blacksmiths Wedding Package, and I am not 100% sure about it based on the pictures from their website.

Thanks for your reply!

Gretna isn't for everyone - it is a famous palce to elope to because it stems back to the days when the laws for getting wed in Scotland at age 16 were different from the UK meaning young couples would elope to Gretna to get wed without their parents' permission as it is just over the border. It can be a bit of a conveyor belt to be fair - but it's right for a lot of people but not all.

If you want something really personal and low-key then some registry offices have amazingly beautiful faciities so it's worth exploring those - especially if it's just the two of you and low budget. External venues will usually have a minimum charge but again, it's worth exploring and asking the question. Think of the location, then check with the local registry office where they have licenced premises and then go and look. You will pay more for an external venue as the registrar costs are mugh higher. Again, if you have an idea of locationa nd pictures are important - ask around the local photogrpahers and get their views on what might work for what you're looking for.

I think it's rather romantic wanting something so very special for just you two. I can picture it now..... (you will need a minimum of two witnesses though so bear that in mind)

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You need to read RizzieRazzle's wedding report - have a search for it. She got married at Gretna a few weeks ago and had nothing but good things to say about it (which I was very pleased about as I'm getting married there in Jan).

I can't personally give any recommendations for the venue but just wanted to say I love the idea of an elopement just the two of you. Very special.
Good luck with your plans. x

I wanted to elope. We aren't we are having a big white wedding. I still want to elope.

My advice to you is DO NOT GET ENGAGED. Once you are engaged and you tell people, they get all excited about this presumed wedding start visualising it in their heads etc etc. Which is what happened with us. I commented to my mum and best friend that I wanted to elope and though my best friend was ok with it, I got comments such as "you'd take me right?" and "that's fine as long as you just take me". My mum just called me selfish.

H2Bs family got all excited and wanted to buy hats etc, we got offers of money and the whole thing just snowballed. The disappointment on peoples faces when we said we were eloping was too much to bear (for him) and so he changed his mind and we ended up with a big wedding.

Had we turned up one day and said we were married, not got engaged first, just got married, people would still have been disappointed but they would have dealt with it much quicker.

Good luck to you.

We are getting married at Boho Cornwall which specialises in elopements. It might be a bit far for you - or you might combine it with your honeymoon. I can't give a review as we've never been there but I have been impressed by reviews from others and the service we've received so far.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I actually just had that thought about getting engaged. I think we would want to keep getting married from our family and friends until after the wedding, but if we got engaged, people would expect us to start planning a wedding, right?

I have talked to my best friend about it (although not in specifics, this was before we actually started planning anything), and luckily she feels the same way (she and her fiance would like to elope), so I don't think she would be too upset.

In a way, I think it will be easier to keep it from my family and friends since most of them are in Germany and I don't speak to them all the time. We could probably go away for a week without them even noticing, haha.

We'll have to see about how it all plays out, it's still early days, but I will speak to my boyfriend about getting engaged. Maybe if we did it shortly before the wedding, we could get away with it, because we could always say we haven't started planning anything yet.

How exciting! I did an elopement wedding on Christmas Eve last year. It was just a 2 hour booking.

You can read their blog post here & see photos: http://ww2.ollievision.co.uk/wp/index.php/york-wedding-photography-york-register-office/

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Thanks for explaining the history of Gretna. That's some really good advice. I think we will have to put some more thought into the location. I don't really have any specific place in mind, although I think somewhere on the coast would be nice. But as I only moved to the UK last year I haven't been to that many places yet. I do actually love East Lothian (where we live) as well, but think it might be nice to get away for a few days.

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I don't think it would necessarily be too far although that is definitely as far away as it could be within the UK, haha, I'll check it out. Thanks. If there are any more elopement venues in the UK, I'd love to hear about them, if anyone knows one.

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Thanks, that's great to know that photographers do also offer short bookings like this. Would it be possible for you to give me an idea of how much we would have to budget for a photographer for a booking like this?

Thanks to all of you for your replies. I really appreciate it.

It's really difficult to say re pricing Daisy. I recommend you book the wedding for Mon-Thurs because you are unlikely to be able to book a genuine professional photographer on a weekend (for just 2 hours)

I realise this will shock a few people, but I did that York elopement for £200 because I was so concerned that the couple would get ripped off by an amateur photographer. I knew how difficult it would be to get a pro on Christmas eve for 2 hours!

If you book Mon-Thurs I'd expect you to be able to get a photographer from £250 for 2 hours. We vary in price, but those of us that do short packages are more flexible on a weekday. I don't know of any genuine professional photographers who would drop below around £200, many would be more.

I think the best thing to do is make it very clear that it's a genuine 2 person wedding. Some couples tell photographers all sorts of porkies to get us to drop our rates!

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Thanks, that helps. I just wanted to get an idea of how much it might cost as I know wedding packages are incredibly expensive but they usually cover a whole day so it's hard to compare to what we would want/need. I was also thinking a weekday wedding would probably be a good idea not just to be able to book a decent photographer but also because it might generally be cheaper. And since we won't have any guests it wouldn't make a difference. I think we would want to take some time off work anyway.

I love the idea of Gretna Green. If it wasn't so close to my own wedding, I would seriously consider it. Wedding planning has been fun but the family all having their input (my side, not H2B's) has been stressful. Old feuds have come to light and all sorts. Eloping sounds bloody brilliant!

x

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Haha, oh dear. To be honest that is part of why we don't want to do a traditional big wedding. My boyfriend has a big family, some of whom he hasn't seen in years and in my family there are people who haven't spoken to each other in years (namely my parents and my half-sister, and there is no way I could not invite any of them).

while I love looking at wedding pictures etc. the whole idea of planning a big wedding and who sits where and who do we invite just doesn't sound like fun to me. There are some parts of a wedding I do find important though, so I would want to have them anyway, despite it just being the two of us. I'm pretty sure my boyfriend would love not having a photographer as he hates having his picture taken but I love pictures to capture important moments & memories so there is no chance of us not getting pictures of our wedding.

Have you thought about a registry office? Some of them are beautiful, if I didnt need to get married at the same place as my reception for my grandparents I would have gone for the registry office (in brighton) because its gorgeous. Good luck!

View quoted message Hiya.
I can see you got married (hopefully) some time ago but I was wondering what your experience of Boho was? We’re not able to visit before booking and it looks quite built up around the venue.
What did you think?Thanks, Emma.