On December 31, 2017, my husband and I got married in beautiful Portugal, all by ourselves. It was THE BEST decision we could have made for this special day. We wanted to make sure that our special day was truly just about us and our commitment to each other. While I will not elaborate on this post why I believe you should consider eloping (saving it for a later post) let me give some quick tips on how to plan an elopement.
1. Find your location first.
I knew I wanted it to be in Portugal (perfect combo of history and the ocean – one of our favourite things for each) but I wasn’t sure where. I originally had in mind northern part of Portugal in the Douro Valley since I love wine and wineries make for stunning backdrops. But because of the season, it wasn’t a good idea. So, I used Pinterest and typed “Portugal wedding winter.” So many beautiful images showed up and I chose to plan our elopement in the southern part closer to Lisbon in an area called Sintra.
2. Find your photographer.
While I could have left this one to my wedding planner, I felt I wanted to be very hands on with this one. Pictures were so important to us since our family and friends wouldn’t witness our special day. We wanted to make sure to have someone who could capture every detail and the beauty of our surroundings. I used Instagram for this by typing #portugalweddings (try different similar tags) and found a look that I personally liked. I found Adriana (@adrianamoraisphotography) and fell in love with the white tones and the grainy vintage effects. She also had experience with elopements and knew very well how to capture beautiful intimate moments.
3. Get a wedding planner!
Believe me, you cannot plan a wedding overseas in a country you have never visited all by yourself. So to plan our elopement I googled wedding planner in Portugal. I found a few forums and read lots. I contacted a few with my date and many thought it was mission impossible. But then, I found the perfect girl; Sofia! She replied almost right away with such a positive attitude and saying yes to everything on my wish list ; outdoors, vintage feel with flowers, videographer, green spaces and ocean and a seafood restaurant by the beach to end our day. Sofia pulled it all together in such short notice and within our budget which to be honest was very modest. We actually didn’t have to pay for a ceremony location since it was 100% outdoors in a beautiful public area yet it was intimate since no one was around.
4. Enjoy every moment and make the best of it.
If you are a control freak that has a specific image and idea set, this might not work for you. It is easy to stress out since you are not on location to have a preview of the end result. But my husband and I committed to enjoy every minute without worrying about the details. This was particularly possible since it was just the two of us: no guest around to critique our special day or expectations to be met. Everything turned out perfect. Particularly the end of our day. We spontaneously ran towards the ocean and jumped! Our amazing photographer and videographers captured that spontaneous magical moment and it became our favourite memory to cherish.
Ps: if you are curious about the budget, we were able to accomplish it all for 5k. This includes wedding planner, photographer, videographer, flowers and decor, wedding dress, hair and makeup artist (rings and flights excluded).
