50 Fun Things To Do On Your Elopement Day: Elopement Activity Ideas To Inspire You
What to do on an elopement day
One of the most common elopement questions that I get, is “what do do you at an elopement ceremony?” And the answer is easy. Anything that you want! Toss aside all of those ideas about what you think your elopement day SHOULD look like, and start thinking about what a perfect day looks like for you and your partner. What do you two like to do for fun? Are you outdoorsy? Thrill seekers? Foodies? Is there something on both of your bucket lists that you can cross off?
Planning an elopement is like planning The. Most. Epic. Date day. No two elopements are alike. An elopement isn’t necessarily just a quick little ceremony at the courthouse. It can be an all-day long celebration. It is your wedding day, after all. Heck, make it a multi-day elopement full of adventuring if you want!
Here are some possible elopement day activities to get you started:
- Have a picnic: Pack a little basket and carry it with you to your ceremony. Include your favorite snacks and beverages. You can never go wrong with snacks!
- Go for a walk in the park: If you have a little fur baby that you’d like to include in your wedding day, this is a good opportunity.
- Go hiking: Hike to a breathtaking location that neither of you have been to before in a National Park and exchange vows on a mountaintop, or petrified sand dunes.
- Have a romantic dinner at a fancy restaurant: Not usually a couple to splurge on restaurants that require reservations? What better time to celebrate? And don’t forget desert!
- Go on a hot air balloon ride: You’ll totally have bragging rights forever.
- Take a helicopter tour: Want to really think outside the box? Say your vows while you’re flying high!
- Go to the zoo
- Go for a bike ride: Mackinac Island has bikes that you can rent and pedal around the entire island. Just sayin.
- Go snorkeling
- Build a campfire and roast marshmallows: Who doesn’t love s’mores?
- Go kayaking or canoeing: If you two love being on the water, make it part of your day!
- Go horseback riding: Imagine exploring the red rocks of Utah on horseback.
- Go to a brewery: Or 4. If you’re into craft beer, how fun would it be to explore a few new places and share flights with your sweetie! Asheville, NC has so many breweries that you can walk to…
- Get tattoos: Umm, total badass!
- Get a couples massage
- Paint: Channel your artistic sides and create a new canvas together, or get body paint and paint each other.
- Pop champagne, aka sparkling water because we do things Leave No Trace style around here!
- Do yoga together
- Get styled with new jewelry
- Have a Permanent Jewelry representative meet you and pick out pieces for each other together:
Nashville Elopement Day Activities
When you hire me as your elopement photographer, I offer more than my photography services! I’m here to help you with every step of planning your elopement, from vendor recommendations, to helping you come up with elopement activity ideas, to a customized elopement timeline. This list is just a quick example of all of the different activities that you can incorporate into your elopement wedding day. Once I get to know you and your partner, I would absolutely love to help you come up with even more elopement activity ideas, customized for you both!
- Go to a festival: This would be a great starting point for planning. Look for festivals all over the country that you’d both enjoy and add on activities from there.
- Make breakfast together: The intimacy in simplicity is just as epic as any other activity.
- Have a candlelight dinner on the beach
- Go snowmobiling: Whether outdoor winter activities are your thing, or neither of you have snowmobiled before, this would be a blast, and I know just the state. Check out Idaho for your winter elopement!
- Tour a distillery or winery
- Watch the sunset:
- Go rock climbing: I see you, adrenaline junkies!
- Rent a van and take a road trip
- Take a jeep tour: Imagine touring the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona by jeep while stopping for every amazing photo opp!
- Take a private dance class: Or go line dancing…either way, you definitely should incorporate at least one dance into your special day!
- Soak in a hot spring: Idaho has 130 soakable hot springs.
- Go for a boat ride
- Read letters from family: This is such a sweet way to include your loved ones in your day, while still keeping your day private.
- Enjoy a small wedding cake: Or cupcakes, donuts, or cookies. This is one wedding tradition that I recommend holding onto. My hubby and I hiked with donuts in our backpacks for our elopement so that we could feed them to each other.
- Swim with manatees
- Go to a concert
- Cozy up in a hammock
CHECK OUT MY ELOPEMENT PORTFOLIO
- Enjoy a meal made by a personal chef: If you see yourselves keeping mostly to yourselves in a cozy little Airbnb with gorgeous views, Bon Appetit!
- Take a train ride
- Help each other get ready: This makes for some beautiful memories and photos.
- Walk downtown & get ice cream cones: Who doesn’t like ice cream?
- Take a carriage ride: Aww, soo romantic! I don’t know about you, but Central Park is the first place that pops into my head, but you can also do horse-drawn carriage rides year round in Frankenmuth, Michigan. It’s a cute German-inspired town where it’s always Christmas!
- Go on a safari: Take a walk on the wild side! There are no limits to what you can do!
- Visit a waterfall: You can even say your vows in front of one like Brent & Ashley did!
- Go to a botanical garden: My personal favorite is the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. There are SO MANY photo ops.
- Take a cooking class
- Go ziplining
- Explore a cave: Have you been to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky? If you go here, you could also possibly see Stonehenge. No joke! Get in touch with me, and I’ll tell you more.
- Take a glass blowing class
- Build a snowman: Well, this rules out a few locations and helps narrow down a time of year.
- Explore to your hearts’ content: Maybe you’ve both always dreamed about going to Utah and visiting Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, or Arches National Park, but want to get married somewhere a little less crowded, but still full of epic views. Check out Snow Canyon State Park!
I hope that this list of elopement activity ideas helps get you started in planning your perfect elopement day! Elopements are close to my heart because I eloped myself in 2021. More about me here. There is something truly magical about eloping and letting your love for each other take the main stage.
However you choose to celebrate your elopement, I would LOVE to be a part of it!
