Here are a few words from Clare sharing why they chose to elope & how it went down:

“Over the five years we had been engaged we had made countless enquiries to wedding venues in many different countries but we gave up on all of them as none of them felt right for us. We always got to a certain point in the process and we felt like the wedding coordinator at the venue was just not listening to us and our families were butting into everything and we knew it was going to become a day that wasn’t what we wanted.

We knew we didn’t want the big traditional wedding. We were so sick of people telling us what we ‘should’ do and what we ‘have’ to do on the day and we just kept thinking we don’t ‘have’ to do anything that doesn’t feel right for us…The decision to elope was a bit easier as we live in Australia but all our family are from Ireland – part of the reason we waited so long to get married was trying to pick where to do it! We didn’t want to go home as we knew it would turn into a massive wedding and Australia is just too far away for our family. We had always wanted to go to Hawaii, plus what an great excuse to get your closest family and friends together for a big holiday with an amazing wedding thrown in! And our friends & fam loved the idea! They were so excited that we finally booked a date and because we had waited so long they knew it was right for us so they were on board from the very start. We did have to explain a few things to our parents as they were expecting a somewhat traditional wedding but once we outlined everything and explained again that it was OUR day they got it. My mum had the most reservations about the idea but she absolutely loved it and says it is the best wedding she has ever been to (I know she is biased but I have to agree with her!).

It was the most stress-free wedding. We decided to do this in February and got married in August and I spent those six months planning us the best four week holiday ever – not stressing about flowers, seating plans, name tags, colour schemes….and all the other things that really do not matter on the day!! What mattered to us most was just having fun! We wanted to enjoy the entire day with each other and our family and we most definitely did that.

If I could give advice would you give to anyone thinking about eloping it would be: DO IT! My only regret is thinking about it for two weeks, that was probably the most stress I experienced in the whole process as I knew it was right for us but I just procrastinated. Eloping was the best thing we ever did – we had the best day of our lives plus a four week honeymoon in the USA for the same price that the average one day traditional wedding costs in Australia – what is there to think about?! DO IT!”

Their day was exactly what they wanted & for that reason alone we couldn’t be happier for them.