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98 Unique elopement activity ideas to make your day special

elopement resources

Hi! I'm Natasha! Your elopement photographer, dog petter and donut eater. While photography is my first love, connecting with people is my love language. You'll find me lovin' on the big moments, the quiet moments, the silly moments – but especially the in between moments. The moments that are unadulterated and unfiltered. The ones where you are the real you. Here on the blog you'll find all of my favorite tips, tricks and resources for planning a elopement that's all about those moments.

NATASHA CARDINAL

ELOPEMENT PHOTOGRAPHER

WHY PLAN ACTIVITIES FOR YOUR ELOPEMENT?

One of the beauties of eloping is that you can truly customize your wedding day to be anything you want, without the constraints of traditional weddings. And so many couples don't even realize that you can include activities on your elopement day! It's such a beautiful way to infuse your personalities into your day, and share your passions with each other on a day that's built just for you.

A big reason why you decided to elope is because a traditional wedding gave you the ick, but now you're stuck trying to figure out what to do instead if it's just the two of you? Or maybe you want to include some friends and family, but now you're not sure how? While we love a good Pinterest search, it can be tough to find ideas that are you can customize to what you love and what you would actually like to do together. So we'll cover 98 elopement activities to help you brainstorm all of the fun things you can include in your day to make it as exciting or as relaxed as you want.

HOW TO INCLUDE ACTIVITES IN YOUR ELOPEMENT

Now that you know you can include a bunch of different activities in your elopement day, you're probably wonder how the heck you can include them. But you've never planned an elopement before, right? So how do you figure out what your day-of schedule should be? That's where we come in! As elopement photographers one of the things we specialize in is creating the perfect all-day (sometimes multi-day!) timelines for our couples, packed full of memory making opportunities and things that you're passionate about.

For a typical 8-hour elopement, it can look like this:

Wake up and making breakfast together
Help each other get ready
Write letters to each other
Going on a hike together
Pick some berries
Have a picnic for lunch
Give each other a gift
Say your vows at an alpine lake
Pop a bottle of champagne
Watch the sunset
Hike back down to a candlelit dinner at a cute Airbnb
Cut a small cake
Slow dance next to a campfire

For a 2-day elopement, things could look like this:

Day 1:
Spend an afternoon canoeing together
Have charcuterie board lunch on the water
Go back to your airbnb
Welcome friends and family to town with a dinner
Campfire time

Day 2:
Wake up and have a slow morning making pancakes together
Visit a flower farm and pick flowers together
Get ready separately
Have a first look and share private vows
Hike with your family and friends to a mountain top
Pass your rings around to each person and ask them to infuse their love
Say your I do's
Eat donuts
Go back to your cabin
Hire a private chef to cook everyone dinner
Make s'mores
Stargaze

95 UNIQUE ELOPEMENT ACTIVITY IDEAS

1. Pop champagne or sparkling water
2. Have a picnic
3. Get ready together
4. Bring your dog
5. Go for a hike
6. Go paddle boarding
7. Go skiing or snowboard
8. Go sledding
9. Pot a plant together during your ceremony
10. Say private vows to each other
11. Do a first look
12. Smoke a joint
13. Have a candlelit dinner together
14. Jump in a lake
15. Watch the sunrise
16. Watch the sunset
17. Play a board game
18. Read each other a poem
19. Play an instrument for your partner
20. Rent a cabin
21. Crack a beer
22. Go camping
23. Horseback riding
24. Have a charcuterie board on a mountain top
25. Go tide pooling
26. Cut a mini cake (or pie!)
27. Eat ice cream together (or an ice cream sandwich)
28. Stargazing
29. Skip rocks
30. Go to a flower farm and pick your own flowers
31. Play a game of cards
32. Go on a roadtrip
33. Helicopter ride
34. Make s’mores 
35. Have your dog be your ring bearer
36. Go kayaking
37. Eat donuts
38. Take a 4x4 road
39. Have a personal chef cook you dinner
40. Sing your favorite song together
41. Go snowshoeing
42. Take Polaroids of each other 
43. Take Super 8mm film of each other 
44. Go fly fishing
45. Cry happy tears
46. Make each other breakfast
47. Go surfing
48. Make some trail margaritas
49. Explore a cute town 
50. Visit a local coffee shop
51. Celebrate with family and friends
52. Or ditch that and celebrate just the two of you
53. Video call your family and friends
54. Get tattoos
55. Give each other temporary tattoos
56. Bring cardboard cutouts of your pets and take photos with them
57. Slow dance in the dirt
58. Visit a waterfall 
59. Get your hair and makeup done
60. Packraft an alpine lake (need location suggestions? I have plenty!)
61. Dance your hearts out
62. Plant a tree together
63. Write letters to each other to open on an anniversary 
64. Soak in a hot spring
65. Slow dance by firelight 
66. Record a video together talking about how you feel on your wedding day to watch back on an anniversary
67. Record a video to send to friends and family
68. Stay in a treehouse
69. Charter a boat
70. Charter a sightseeing plane
71. Go to a drive-in movie
72. Do a hand fasting ceremony
73. Two words: Bubble. Bath.
74. Make cookies together
75. Write your own vows
76. Pass your rings around to your loved ones and ask them to infuse their love into them
77. Exchange gifts (doesn’t need to be fancy, but something from the heart)
78. Rent the car of your dreams (Are you a vintage Porsche person? Always wanted a Ferrari? Go big!)
79. Rent a camper van 
80. Go skinny dipping
81. Make a time capsule
82. Visit a farmers market
83. Plant native wildflowers
84. Go canoeing
85. Watch your favorite movie or tv show together
86. Have a snowball fighting
87. Try to catch snowflakes on your tongue
88. Make a blanket fort (c’mon, when was the last time you did this?)
89. Ride dirt bikes
90. Rent ATVs 
91. Skateboarding or rollerskating
92. Go berry picking
93. Pot a plant together during your ceremony
94. Mushroom foraging
95. Have a campfire
96. Explore an alpine meadow
97. Tell each other how much you love one another 
98. Stop and take in the moment

Wanna save these ideas? Pin these for later!