Elopement photography

Eloping on public land in the United States almost always requires a permit, and which one depends entirely on who owns the ground. A National Park Service site needs a Special Use Permit for the ceremony, chosen from a fixed list of approved locations with caps on group size and on the number of ceremonies allowed per day. National Forest land is a different application to a different agency. State parks run their own schemes again, and Hawaii requires a state permit for any beach ceremony. Which of them your location needs, where to apply and how far ahead is set out for you at booking.

Which is why elopements are booked three to six months ahead, and why the constraint is almost never the photographer. Popular ceremony sites release permits up to a year in advance and the good dates go; a few sunrise locations require a timed-entry reservation released exactly sixty days out, which decides whether your ceremony happens at dawn or at dusk before anything else about the day is planned.

The marriage licence is a separate question from the permit and it catches people. It is issued by the county, not the park, the rules differ by state, and several of the destinations on this site are in states with a waiting period while Nevada has none at all. Some states require witnesses, which is an awkward thing to discover on a mountain with two people present. It is settled before the date is fixed rather than on the morning.

Four hours of coverage built around the hour the light works, two hundred or more retouched photographs within three weeks, and clear guidance on which permit to apply for. What four hours actually buys at most of these locations is the walk in, the ceremony, and a long unhurried portrait session afterwards with nobody waiting — which is the reason to elope rather than a smaller version of a wedding. From $2,200.