Elopements are about being with your loved one, having the day true to you, ignoring the opinion of the people whose day it is not. You probably are looking forward to having the day as stress-free as possible and it might even be one of the reasons you chose to elope! And I can only hope your elopement will be entirely stress free 🙂 To get a stress-free elopement, there is one very important decision to make and that is choosing your photographer.

Having read hundreds of horror stories of elopements gone wrong (luckily, I never had an elopement like this myself), I am here to give you one big fat piece of advice that does cost more financially, but saves your nerves and memories of the most important day of your life!

My advice is this:

Invest in an elopement photographer who also doubles as a wedding planner for you!

I want your elopement to be perfect and this is why I give you some tips and thoughts when it comes to choosing an elopement photographer:

1. A wedding photographer is not the same as elopement photographer.

Wedding photographer’s job is much more narrow: they show up, have 1-2 hours designated time with the couple to take pictures, go home, edit them and deliver. All other decisions for a wedding photographer are done by the wedding planner or the couple.

Elopement photographer is a totally different breed as they have a ton more on their plate. Elopement photographer helps you plan the elopement, starting from choosing the hiking trail, ceremony spot, portraits spots, putting together a timeline that also allows pivoting and has enough buffer time. They have back-up plans in case the weather does not want to cooperate. At wedding, pivoting is usually very difficult because of the amount of guests, but at an elopement, pivoting is easier. They help you with finding other vendors (make-up and hair artist, florist, bakery for wedding cake etc) and coordinate the work between all of them. A regular wedding photographer usually does not have this kind of project management skills and experiences. This is why I recommend you to book a photographer who is specializing in elopements!

2. Choose a person you click with!

You are spending the whole day very close to this person, so it must be someone you like and trust and makes you feel good! If you find some photographers whose work you like, schedule a call with them. During this call you can see if this photographer is your-kind-of-person and if your values align. If not, it is okay to say no and choose somebody else!

Trust me when I say that your elopement photos lose their value drastically if the memories of taking these photos are negative. You need to feel good around this person and you must feel that you can be yourself around the photographer! Nothing good comes out of a photographer-couple combination during an all day elopement if they do not match on a personal level.

This is again one point that differentiates wedding photographers from elopement photographers. An elopement photographer is very close to the couple for 8 or 12 hours, this also includes a lot of chatting, laughing, making jokes and getting to know each other on a deeper level. Whereas a wedding photographer has maybe 1-2 hours of designated time together with the couple and there is barely any personal involvement. This is why a get-to-know-each-other-call is a must! If the photographer does not want to schedule a call with you, it is definitely a red flag!

3. Choose somebody worth the investment

An adventure elopement is not just about stunning photos. It’s about the entire experience, from planning and support to seamless execution on the big day and delivery of epic visuals. A specialized elopement photographer isn’t just someone with a camera: they’re your guide, problem-solver and storyteller, also ensuring everything runs smoothly. The reality is, experienced professionals who truly dedicate themselves to creating an unforgettable elopement experience charge accordingly. If someone is offering to capture your entire adventure for just a few hundred bucks or the cover of travel costs, it’s likely because they don’t have the experience, resources or time to give you the level of service you deserve. This is a once in a lifetime experience and I want you to have the best!

There are literally thousands of photographers in Facebook groups trying to get a couple to trust them to shoot their elopement, even for free. These hundreds of horror stories I told you about earlier: these are from the people who booked these Facebook group cheap photographers… And elopement photographers are talking a lot these days about couples who pay 5-10K for their vow renewal photos because the original photographer at their wedding (cheaper and less experienced) did not held up their end of the bargain and the couple was left with pictures they did not like. If they got any pictures at all… Unfortunately, there are a lot of people calling themselves photographers whereas their level of service is so poor that it is smearing the name of the job. My recommendation is to invest in a photographer, who you can trust!

Experienced photographer vs beginner photographer

I put together a table comparing an experienced photographer to a beginner photographer. For photographers, most of the skills can only be learned in time: through experiences, after hundreds of photoshoots. Photography isn’t something you can just watch on Youtube’s “How to” video and excel at it right after! This is based on my own experiences (how I have evolved through years) and stories I’ve heard from many-many couples.

*In this table are two extremes to bring out the differences: a very experienced photographer and a beginner who probably has less than a two years of experience. And of course, there are always some people who are exceptions or in between those two categories 🙂

The aim of this table is for you to see if these skills, that experienced photographers have, are the things you are willing to miss out on.

	Experienced photographer	Beginner photographer
Price	5-10K for all day elopement	0-1K for all day elopement
Planning	Plans your itinerary and locations according to the sun’s location. Has enough buffer time for all activities. Sends you helpful materials prior to your elopement so that you will have to do less research and enjoy the upcoming. Answers your questions quickly and confidently.	Plans the day to his/her best knowledge, but due to lack of experience things might go wrong (getting the sun’s location wrong -> images will not be as stunning, strong shadows in faces etc; bringing you to places that may be dangerous if visited at a wrong time etc).
Safety, back-ups	They usually block 3-4 days in their calendar just for you so that they can go through the trail 1-2 days prior to your elopement to make sure there are no obsticles (e.g closed parking lots, restaurants or toilets, maintainance works etc). They usually have a back-up day for you in case you need to postpone the elopement by a day due to extreme weather conditions. They have more expensive gear (weather-proof) and also a back-up camera(s). Their gear allows using two memory cards at the same time, so in case one of them fails (that can happen to anyone!), the other one has all files on it. They back up files to several external hard drives to make sure you will definitely get your photos!	Usually spares one day for your elopement. Since they charge less, they need to do more weddings in order to survive. This can lead them showing up to your elopement exhausted from the wedding they shot the night before. From my personal experience I can tell that a fresh mind is photographers main tool besides camera gear! Without a rested mind photographer can not be creative, guide you to pose, notice and capture all the beautiful details (how your partner holds you, the tear in your cheek etc). Also, photographer’s attitude is mirroring on you! If he/she is stoked, you will be too! If he/she is tired, you won’t have strong emotions either. They might use cheaper gear (with one memory card slot) and if this memory card fails, you will not have any photos of your day.
Taking photos	They know exactly how to guide you to pose without you feeling overwhelmed or uncomfortable. They know how to get your mind off of posing, make you feel relaxed and capture the genuine moments between the two of you. They know how to frame you into the surroundings composition-wise and how to use sunlight in the best possible way (angles, camera settings). They know their camera inside and out and can change settings within seconds, meaning they have more time to focus on you, not the camera.	A lot of beginners are still learning how to shoot in manual mode. If a person is not skilled in this, they will not have any resources in their brain left for guiding you to pose or think about the composition. Getting the settings right takes up most of their time. Poses might be a bit stiff, knowledge about how to make you move and feel free in front of the camera might not be there. Missing knowledge of composition can end in branches coming out of your heads on photos or mountain lines cutting through your throats etc.
Editing	Editing is done fast and beautifully, no colour is too intense, everything is well balanced. Photos are straightened, cropped in a way it brings out the best part of each photo. You’ll get a great variety of photos with different emotions and the whole gallery will tell a beautiful story of your elopement day.	For beginners, editing can take easily 2-4x more time than for professionals. The combination of fast delivered galleries and well-edited images, is usually not beginners thing. Storytelling part might also not be in focus for beginners. They mainly focus on getting the colors right in editing.
Overall experience	Photos are taken without any stress and in a relaxed mood. Communication is nice and easy. You feel you can trust the person and know the photographer tries to capture you in your best angles, covering the parts you want to hide and bringing out the parts of you that you are most confident about! You are so happy with the photographer even before seeing any of the pictures!	Taking photos can be more stressful as the person guiding you might need more time for balancing between camera settings, guiding you and thinking about composition. And they might not be confident in doing all those things. The whole experience might be poor or even bad. If the memories of taking the photos are poor, you will not like the photos even if they turned out great.

I am not saying you should definitely avoid booking a beginner for a photoshoot. But I do want you to think if a wedding is the place to risk with these skills missing. These are one of the most important photos of your entire life that will be viewed not only by you, but also by your family and friends, children and grandchildren! If you choose wisely, you will have photos you’ll never be ashamed of and you will get an overall amazing experience from planning to execution on elopement day to delivery of the gallery!

4. Choose somebody who knows the area you want to elope in.

Here is a story from a couple from the US who brought their elopement photographer with them from the US to Italy. The elopement was in July and they wanted to take sunset photos on top of the mountain. Plan sounds good, right? But what the non-local person did not know, is that in July and August, due to the heat, there are strong thunderstorms in the mountains that occur usually in the evenings. So, bringing an eloping couple into the cloud that is causing the thunder, is extremely dangerous. Also, a person who knows the area, usually knows which weather app to trust. I am not saying it is not possible to take sunset photos on top of the mountain in July and August, but the planner needs to be aware of this regurarily happening threat. This is one good example of what may happen if you choose a photographer who does not know the area. There are many other things that may go wrong, too.

In photography, hitting the right light is the key to jaw-dropping photos. People who know the area also know where the sun rises, goes over the mountains, when it is behind the trees and generally, where the sun goes throughout the day. This photographer also plans your elopement schedule and route according to this. Choose somebody who knows the area. It does not have to be a local, but somebody who has been shooting there before multiple times is already a way more trustworthy option.

5. Read their reviews

Good elopement photographers will have very good reviews on Google. If other couples have had the best time with this photographer, it suggests you might have too! If there are no reviews or poor reviews, this is again a red flag!

DURING YOUR CALL

As we established earlier, it is crucial to have a phone call with the photographer before you book them. Here are some things to talk and ask about:

• When you have a call with a local photographer, make sure you understand their English. I know this might sound funny, but there are a lot of service providers whose verbal level of English language is rather poor. If you read their website, you do not hear them speaking. This is one more good reason to have a call! Spending an entire day with a person who you do not understand and posing-wise you do not understand what he/she is asking you to do, is a fast track to not being entirely happy about the experience.

• Try to find out how flexible they are when it comes to the schedules they create. Unfortunately, there are some planners with their packages that are fixed and can not be modified to fit your own wishes and needs. In some countries it is also considered rude to try to change their timelines.

• Ask to see their full galleries. On the website and on their social media accounts you usually see their so-called “banger shots” – the best ones they’ve got. But the thing is that these might have been lucky instances and the rest of the gallery is rather mediocre. Only the full galleries show you what kind of images you can expect to receive and if the person can actually capture the emotions and movements they have captured on those banger shots. Also, the photographer should be able to provide you with at least 3 full galleries. If they do not have these or do not want to show you them, it is a red flag.

• Talk about the contract. Photographer you choose should have a contract that states not only when and where the wedding is and how much it costs, but also retainer amount, cancellation policies, what happens if X or Y happens, how many images and when they are delivered etc. This is crucial to make sure that both parties hold up to their end of the bargain and this is to protect you two and the photographer!
  
  Also, see if the photographer is allowed to book other couples right around the time of your elopement. Many photographers shoot multiple weddings a week and that can cause them showing up to your elopement exhausted, unable to focus and being creative. Designated elopement photographers usually book 3-4 days in a calendar just for one couple (this should be written in the contract!) in order to go through the trails couple of days prior to the elopement, show up fresh, hydrated and ready to hype you up! Some even have a back-up day the day after the elopement for the rare cases where the elopement needs to be postponed by a day due to the weather
• And lastly the main reason of the call: see if you vibe with the person! Can you imagine spending your entire day with him/her? Do you feel supported and taken care of? Do you feel him/her being an expert in elopements and in the area you are planning to elope in? If yes, you might have found your photographer and you are one biiiggg step closer to your elopement day! If the answer is no, please keep looking as there definitely is some other photographer out there for you! Do not spend thousands of dollars on a person you do not vibe with! This would mean that you will not feel comfortable on your wedding day. Isn’t this one of the reasons you chose to elope instead of having a big wedding? To have it stress-free and chill?
  

Conclusion

Choosing a photographer for your elopement is one of the most important decisions when it comes to planning your elopement! Make sure you find the perfect fit for you and this is a place where I recommend not to hold back financially. The experienced elopement photographers who truly dedicate themselves to you and block of several days in their calendars just for you charge 5-10K for photography and planning services. I truly hope you will not be one of the thousands of people on Facebook groups who regret not investing enough in a very good photographer as they are not happy with the experience nor photos from the cheaper and less experienced photographer.

I hope this article has been helpful for you on your journey to find yourself an elopement photographer. Also, I would love to be considered for being your elopement planner and photographer and I am so excited for your decision to elope! 🙂 I would be honoured to be on your side on one of the most important day of your lives and I would never take your trust for granted! Feel free to contact me via my WEBSITE to chat about your possible elopement in Italy!