You and your ride or die have decided to elope but want to celebrate your marriage with your crew of friends and family afterwards. No worries! This is where a post-elopement party comes in.
What Is a Post-Elopement Party?
A post-elopement party is just what it sounds like — a gathering held at some point after an elopement where you can share this major life decision with all your important people.
If you’ve done a hard-core elopement just-the-two-of-you style, with no guests at all, then a post-elopement party is a way to celebrate with people you care about later on.
But you don’t have to elope to have a post-elopement party. It really depends on how you want to celebrate.
Your post-elopement party could also be a smaller reception for a different group of people than the guests who came to your original wedding reception.
If your family is spread out across time zones or continents then maybe you want to have multiple small gatherings rather than one big one. A later date might also be better scheduling for specific friends or family.
Decide When to Party
You could do it on the same day as your marriage ceremony. For instance, maybe you want to keep your vows private, but then celebrate with close friends and family later over dinner.
A few days or weeks later is cool too. Shortly after your elopement is a logical time to hold your bash. Everything will be fresh in your mind and your gang of friends and family will still be excited at the newness of it all.
Opting for a party at a later date makes sense if you’d like time to settle in as a newly married couple. And a later date might also be better scheduling for specific friends or family.
There’s nothing that says you can’t wait until the timing is right, maybe when school is out, or when a loved one is home on leave from military service or the weather is more cooperative, or the venue you want is actually available.
Or maybe you want to tie in to another important life milestone, such as a birthday or anniversary or graduation or something that would see a number of your friends and family together already anyway.
Party in “Your” Style
Now that you’ve decided when to party, decide how to party.
- Are you and your partner imagining an intimate, quiet affair with a few select people drinking craft beer and talking about deep philosophical issues?
- Are you looking for a raucous party with everyone you’ve known since kindergarten?
- How about a brunch?
- Will you serve a meal or just hors d’oeuvre? Cash bar or open bar? Maybe you don’t want any alcohol?
- Will you have music? Live or a Spotify playlist?
- Will there be a cake?
Sit down as a couple and come to an agreement before you move forward.
It’s important that you’re both on the same page so you can both have an awesome time.
Venue
Make your post-elopement party more fun and less snooze-fest by selecting an exciting venue.
Wherever you choose to have your happily-ever-after-party, please don’t rent out the conference room at the Marriott.
I can recommend amazing places in Las Vegas that are much better suited for a small wedding reception, but suffice it to say, you should go with a venue that specializes in good times, not conventions.
A place like Wax Rabbit, a speakeasy inside a Mexican restaurant inside a Las Vegas casino, would be a much better choice.
Elopement Announcements
Announcements are a polite way to give people who will be invited to your post-elopement party a heads up.
Rather than waiting until after you elope and springing a surprise on them, consider letting people know beforehand.
Consider sending an announcement with news about your upcoming elopement and an invite to the post-elopement party. This way, everyone is in on the hype and no one is shocked.
Elopements get a bad rap partly because it sucks to hear big news like this through the grapevine rather than from the source.
Giving them the low-down ahead of time lets them feel like they are part of your cool club. And if you want to party with them, then they definitely are in your cool club.
What to Wear
Decide ahead of time whether you want to wear your wedding clothes or something entirely different. I’ve seen people go both ways on this.
Wedding dresses aren’t cheap so if you’d like to re-wear it and get some more use out of it then by all means go for it.
If you had a hard time picking out your wedding dress, then your post-elopement party might be the perfect opportunity to wear the outfit that didn’t make the cut the first time around.
Of course people who go more casual might be doing it because they want to save money. Wedding dresses aren’t exactly buy one get one free. And who wants to spend money to rent a tuxedo again?
Plus, if you think about it, a traditional wedding reception usually sees people loosening ties, taking off sport coats, bustling up their dress, slipping into sneakers or going barefoot on the dance floor anyhow.
You don’t have to get all dressed up or ask your guests to. You already did. They weren’t there for it. It’s ok.
Another thing to think about is that by making a decision about what you’re wearing prior to the day of the party you will also have the chance to put dress code information on your invites.
People will undoubtedly ask, so why not just spell it out for them?
Let the Party Come to You
Here’s another scenario that might lead you into thinking about having a post-elopement party: you got married in a private elopement ceremony (destination or otherwise) but want to take advantage of the great places in your hometown to celebrate with friends and family.
This might be true if you live in an especially entertaining city like New Orleans, Miami or Las Vegas. (Hey, locals need an excuse to visit Bourbon Street, South Beach or the Strip once in a while too!)
Las Vegas has so much going for it in the way of great dining and stylish venues that you may not want to miss out on a perfectly good excuse to throw a party.
You could even invite out-of-town friends and relatives to join you for a night at Barry’s Downtown Prime, or the Front Yard at Ellis Island — just two of our favorite reception venues.
If you’re busy planning your micro wedding or elopement in Las Vegas with us here at Electric Sugar Elopements you should know, our sister company, Cactus Collective Weddings does receptions too!
Need photography for a Fremont Street stroll in your kick-ass wedding day attire? How about behind the scenes content creation for your private vow renewal. We’d love to help you coordinate any or all of these extras to make your day really rock.
No matter what type of post-elopement party you decide to have, remember to enjoy the process. This is an opportunity for those in your life to embrace your new status.
If you need help planning your elopement and/or your post-elopement party, we can help. Get in touch today and let us make the magic happen so you can sit back, relax and enjoy your special day and your post-elopement party too!
