Marcela Pulido is a Portland Oregon wedding photographer capturing the candid, emotional, and playful moments of your wedding day. Serving the Pacific Northwest and the surrounding areas, and available for travel worldwide. You deserve damn good photos.
Your best friend asked you to marry them and you said, “YES!” Now comes the fun part: the wedding planning! Right?
If you haven’t already, you’re going to find out real soon that just about everyone and their grandma has opinions about how your wedding should go down. Everything from the florals, your hair, the centerpieces, and even your dress! Maybe you want an intimate, campground wedding and your mom wants to go ahead and invite the entire county, yikes. Maybe you’re into that and maybe that’s a little more than you’d hoped for when you were daydreaming about your big day.
So when it comes down to your nuptials, you’re weighing your options:
should you elope or should you throw a big wedding?
Reasons to Elope:
- You can take your time. There’s no one to wait on, no big planning, it’s just you. If you want to have a slow morning and get ready with your favorite person? Then you can! It’s a very relaxing start to your day and can even make for some really beautiful moments shared together.
- You don’t like being the center of attention. As a fellow introvert, I totally get it. Even the idea of having a small group of people staring at me causes my palms to sweat. As one of the clumsiest human beings ever I’m completely convinced I’ll trip over my own two feet, but that’s just me. You got this.
- Pick an epic location. Every love has a landscape. Whether it’s hiking to mountaintops together, surfing on the coast, or climbing sheer granite cliffs, it’s all what place feels special to you. If you need any assistance with choosing a location, then I’d be happy to offer some suggestions!
- Intimate. When it’s just you and your beloved (and maybe a few close friends) the day takes on another level of absolute intimacy, just shared between a few souls. This is really wonderful if you prefer to interact on a more one-to-one or small group scale without feeling overwhelmed about everyone vying for your attention.
Reasons to throw a big wedding:
- Invite all your favorite people. It’s not very often that you get to throw a giant party with all of your friends and family celebrating you in one spot. It’s a pretty exciting experience!
- Throw a giant dance party. Now imagine of all of those favorite people coming together, throwing back shots of tequila and dancing the night away. If that doesn’t sound exciting then I don’t know what does!
- Relive the shenanigans for years to come. One of the awesome things about being a photographer is getting caught up in the dance floor and catching all the moments of everyone party and even grandpa getting down on the dance floor! Those are some awesome moments that are going to bring a small to your face every time you look back on it.
- Gifts! Come onnn, I mean, who doesn’t love gifts?! Wedding gifts are a great way to build your new home together with all the things you might need. Not a big fan of gifts? Start a honeymoon fund and go somewhere awesome together!
At the end of the day, I’m here to remind you of one major and important thing… YOU SHOULD DO WHAT YOU WANT.
Once more for the people in the back!
DO. WHAT. YOU. WANT.
If you want a big wedding, or a small, intimate affair, or even an elopement with just you, your boo thang, your witnesses and your officiant, it all really comes down to what feels right for YOU.
Whatever your choice, make sure you book a photographer who’s going to capture all the emotions and the moments. Ready to talk? I’ll be your ride or die.
All wedding collections include;
- Personalized Quote
- Consultation
- Timeline Assistance
- Location Suggestions for Elopements or Adventure Sessions
- A calming presence on your wedding day
Elopements start at buildable base rate of $1500 and include two consecutive hours of coverage.
Wedding collections start at $3000 and include 6 consecutive hours of coverage.
Know where you stand? Then let’s chat! Either way, I’d love to be a part of your big day.
Reach out now to receive a custom quote.
Here’s some other helpful blog posts to help you with your elopement planning!
