How to Tell Your Friends & Family That You've Decided to Elope

You’ve decided to elope, but how do you break the news to the ones you love?

After some careful consideration, you’ve concluded that the best way to celebrate your love is by eloping, but you aren’t sure how to tell your friends & family in a tasteful and thoughtful way. The first thing that you need to know is that there are no rules to elopements, which means you don’t even have to share the news if you don’t want to. But if you do decide to, I hope this letter is crafted in a way that gives you some peace of mind in doing just that.

XO, Dakota

A Sample Elopement Announcement Letter

Dear (family member’s name),

We are writing to share some very exciting news with you! (Partner’s name) & I are getting married! As we embark on this journey together, we’ve chosen an intimate and personal way to celebrate our commitment - we’ve decided to elope! We wanted create an intentional, meaningful, budget-conscious, stress-free, true-to-us experience. This will give us the chance to be fully-present, focus on this beautiful step forward in our lives, & spend our day together in a place that we love. (You may choose to disclose where it will be & who will be in attendance, but you do not have to do that if you prefer to keep that private. Most couples do not disclose dates until they’ve shared photos. You can even write to them about what your day will day will look like to help them envision it.)

While we won’t be having a traditional wedding or ceremony, we wanted you to know that you mean the world to us. We value our family deeply and this decision does not change that. We understand that this might be unexpected, but we hope you can respect our choice and share in our joy.

We’d love to connect or get together sometime after so that we can share stories and photos from our special day! (You do not have to add this, but if you do plan on sharing, then it’s noted. You might even decided to have a party or celebrate with everyone and share those details here!)

With love/best wishes,
(Your Names)