When you choose to elope, the traditional wedding day handbook gets thrown out the window and you get to do anything you want. That includes what you choose to wear!

While there are basically no limits on the personality of your dress, you do want to make sure you choose one that allows you to do all of your elopement day activities freely. Depending on what you plan to fill your day with, you’ll want your dress to fit well for those activities.

Ask yourself the following 5 questions when searching for your dream dress and you’ll be sure to have an elopement that feels like you!

How to Pick a Dress for Your Elopement or Intimate Wedding

1. Can you move in it easily?

This is definitely the most important question to ask yourself when trying on dresses. Elopements typically involve a lot more activity than traditional weddings and can last longer, so you want to make sure you’ll be comfortable. Gone are the days of tight dresses you can’t sit down in—a really great elopement dress will look incredible and be comfortable.

Real quick, let’s address the elephant in the room of outdoor weddings: your dress IS going to get dirty, and that’s half the fun! Eloping is all about letting go of expectations, immersing yourself in the beauty of nature, and allowing yourself the freedom to do your wedding day your way. Don’t let the thought of a little dirt (or a lot of dirt) discourage you from enjoying your day to the fullest.

When you’re trying on dresses, do some movement tests right there! Think of the activities you plan to do on your elopement day. Will you be hiking? Are you going to be walking across a lot of uneven, rocky terrain? Whatever movements you expect to do during your elopement activities, mimic those with your body while trying the dress on.

Of course, do them gently since you haven’t bought the dress just yet. If you find yourself afraid it’s going to rip or you feel your body being squeezed by the material, you can expect those discomforts to be magnified on your elopement day.

If you’re able to move freely, squat, jump, move your legs any which way, stretch your arms up and around, all without feeling like the dress is hindering you or finding yourself nervous that it’s going to rip, you’ve got yourself an elopement-ready dress!

2. What activities will you be doing on your elopement day?

Elopements are awesome because they allow you to do any and all of your favorite activities as a couple. If you’re climbers and you want to do some climbing in your dress (an epic choice, by the way), you definitely won’t want something heavy or tight. Climbing requires a lot of freedom to move around, so a good option for this would be something with stretchy fabric, no sleeves, and a lightweight skirt.

For my fellow hikers, you’ll just need to think about how strenuous your hike will be. If your hike is only a mile and is mostly flat, you have a little more leeway with what kind of dress you can wear. But if you’re doing a hike that requires a lot of motion and movement across rocks, streams, and various terrain, you’ll want to look for something stretchy, loose on the bottom, and probably not a super long train.

Now, you don’t have to do your activities while in your elopement attire. However, if you want your photos to have that “adventure bride” feel from start to finish, I highly recommend finding a dress that can accommodate the fun activities you have planned!

3. Can you pack your dress easily for travel and/or hiking?

One of the more technical aspects of choosing a dress is whether it can be packed and transported easily. If you’re traveling to your elopement location by car, you probably don’t have to think about this too much. Just put it in a garment bag, hang it up in the back, and you’re good to go! However, if you’re flying, it is something to keep in mind. In most cases, unless you’re wearing a humongous ballgown, you’ll be able to travel with your dress fairly easily. I do recommend bringing it onto the plane with you in a garment bag or carefully packed into a carry on so you don’t run the risk of lost baggage (with this in mind, it’s wise for your partner to do the same with his suit!). If you talk to one of the flight attendants you may even be able to have them hang it somewhere for you.

The challenge occurs when you decide not to hike in your dress, and you have to figure out how to pack it into your backpack. Luckily for you, I have a quick video on how to do just this.

Watch my tutorial on how to pack your dress into your backpack!

If you follow all those steps and pick your dress accordingly, you shouldn’t have any trouble keeping it safely tucked away until you put it on.

4. What personality do you want your dress to have?

Personality is of course completely subjective, and the feeling you want to convey with your dress is your own choice to make. To get yourself out of the box of thinking only how your dress looks, think about the “feeling words” you’d use to describe your perfect dress instead. Think: romantic, free-spirited, feminine, bold, adventurous, fun. What words would you use to describe the feeling your perfect dress evokes for you?

When you’re searching for the right dress, it really is all about the fit. And I don’t just mean just how it hugs your body or how it suits your elopement day activities, but also how it matches you as an individual. One of the likely reasons you’re choosing to elope is that you want a day centered around you and your relationship, and picking a dress that fits who you are will be the icing on top of a truly amazing elopement experience.

5. What do you see when you imagine yourself getting married?

As you’ve begun to think about your vision for your elopement, you’ve probably had some mental pictures pop up. Take a moment to think on these: Where are you? What’s the weather like? What do you see in front of you? Once you start to formulate a visual idea of your elopement, then ask yourself: What am I wearing? Is it form-fitting? Elegant? Detailed? Simple? Playful? Sleek? Does it have movement? Are there sleeves? What color is it?

If you picture something specific right away, go with it. Something I found when choosing my own dress is that it might look completely different than what you originally thought you’d want, but other times, “the one” is out there and you just have to find it.

In the end, choosing a dress is an emotionally driven decision. You focus less on the pros and cons and go with your gut. It’s probably similar to the feeling you got when deciding to elope. While there are factors to consider in your dress choice so you can have the best elopement experience possible, ultimately it’s about the way you feel in it and what you picture when you imagine yourself saying your vows.

No matter what dress you choose, make sure it plays its role in creating a day that’s unique and special to you. Your pictures from your elopement will be something you look back on for the rest of your life, and the right dress will not only increase your confidence in your choice to elope, it will partner in conveying your love through every picture.

Ready to make that vision come to life? Begin planning your elopement today by reaching out to me here!