The wedding photography landscape is rapidly changing.

Massively cut down guest lists, dwindling wedding spending, and travel restrictions meant couples all over the globe have had to make major compromises to make their special day happen.

The grand ceremonies that were a huge foundation in pretty much every culture are quickly becoming a thing of the past, thanks to the pandemic.

But that doesn’t have to mean we’ll stop celebrating a couple’s union altogether as a society.

We talked about wedding photography statistics for 2022 previously, and how we’re now collectively changing the way we perceive traditional wedding celebrations. Minimonies, sequel weddings, elopements and many more wedding formats are making their way into the mainstream.

So whether you’re a photographer looking to start your professional journey or a seasoned pro pivoting into elopement ceremonies, I’m a Maui-based elopement photographer, and I’ve put together a guide to becoming an elopement photographer and help you capitalize on this steadily growing market.

What is an Elopement?

First things first. What exactly is an elopement? The traditional definition for elopements was the uber-romantic, spontaneous “let’s run away and get married” kind of deal you’d see on the big screen, only elopements do happen in real life.

While these spurs of the moment elopements are still around, the pandemic has given way to what we call “planned elopements.” Planned elopements let the couple inject a highly personalized flair into their ceremony, be it on the top of Whistler Mountain after a day of mountain biking, held on the couple’s favorite brewery, or simply on the bride’s ancestral home’s backyard.

What separates elopements from any of the new burgeoning wedding formats is still the remaining air of mystery and intimacy in these ceremonies. Aside from the couple, the officiant, a couple of witnesses, guest counts for elopements shouldn’t be exceeding 10. There are also very small-scale, stress-free receptions and celebrating to be had after the fact, if any.

What does an Elopement Photographer Do?

It’s your job as the elopement photographer to document these beautiful, unique wedding celebrations no matter the venue. You could be capturing a couple’s I dos on the side of a lake overlooking a Montana mountain range, or on the Brooklyn Bridge, so it’s best to know all the types of elopements you could be shooting as early as now. Fairy tale, destination-type weddings seem to be getting all the attention, but you’d be surprised at the variation in themes couples are opting to follow:

• Adventure/destination elopements
• Backyard elopements
• Hometown elopements
• Urban elopements and more

The Skills you need to be an Elopement Photographer

Obviously, you’ll have to know your way around a camera before you go around offering your services to would-be-married couples. But if you’re looking to polish your portraiture game, have a read through our 10 portrait photography tips for beginners. Absolutely recommend checking that out if you’re a complete newbie so you can get up to speed on things like focal length choices, posing, and practicing your craft.

Basics aside, there are a couple of core skills you’ll want to work on before diving in full time. They aren’t exactly contributing to your technical skills or honing your vision as a creative, but they’re critical to your success as an elopement photographer.

Pre-Production Skills: We’ve talked about this on our comprehensive guide to starting a photography business before, and it’s even more true today. The second you start taking payment for your photography services, you become a small business owner.

That means having the right skillset to communicate with clients, managing logistics (like coordinating with the wedding planner or securing permits), scouting locations, creating a project timeline etc.

Also see: How much do the top 10% of photographers charge?

Becoming an Expert Guide: Having an impressive portfolio is easily one of the best ways to get a client interested for sure. But providing a hassle-free, blissful experience with you onboard a couple’s dream elopement is the way to leave a lasting impact on your clients. Which, by the way, massively ups your chances of getting clients exponentially after each job you take on.

Becoming an expert means having all the right answers to everything an overly excited couple can ask of you. That could be suggestions to a not-so-popular elopement spot or knowing the right people to give you access to unconventional wedding locations. You may have to spend ungodly amounts of time scouring travel forums or scanning Google Earth, but the ability to provide and make a couple’s dream elopement happen as smoothly as possible will get you far in the business.

Build an Elopement Photography Portfolio

The classic catch 22 for every creative who dared to step into the professional field – how am I supposed to build a portfolio if I don’t have any real work, with real clients, to show for?

Look, you don’t need real clients to build a portfolio. You’re just going to have to do styled shoots.

Styled shoots, or mock photoshoots, use models to create a body of work that follows the photographer’s vision. They are usually done when creatives are branching into a new genre of photography or when a newcomer needs to build a body of work, and that’s exactly what you need to do.

You can start planning your styled shoots with:

• Calling up willing friends to model for you: If you know a couple who’d love to do a themed elopement shoot with you, then they’re your best bet. This can keep costs down, too! Annie Leibovitz even says working with close friends is the best way to practice portraiture because you can work without much of a filter as opposed to directing hired models and paying clients.
• Hiring models: You know what they say, sometimes you do need to spend money to make money. So if none of your friends are happy to be in front of your camera for an hour or so, which is perfectly understandable, you may have to start calling up local agencies.

With that out of the way, here are some pointers you want to keep in mind when building your portfolio:

Consider Second Shooting: It’s a good idea to get a bit of actual, real-world experience shooting weddings. While polishing your creative vision with styled shoots is important, it’s also worthwhile considering offering your services as a second shooter to a seasoned, local wedding photographer. This will hone your real-time problem-solving skills (getting around bad lighting and hectic timelines etc.) as well as your people skills in terms of direction and posing.

Be Intentional with your portfolio-building Process: All the styled shoots and second shooting you do should lead you towards the jobs you want to be shooting.

That is to say, if you want to specialize in adventure elopements, you should focus on planning mock photoshoots with breath-taking landscapes or exotic, lesser-known wedding spots. Working on your physical fitness at this time would also be a good idea since you’re bound to do a lot of hiking.

Marketing your Elopement Photography Services

No matter how good you are as a photographer, or how well your first elopement photography portfolio turns out, you won’t be getting any paying clients if you can’t market your stuff.

We’ve talked about marketing your photography services before on our 27-Step Guide to Starting a Photography Business, and much of that will apply here.

On that guide, we’ve touched on:

• Cold calling or cold emailing
• Going on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp for gigs
• Starting a Facebook page and running ads
• Marketing on Instagram
• Starting a YouTube Channel
• SEO and Content Marketing and so much more

So definitely read our comprehensive guide if you’re serious about launching a photography business this 2022. That said, here are a couple of marketing “hacks” that elopement photographers can take advantage of right now:

Join Local Facebook Groups for Outdoor Enthusiasts – This is especially important if you’re planning to do adventure elopements. For the shrewd creative, groups like this are essentially a gold mine. Just be sure to engage and consistently post some of your curated adventure elopement photos and you’ll get the right eyes on your work soon enough. At the very least, you’ll get to know your local elopement hotspots and perhaps make the right friends who’ll lead you to your next gig!

Market yourself on TikTok and Instagram Reels – Short-form video content is taking over the world. And because one of your main jobs as a small business owner is educating your clients on the value of your work, these two kings of snackable content provide an amazing platform to help you do just that.

The best part about consistently posting on these platforms is that your target audience is most likely already there. Being present where your target audience hangs out lends you more chances of going viral and instantly skyrocketing your social credibility as a creative. You never know when a simple BTS of a recent elopement gig will strike the right chords and get you in front of the trending pages.

While TikTok is the undisputed leader of the bite-sized content arena, I wouldn’t sleep on Instagram Reels as it’s steadily picking up steam. Here’s our photographers and filmmakers’ guide to Instagram reels to get you started as well as a step-by step tutorial to making reels.