Eloping

I`ve seen this question more than once on here. I thought everyone knew what eloping was :) It`s when two people "run away" by themselves and get married. They don`t have a traditional ceremony or anything. For example~~ you could elope to las vegas and get married. Hope this helps.

Eloping has traditionally meant two people running away from their home town or state to someplace where they can be legally married in a hurry. Reasons to elope have included parents who are against your marriage, you are not old enough to be married in your home state, you need to be married "in a hurry" because the groom is in the armed forces and being shipped overseas soon, or because because you just don`t want to wait any longer. Over the past few years, the term eloping is being confused with destination wedding. Until the mid-1960`s, a couple would elope over state or county lines, just the two of them, wake up the Justice of the Peace or other local official and get married. The Justice of the Peace or local official usually had their spouse act as the witness, provided the marriage license, and acted as legal authority to perform the ceremony. A great example would be people running from California to Nevada to be married. It wasn`t uncommon for young lovers to have parents chasing them to the state line. Once into Nevada, you`d find the first Justice of the Peace or official with a "marriage" sign on their door and get them to perform the ceremony before the parents caught up with you. :) Because Nevada marraige laws are so liberal, many couples eloped to Las Vegas, thus the huge amount of wedding chapels located there. Today, more couples are opting for destination weddings, so they can incorporate a great honeymoon along with their wedding ceremony. This also works for family and friends attending, as they can have a great vacation for themselves. Hawaii and Las Vegas seem to be the two most popular spots for destination weddings.