Let's Elope: Definitive Guide to Eloping, Destination Weddings and Other Creative Wedding Options

Admit it. You always thought eloping sounded kind of romantic, right? Too bad everyone expects you to have The Big Wedding -- the kind you always thought you wanted. So now that you're engaged and knee-deep in wedding planning, why are you secretly wishing you could just fly off to a tropical island and say your I do's in your bathing suit?

Well, you can! There are many different ways to elope -- and not all of them involve running off in the middle of the night. These days, "eloping" is anything other than a traditional wedding -- from a steps-of-city-hall ceremony with just the two of you, to a fun-filled "destination wedding" with your family and closest friends.

Let's Elope is filled with creative ideas for exchanging your vows in a memorable, personalized way that won't necessarily cost you a fortune -- or your sanity. Let's Elope includes:
* A brief history of weddings -- and why people first began to elope
* A quiz to help you decide if eloping is right for you
* Inspiring anecdotes from real-life couples who chose to opt out of a traditional wedding
* Elopement etiquette, including how to break the news to your family and friends
* Information on how to plan destination weddings, country weekend weddings, and surprise weddings
* Up-to-the-minute addresses, phone numbers, and Web sites for the world's top elopement spots
* Tons of ideas about what to do with all the money you saved!

Can't cope? Elope!

Admit it. You always thought eloping sounded kind of romantic, right? Too bad everyone expects you to have The Big Wedding — the kind you always thought you wanted. So now that you're engaged and knee-deep in wedding planning, why are you secretly wishing you could just fly off to a tropical island and say your I do's in your bathing suit?

Well, you can! There are many different ways to elope — and not all of them involve running off in the middle of the night. These days, "eloping" is anything other than a traditional wedding — from a steps-of-city-hall ceremony with just the two of you, to a fun-filled "destination wedding" with your family and closest friends.

Let's Elope is filled with creative ideas for exchanging your vows in a memorable, personalized way that won't necessarily cost you a fortune — or your sanity. Let's Elope includes:
* A brief history of weddings — and why people first began to elope
* A quiz to help you decide if eloping is right for you
* Inspiring anecdotes from real-life couples who chose to opt out of a traditional wedding
* Elopement etiquette, including how to break the news to your family and friends
* Information on how to plan destination weddings, country weekend weddings, and surprise weddings
* Up-to-the-minute addresses, phone numbers, and Web sites for the world's top elopement spots
* Tons of ideas about what to do with all the money you saved!

Library Journal

Here's a guide for couples willing to break some traditional rules. Behan and Shaw, who eloped with his wife in 1997, offer a short history of elopement and talk about reasons modern couples elope: stress reduction, finances, and the desire to be unique. They define elopement today as anything other than the big, traditional wedding and discuss options ranging from minimally planned escape elopements to some of the hybrid wedding-elopement choices like surprise weddings, dinner-party weddings, destination weddings, and theme weddings also covered extensively in Robin Kring's Storybook Weddings (Meadowbrook, 1998). Sidebars feature happy couples discussing their elopements, while a quiz helps readers identify which elopement option is right for them. Sections on communicating the big decision to others and elopement etiquette are quite helpful. More than half of the book discusses where to wed, offering tips on web sites, wedding packages, and favorite, romantic, and exotic locales. For all collections. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.