I never wanted a big wedding and David? Well, David just didn't care if I'm honest. We talked about whether or not he'd wear a ring (he would) and whether or not we'd rather spend the 'wedding' money on a deposit for a house (we did). So then we decided to elope.
For us, it was the only way.
It would have been so hard to explain ourselves over and over to our friends and family and they would have talked us out of it, so we decided we'd surprise them. I borrowed my sisters wedding dress that she'd worn three years before, it fitted perfectly and David rented a suit.When I say 'borrowed', I mean that I took it from my parents storage without her knowing! I don't think she would have ever agreed otherwise.
I had been meaning to visit my grandparents who live in Salzburg. Austria for a few years. I knew I couldn't keep putting it off. One thing that saddened me was that if we had opted for a traditional wedding, they would have flown down to London to be there. So we took care of his by taking a holiday. We rented a cabin with its own lake on a lovely property for 12 days. So as well as getting married, we went hiking and explored the area and had a well deserved break together on our honeymoon.
We officially married at our local registry office, by appointment on the morning of our departure. The first thing we drank as a married couple was a Starbucks Coffee which we both had trouble drinking as we were giggling like mad school kids. I must admit that it did feel naughty to have run off and gotten married like that. We didn't wear any special clothes but it did feel strange to have our marriage certificate under David's arm as we took the train from Paddington to Heathrow. From there, we took a 2 hours flight to Austria where we took another train straight into Salzburg. I think our official 'wedding breakfast' was pancakes on the train at EU 17 each! They were surprisingly good. Or maybe we were traumatised by all the travel by then, its hard to say!
The first thing I noticed about our cabin was that it has a private lake. The son of the owner brought down a row boat for us and we spent we first day just relaxing. We strolled through a local market where we stocked up on bread, cheese, wine and chocolate. I wasn't going to have a bouquet, but I found a stand florist who made up my bridal arrangement whilst we strolled around for groceries and because it was the end of the day she made it up for only EU 50.
On our second day we both got dressed and 'got married' on the lake. We officiated it ourselves by making promises to each other, it was private and romantic and beautiful. We both cried and that's when I felt 'really' married. And its also when we put our rings on.
We asked the son of the cabin owners to 'photograph' our wedding after he had told us he was a keen amatuer the day before. David paid him £150 which he didn't ask for but we wanted to encourage him as he was paying off his parents for buying him his digital Canon camera. Afterwards we turned our phones on and smsed everyone a photo of us with the message that we had eloped, then we turned our phones back off. It was a bit selfish but we both wanted the whole holiday to be about us - and not what anyone else thought of felt.
Our parents were both a bit upset and I'm glad I didn't talk to them on that day if I'm completely honest. The next week we visited my grandparents for a long weekend together and they were delighted for us. It was a real treat to just enjoy being married. Back at home, twelve days was plenty of time for everyone to deal with the fact that we had eloped and whilst we enjoyed ourselves for the rest of our holiday, when we came back, everyone had 'recovered.' We had a big family lunch and that was that.
'Lieben Tun' is german for Do Love. This is my favourite photo. We were both so relaxed and beyond caring or having expectations. It was the best feeling ever.
Our wedding, rings, travel and holiday honeymoon costs us £2800
Our original wedding plans were budgeted at £18,400 for the bare minimum and £32 for the premium version of what we actually wanted. Eloping was a way for us to have the happiness and treasured moments without any extras. I can honestly say that our lake wedding was the happiest and most intimate day of my life and I wouldn't do it any differently.
-Karin.
