A two hour elopement with a mid-career photographer runs $1,200 to $2,500 in most US markets. A half day of four to six hours sits at $2,500 to $4,500, and a full day adventure elopement with a hike runs $4,500 to $8,000, with established names charging past $10,000. In the UK, two hours starts around £550 to £900 and a full day lands at £1,400 to £2,500. The cheap end is a courthouse or registry office ceremony: $400 to $1,200 for 60 to 90 minutes.
Couples push back because there are four people at the wedding. The guest count is small, the job is not. Experienced elopement photographers report 60 to 70 hours per client once planning, travel and editing are counted, and most of those hours happen weeks before the day. Price the hours, not the headcount.
What is the difference between an elopement, a micro wedding and a courthouse wedding?
For pricing, the difference is where the work sits.
- Courthouse or registry office: a booked slot, a 20 minute ceremony, portraits nearby. No scouting, no permits. In England the statutory register office ceremony fee is £56, so the couple may spend more on you than on getting married. Quote 90 minutes plus the edit, not a day.
- Elopement: the couple and up to about ten guests, often somewhere remote. You are photographer, location scout, timeline planner and often the witness.
- Micro wedding: 10 to 50 guests, a dinner, speeches, family formals. Quote it from your wedding collections by coverage hours, not from your elopement packages.
The expensive mistake happens at enquiry: a couple writes "elopement" and means 30 guests and a restaurant dinner. Ask for the guest count before you send a price.
How much should you charge for a 2 hour, half day or full day elopement?
Price by coverage, in three tiers:
- Two hours: one location reachable by car, ceremony and portraits, 100 to 150 edited images. $1,200 to $2,500, or £550 to £900.
- Half day: four to six hours, getting ready or a second location, a short walk, 200 to 350 images. $2,500 to $4,500, or £1,000 to £1,600.
- Full day adventure: eight to twelve hours, a sunrise start or sunset finish, a hike of a few miles, 400 to 600 images. $4,500 to $8,000, or £1,400 to £2,500.
The jump to a full day should be bigger than the extra hours suggest. A 4am trailhead start and 1,500 feet of climbing with two bodies on your back costs you the following day as well.
Why does elopement planning take so much time?
Because you do a planner's job before a photographer's one. For a full day in a national park:
- 2 to 3 hours of calls about location, season and the feel of the day
- 3 to 6 hours of location research, plus a scouting visit when you can
- 1 to 2 hours on permits, timed entry and trailhead parking
- A timeline built around the light, with a backup location and date
- Coordinating an officiant, florist and hair and makeup artist willing to meet at a trailhead
In late June the sun rises before 6am in the Colorado Rockies, so a ceremony spot 90 minutes up the trail means leaving the car around 4am. Someone has to plan that and check the forecast three days out.
That is 10 to 15 hours before the day. Add a 10 hour shoot, travel and 15 to 20 hours of editing and you are at 45 to 60 hours. At $5,000 that is $85 to $110 an hour before costs. At $2,000, where many start, it is about $35.
Who pays for national park permits and landowner fees?
The couple, as a separate line at cost. Your time chasing the permit is already in your package price.
A ceremony in a US national park needs a special use permit, priced park by park. Rocky Mountain charges a $300 non-refundable administrative fee. Glacier charges $125, wants applications at least four weeks ahead and caps ceremonies at two hours. Grand Teton charges $200. Entrance fees come on top, and since January 1, 2026, non-US residents aged 16 and over pay an extra $100 each at 11 of the busiest parks, including Rocky Mountain, Glacier, Grand Teton, Yosemite and Zion. A couple flying in from London pays $200 before they see a mountain.
At Rocky Mountain and Glacier the photographer counts toward the ceremony's group size limit, and drones are banned. Under the EXPLORE Act, photography with eight or fewer people in a national park generally needs no separate photo permit, but the ceremony permit still applies. National forests differ: several require a permit from photographers and elopement planners who bring paying clients onto forest land, whatever the group size.
In Scotland a legal ceremony can happen almost anywhere with an authorised celebrant, if the landowner agrees and the paperwork reaches the registrar at least 29 days before, with the location named. In England the legal part happens at a register office or approved premises, so a clifftop vow is usually symbolic. The same goes for France, where the legal marriage takes place at the mairie.
How do you price travel for a destination elopement?
Quote a flat destination fee, not receipts afterwards. For a full day in a park you fly to: flights at $450, four days of car hire at $320, three nights near the park at $540 (a scouting day before, a backup day after), $150 for food, and two travel days at $400 each. That is $2,260, quoted as $2,300. The method for charging hours in transit is in how to calculate photography travel fees.
What should an elopement package include?
The planning support is what couples pay for, so write it down:
- A planning guide of 15 to 25 pages: locations by season, permit links, trail footwear, sunrise times. Written once, reused.
- Three location options, each with the permit cost, the walk and how crowded it gets.
- A vendor list of officiants, florists and hair and makeup artists who travel to trailheads.
- A stated image count and a turnaround of four to six weeks.
Cap planning calls at three. Unlimited planning is how a $2,000 package turns into 30 hours of messages.
How much deposit should you take, and what if the weather turns?
Take 30 to 50 percent at booking, and lean toward 50. Elopement work is front loaded: when a couple cancels three weeks out, you have already done the scouting, the permit and the timeline. The refund ladder is in how much deposit to take.
Rain is fine. Lightning above the treeline, closed roads and wildfire smoke are not. A workable weather clause:
- The backup date is agreed at booking, usually the next morning.
- You make the call by a stated time, such as 6pm the evening before.
- A move to the backup date is free. A new date within 12 months carries a rebooking fee covering your travel again.
- Permit and entrance fees are non-refundable and belong to the couple.
Draft these terms in plain English with the cancellation policy generator.
Why shouldn't you price an elopement as a discounted wedding?
Because the discount comes out of the wrong place. A wedding's cost sits in the day and the edit, an elopement's in the planning and the location. Knock 40 percent off a $3,500 wedding collection for "just the two of them" and you have $2,100 for 50 hours of work. Give the short elopement package in your wedding pricing its own price and its own inclusions.
Set the full day tier first, since it carries the most hidden hours, and build the other two from it. Then set each tier up as its own bookable package with its own price, duration and deposit, plus buffer time blocked before and after for the drive to the trailhead, so nothing lands on top of a 4am start. That is the kind of thing a booking platform built for photographers should handle for you.
