WHY YOUR ELOPEMENT CEREMONY SCRIPT IS WRITTEN FROM SCRATCH
When couples picture their elopement, they usually picture the place first: the lake, the mountain, the light. I picture the words. The script is the part of the day that stays with you long after the photographs have arrived, and it's the part I will never take a shortcut on.
Every script I write is started from scratch. There's no copy and paste, no template and no ChatGPT. It's written by hand, and it's built around the two of you. Here's how that works in practice.
A Different Job From the Legal Part
The legal side of your marriage is done separately, with a registrar, and it follows the wording the law requires. That's what it's there for, and my guide to whether eloping is legal in Wales explains how the two fit together.
Your elopement ceremony is the part that is about you. It's the same standard wording for everyone in a register office, which is exactly why it can't say anything personal. A celebrant ceremony can, so there's room for your story, your words and your way of saying them.
It Starts With Your Story
The script begins long before the day itself. After you send an enquiry I'll get back to you within 24 to 48 hours and offer a discovery call. Once you're happy to go ahead, you'll receive a contract, deposit information and an online questionnaire.
The questionnaire is more useful than it sounds. It gives me an insight into your story, and I use your answers to draw up questions and prompts for our online meeting. It also gives you a reason to cast your mind back to where your relationship started and to think about what you'd like in a ceremony made for you. You can read the whole process in my guide to how to simply elope.
Two Ways to Write It
At the planning stage you have a choice. You can co-create the script with me, which includes a reading, your commitments, the ring exchange and your vows, all fully customised so that you can put your own mark on every part. It's a lovely way to connect with your own words on the day.
Or you can have a script that's done for you and kept secret until your ceremony. That suits couples who'd like a surprise thrown into their elopement, because you'll be caught off guard by something written just for you.
Neither is better than the other. It simply depends on whether you'd rather hold the pen or be surprised.
What a Script Is Made Of
The shape of a ceremony is simple, and the detail is where it becomes yours. When I wrote up Penny and James's story, the day ran like this: an opening speech from me, then Penny's first reading and her commitments to James, and his to her. Both rings were exchanged while they repeated their personalised words after me, then I gave a closing speech and their first kiss sealed it.
Their ceremony was autumn themed, right down to their certification, and you can see the day on their elopement page. That's the kind of detail that only comes from listening, and it's why no two scripts I write are the same.
Time to Get It Right
Before your elopement we go over the final materials together, and I seal the script for the day. If you've chosen to co-create, we talk through it and look for ways to personalise it further. I offer unlimited reviews until a month before your elopement. Small changes are unlimited, and anything significant needs to be reasonable within a doable timeframe.
On the Day
After my opening speech I hand you the ceremony folder so you can say your opening words to each other. When one of you has finished, you pass the folder to the other. While you do that I step out of frame to photograph you, and the microphone clipped to the folder picks up both of your voices. There's more about how that works in my Deluxe elopement guide.
Whether you wrote it with me or you're hearing it for the first time, the words came from your own story, and you're saying them in your own voice in front of the person you love.
Keeping the Words Afterwards
Your gift bag includes your ceremony script and certification, carefully wrapped in tissue paper and sealed with my branded red wax, inside a presentation box. If family couldn't be there, my keepsake shop lets you gift them a presentation box filled with your vows, your ceremony script and some pictures from your day, so they can hold a piece of it too.
Where to Go Next
If you're writing your own vows for the ceremony, my guide to how to write your elopement vows has some ideas. I've also described what happens when we first meet in the first meet, and the packages show what's included. When you're ready to talk, you can get in touch about your elopement.
When the folder closes at the end of your ceremony, I want every word in it to have been unmistakably yours.