My Elopement (Part I)

I guess I should start at the beginning.

I met Alex when I started my job in 2020. Over time, we became friends and realized we were insanely mutual in our love for Halloween and horror. In May 2021, we started seeing each other and it became serious in no time. 7 months later, he proposed to me on New Years Eve, and so the wedding planning begun.

As a typical female who has dreamed of this moment her entire life, I just gotta say--that hype wears out quicker than you expect. Suddenly, I'm thinking about food, and who I need to invite, and just a single venue that doesn't look like a rustic hoe down barn. I wanted elegance, romance, and a laid back day. Instead, I was shown stress, businesses charging thousands for bare minimum, and nothing that stood out to me. Everyone around me was saying "when is the wedding?" and "I want an invite" to the point where my days were a constant state of high anxiety and stress. Around February/March, I booked a venue that barely made it in our price range for December 6th of that same year. One baby bit of stress out of the way, now we got to decorate it, plus figure out who we're inviting, and any food will cost at least double the price of the venue. I haven't even thought of my hair, dress, makeup or veil. Step 1/1000 complete.

I watched a lot of TikToks for inspiration, and I scrolled upon a video about eloping. I hesitated at first, because I always dreamed of my family being there. However, it did look nice not having the pressure of entertaining 80+ people on YOUR day. I'd read posts from other ladies in a bridal group on Facebook. Some good wedding experiences, some horrific. A lot of "I spent X amount of money and it was over in no time", or "I didn't enjoy my wedding day, I was so busy that I didn't have time to eat.". The one sentence I'd see many women write stuck with me during my fleeting planning days, and that was "I should've eloped."

So, on my day off of work, I decided to look into that route. I went back to TikTok, went down the rabbit hole of "#elopement" and wow, I was so impressed. I googled "elopement"--even better. I studied and looked into elopements for hours upon hours and that's when I discovered that eloping was the plan. I looked into Colorado--too basic. Anywhere outside the states--too expensive. So I thought to myself "Where is a place that would fit our vibe and be fun to travel over and over again for years to come?" it came out as a question, but I was sold once the thought entered my mind-- Salem, Massachusetts. 

When my (then) fiance came home from work, I pitched the idea to him, which threw him off because we already put money down for our venue. He also mentioned the worry of upset parents when they'd discover their kids were getting married hundreds of miles away. That was understandable. I listed out all of the things we still had to do for our wedding and how much it was going to cost at the cheapest point. I also reminded him that this wedding was looking like it was going to be paid for by us alone, so we might as well do what we actually want with that money. 

In no time, he hopped on board with the idea, and the fun planning began. I had never been to Salem, so that was the trickiest part. Where does one elope up there? Days and weeks of research went into this. Phone calls and e-mails flying back and forth trying to make this as simple but memorable as possible for my husband and I. 

Finally, I had it all planned out. We drive from Georgia to Salem in about 24 hours. When we arrive on Friday, we go to the Salem courthouse where we apply for a marriage license (we have to be there first thing because they close at noon on Fridays). Then, we have to wait 3 days before we can return for our license, so, we'll soak up the beauty of Salem in those 3 days. On our wedding day, we'll get ready in our hotel room, go to the park in Salem where a minister will meet us and marry us in the bandstand. Next, my work friend (who happened to be from Jersey) will photograph us, we'll check into our nice restaurant I made reservations for, then we'll check into the Hawthorne Hotel -- because you cannot top a haunted historic hotel on your wedding night. We'll head back home the next day, and our license will be mailed to us.

So the day comes, we're both off work, and I'm last minute packing my suitcase. Alex (fiance) is starting to feel the anxiety. "What if our car breaks down? We haven't booked a hotel for our week-long stay yet! Let's just cancel and do it next year where we'll be more prepared." He wasn't wrong to have doubts, it did feel kind of scary. However, I had people who took time out of their lives expecting me up there. I put a lot of my paychecks into making this happen. All of the work and studying and research I did for 11 months could not go to waste now. He told me we should sleep on it, so we did. 

The next morning we both woke up early, I can still remember the anxious feelings all over my body. I explained how it would all work out, and by 9 am, we wrote "We're Eloping!" on the back car window, sent a video of it to our families, and in the blink of an eye we were on the road.

The worst part of it all was the hustle to arrive in Salem by morning. It felt like an episode of The Amazing Race. It was around 8 pm when we drove through D.C. The traffic, the unfamiliarity, the exhaustion from driving 12 hours straight was kicking in. By 9:30, Alex was ready to throw in the towel, get a hotel nearby, and continue the drive the next day. I told him it wasn't possible if we wanted to get our marriage license filed in time. Little did he know that it was about to get so much worse.

10:30pm - Delaware

10:48pm - New Jersey

1 am - in the middle of New York City

New York City is the number 1 reason why we will no longer make a trip to Salem a road trip. We definitely bonded over the high level of stress we experienced driving through those claustrophobic highways. After that life lesson, Alex has not once complained or stressed over Atlanta traffic.

Once the insanity of NYC disappeared behind us, we entered a small highway of deep woods in Connecticut. As we stopped for gas, I took over driving while Alex took a nap. the drive was easy, but I too was feeling sleepy. 

By 5 in the morning, we drove past the Welcome to Massachusetts sign, and we decided to park at the nearest rest stop and take a power nap. I decided to put aside sleep, and make sure all my ducks were in a row. Turns out they weren't, because I found a document online that I had to fill out as an application for a marriage license. 

Its 5 in the morning and I'm asking Alex to confirm his parents birthdays and their middle names while I'm messaging my mom "where was dad born?". Once it was submitted, the link thanked us and said we'd receive an e-mail telling us what day and time we could stop by the courthouse to finish filing our license. Yikes...it was today or never. Safe to say I didn't get much sleep -- crashed at 5:45 am, then was back on the road at 7:30.

When we got to Salem, we rushed to the courthouse, I told them we were here for a marriage license, and they asked us about the marriage application. We explained we filled it out a few hours ago. Figuring that our great wedding plan was over, the lady working asked us where we were from and when we said Georgia, she started looking for our file. She reviewed our application with us, printed everything out, we swore in, and we left with an envelope. To this day my husband and I talk about how happy we are that she didn't shoo us away and decided to look past my mistake so we could get married. Once that was done, it was vacation mode in The Witch City.

Part II coming soon