M + F - Our Las Vegas Elopement
Published: November 6, 2020
Updated: January 24, 2026
Our wedding was a thought on a Wednesday and a thing by Friday. This is how we eloped outside in Las Vegas in the middle of June. And trust me, it’s really not what you might think it is. If you’re new here, I’m Mari, my hubs is Favi and we’re adventure elopement photographers, planners, and officiants who have convinced couples from far and wide to create on their wedding days. CREATE: Like make it the most, curate it to your particular fancies, and really make sure every minute is made for you. That’s the key to having the elopement of your life, so now it was my turn and I was about to fill every moment with everything we love.
WEDNESDAY
Lately our days have been spent adventuring with the kids, hosting our usual pod of guests in our tiny apartment, and making sure that we don’t get COVID. Today, while I’m cooking he says, “Let’s just do it.”
I look at him confused, “Do what?” I ask.
“Get married,” he replies with this stoic look on his face.
His face says he’s dead ass serious, but I can’t help but question him. “Like, for real?”
“Let’s get married.” He repeats, same look on his face.
So I say, “OK.”
And that’s that.
There’s a wedding to be planned. My wheels start turning. Although I didn’t plan to elope in Las Vegas, it’s the perfect way to do it. We’ve been living here for a couple of years, there’s not many places to go in the middle of COVID, but we always make shit happen. The only question is when?
He says, “How about Friday?” I’m taken aback because I’m an amazing planner, off the cuff, but 2 days is a whole new record and I totally wasn’t expecting that.
All I know is that I’m marrying the man of my dreams, best get to steppin’ before he comes to his senses and realizes the hot ass mess before him is about to be his wife.
Like a puff of smoke, I disappear to begin my duties and make myself scarce.
THE SCHEME BEGINS - Planning our Surprise Elopement
I start with a list to begin planning our Las Vegas elopement…
- Location
- Guest list
- Officiant
- Photographer
- Food
One of my requirements is that it has to be a surprise. Our guests wouldn’t know a thing. And since it’s only 2 days away, that’s an easy enough task.
Location
Today we’re listing out a few locations, including Seven Magic Mountains, the Dry Lake Bed, Nelson’s Ghost Town, close to Red Rock, but nothing really hits home until we consider a place called Nelson’s Landing.
This stunning location is one where our family spends so many good times. Our memories here includes many visits with friends and family who come in to visit us.
It’s where our daughter first cliff jumps, and where we realize how beautiful the desert could be.
We visit often to show our families a less frequented part of Las Vegas. It has become something like our little local secret when we’re trying to impress family members who only think that Las Vegas means the Strip.
Guest List
We’re currently having weekly BBQs with 4 of our closest friends. Something we call “Friends Friday.”
They happen mostly on Thursdays, but you get the point. We usually end our evenings with a few games of Jenga and lots of laughs. It’s the only time we get to socialize with anyone and the one thing I treasure the most.
Before I do anything else I text the group and tell them that we’re having a little evening BBQ at the river this week instead of at one of our respective homes.
Our 4 unsuspecting friends are ready, have the plans, and are good to go. I invite my dearest friend, Christina, from San Diego.
Side Note: She’s more like my sister, a shining beacon of light in moments where I don’t even feel like I am me. She is a constant and dear reminder of my roots. Always an anchor during my craziest storms, she gets me like no other person has ever gotten me. Our bond is undying and resilient. She’s my other half. To my Cheta love/sister wife (lol)
Our phone call goes a little something like this.
“Hey babe, you busy on Friday?”
“No, I’m actually off, why what’s up?”
“I need you to come down, it’s important.”
“Ok, let me see what I can do.”
Photographer
We start searching for a photographer. I’m new to town so my photography community is non-existent. I hit the gram and look for a baddie with a #lasvegaselopementphotographer tag. Kennedy came up, of course so I shot her a message hoping she’d have the day available.
Officiant
I wanted all women to take care of my elopement and found Glenda on google. She responds quickly and is so easy to work with.
Food
It’s a BBQ so we decide that the morning before our ceremony we’d head to Seafood City to grab some cuts of meat. We also order some Filipino dishes from one of our favorite places, Full House BBQ, where we ate kamayan (by hand) one time for my birthday.
THURSDAY - 1 Day Until Our Las Vegas Elopement
I visit the Clark County website to start finding out what we need to do to get married.
I figure to elope in Las Vegas, it’d be quick since, I mean, it’s Vegas and people come here all the time to get married overnight.
Sure enough, the process is almost too easy.
I fill out the online marriage application you can find right here and we’re set to pick up our paperwork the next day at the Clark County Marriage Bureau.
My hair’s so much longer than I usually have it. I had been meaning to cut it but now is the perfect time. You know how they say that women take drastic measures like cutting off their hair when they’re moving through stages of their lives?
Yup, that’s me.
I’ve done the G.I. Jane when I needed a refresh. That transformation did more for my self esteem and moved me through a really shitty time.
I’m more used to the bob or the a-line so I bring it back to marry the love of my life.
Ale, one of my new Henderson friends I once met at the park hooked me up before I “walked down the aisle.”
Side Story: Ale’s this tiny woman being dragged around the park by two giant poodles while our kids play.
I ask if she needs help and since I’m annoying I collect her number and we become fast friends. She even hired me for her wedding a year later. I give her the low down on our plans and she’s so excited stating that if she ever did it again, that’s how she’d want to do it, intimately. Our appointment is punctuated with a congratulatory hug and she makes me like a phoenix rising from the ashes of singularity into a life of marriage (I know, dramatic).
She hooks me up with the a-line I had been wanting forever, something fresh and new for my brand new husband.
FRIDAY
Friday arrives quickly. Like too quickly.
In the morning, Favi and I take a quick drive downtown to grab our paperwork at the Clark County Marriage Bureau and grab a celebratory 8th at a dispensary.
3:00 PM – My friend Christina shows up at our door demanding to know why she’s there and “what’s so damn important?”
But I keep her guessing while we run errands together. She helps me get dressed and get my make up on. A few of our other friends make their way to our home and we begin our journey to Nelson’s Landing.
Of course, our wedding day would be incomplete without a few dust ups. At first we can’t find Kennedy, our photographer. Earlier in the day I sent her a map with an x that marks the cove at which I’d like to meet. It’s getting too late, and we’re losing sun, so Kristyn, Favi’s childhood friend, takes us on a dirt road that takes about 15-20 minutes to get to another cove. Cheta decides to join us and takes up shotgun. I sit next to my nephew, Kristyn’s son, Jayson. We bounce around in her car as she takes each bump like a rally driver. I run up a steep hill to find that Kennedy is not at the cove that I had directed her to so before it gets dark we head back to the original location to find that Kennedy is there. Thank goodness.
Our friends are curious, wondering what’s happening when I get back. My sudden disappearance and the presence of all 10 of us is sending up red flags and plenty of questions marks. I find our Squad settled in camping chairs a few feet away from the water. Favi and I walk hand in hand to find a perfect spot to do do it. Glenda joins us and we begin the ceremony with our friends bewildered. One by one we watch their faces begin to understand what’s happening as Glenda walks us through the ceremony.
Out of my peripheral I see our friend Tommy begin to cry. Angel giggles while we say our vows, vows that Favi refused to write down. Men.
And just to be sure we bless our wedding in total us fashion. Earlier, I had rolled a matrimonial blunt to be passed around amongst all of us to seal our union. Everything about this moment is us.
Every single element of our elopement is our own. From the location of our ceremony to the BBQ we throw after at Tommy’s and the game of Jenga we play that evening, it’s us. It’s really the only reason we believe so fervently that everyone should toss all of their misconceptions about weddings and just do it the way you want to. We’re given the opportunity and honor to feed the people who are most important to us, smoke with the people who care for us, get married where we’ve spent many happy times with our families, and we didn’t spend a dime we didn’t want to or interact with anyone we didn’t care for.
As a result, our day was meaningful and intentional. Every detail is considered. This is our passage of time, our little slice of what heaven means to us on our wedding day.
Dreaming of your own Las Vegas elopement? We’d love to help! Check out our Las Vegas elopement resources for more ideas on eloping in Las Vegas. And if you’d like to book your elopement with a local Las Vegas couple who also eloped, leave your info here.
