Sam Starns - Elope Your Life: A Guide to Living Authentically and Unapologetically Starting With I Do

Copyright 2020 by Sam Starns

All rights reserved. No part of this book publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other means, except for brief quotation in reviews, without the prior permission of the author. To contact the author, please go to samstarns.com .

Cover design: Rebecca Finkel, F + P Graphic Design

Book design: Bryan Tomasovich, The Publishing World

Author photo: Anne Blodgett

Author wedding photos: M. Goodman Photography / Melissa Collier

Icons: Maggie Murray Creative

Starns, Sam

Elope Your Life: A Guide to Living Authentically and Unapologetically, Starting with I Do

ISBN 978-0-578-67652-4
ISBN: 978-0-578-78665-0 (ebook)

Also for sale in ebook format.

1. Reference / Weddings. 2. Travel / Adventure. 3. Self-Help / Personal Growth / Happiness. 4. Family & Relationships / Marriage & Long-Term Relationships. 5. Photography / Celebratons

Distributed by Ingram

Printed in the U.S.A.

ELOPE YOUR LIFE

This book is dedicated to my elopement couples, who have the guts to do what I didnt when it came to my own wedding.

You inspire me every day.

PART ONE

EMPOWERMENT

WHY I WISH

I HAD ELOPED

Dreams of princess dresses, long lacy veils, best friends, and flowers everywheredoesnt every little girl dream of her wedding day? Certainly when we look to popular culturemovies, bridal magazines, and especially advertisingit seemsthat the childhood dream of a perfect wedding is universal.

Let me start off by saying that, as a kid, I never dreamed about my wedding. I never even really thought about marrying someone until my husband, Brian, came along. I repeatedly told my now-husband during the planning stages that I was cool with eloping to Maui, where we had previously planned a vacation two months before the wedding.

Were adventurous people by nature and have our own interests that have never exclusively aligned with a particular group. We love theatre, the outdoors, and trying new things. We also love our friends yet we dont have those established groups of friends that one would typically think of when choosing a wedding party.

I tried to reason with myself that having a traditional wedding was what I genuinely wanted. I had lived on the same ranch for my entire childhood and into college. I have a connection to the property and thought, I could have my wedding here. That would be okay. Brian insisted that a ceremony with the traditional fixings was what he wanted and definitely what his family would want.

The majority of our engagement was spent telling people that we were trying to keep the wedding small, to about 130 people. Inviting one person meant inviting another in his or her friend circle, and fielding phone calls from Brians family about why distant family members hadnt been invited.

If the stress of planning a wedding wasnt enough, the day itself brought so many problems, some of which were six months in the making. So, lets break down the mistakes I made that came to fruition on our wedding dayall of these reaffirmed why I wish I had eloped.

I didnt even have a day of coordinator.