7 outdoor activities to celebrate your elopement wedding
Adventurous activities to do on your elopement day!
Glacier Trekking
Hiking
Camping
Aerial Tram/ Ski lift
Flight-seeing Tour
Land Tour
Mini Road Trip
Your favorite outdoor activities can be an incredible way to celebrate on your wedding day!
Imagine you and your boo just said your vows as the sun hit the top of the craggy mountain peaks, causing that fiery orange/pink alpenglow that sets the sky ablaze. You cried as you told them just how much your love means to you and you vowed to be their forever adventure buddy. Then you kiss and hold each other so tight, the rest of the world melts around you. After some time you both set out on your very first epic adventure together as newlyweds!
What does that adventure look like? Is it throwing on some crampons and hiking on a glacier? Or driving to the nearest airport and catching a flight to a remote area to do a little heli hiking tour?
What do you two love to do together?
What sets your souls on fire?
What inspires you?
If you could literally do ANYTHING, what would that be?
List of activities to celebrate your elopement
Well here is a list of a few awesome adventurous activities in the great outdoors to consider for your wedding day adventure!!
Glacier Trekking
Anyone who knows me, is totally aware of my overall obsession with glaciers. So for me, a perfect wedding day outdoor activity would absolutely be booking a private trekking guide to explore some moulins, ice caves, crevasses and epic fjord scenes with us and the photo/ video team! I personally cannot imagine a better way to spend a couple hours on my wedding day than hiking around the ever changing landscape of a glacier in full wedding attire and doing photos along the way!
Maybe even consider doing your vow ceremony on the glacier, how fricken’ unreal would that be?!
Some ways to really up the glacier experience could be something like learning basic ice climbing skills together - or - if you already in the know, climbing some glacier ice walls together!
Or if you are in an area during the right time of year, you could explore some really insane ice caves, like we did in Iceland this summer. Although winter is typically a better and safer time of year to explore the caves here in the US, it is possible to explore stable ones in the summer in more northern areas of the world.
Hiking and/or Backpacking
Hiking can be an absolutely incredible way to connect with nature and each other on your wedding day. Depending on where you decide to get married, you could even hike to a remote spot in nature or insane viewpoint to say your vows! Especially if you hike up before sunrise, you get to get married, then enjoy the rad views on your hike back down!
On the flip side, you can hike up before sunset, enjoying the epic-ness of everything on the way up, get married, then have a chill and almost meditative hike back down to a candlelit picnic or bonfire celebration.
Not feeling that level of type 2 adventuring on your wedding day? That’s cool too, you could just opt for a short wander on a scenic trail, you don’t have to hoof it 5 miles to catch a view!
Camping
Are you both happiest out in the wilderness, sleeping under the stars, staring into a bonfire, cooking campfire meals… and eating S’MORES?! Ya me too, haha! So why not camp a couple nights around your wedding day? I mean, if you are traveling somewhere amazing and adventurous, why not take it to the next level and totally unplug?! No electronics, no tv, no distractions! It’s a perfect way to really boil things back to a simpler way of living that will allow you two to really connect on a deep level, before one of the biggest days of your lives together!
Wanna unplug, but not too keen on sleeping in a tent? Check out renting a remote cabin on a lake in the mountains, or maybe a cute canvas yurt is more your style. If your in Iceland they have some really rugged camper van options to stay in too, so definitely check out local unique places to stay where you are traveling to! The opportunities are endless for unique lodging options!
Seriously just hop on Youtube, airbnb or your favorite travel blog and look for unique places to camp around the world. They have everything from: Bubbles in Iceland, to unique tiny homes in the mountains, to tiny tree houses in Norway, to Skylodges in Peru. It’s insane the amount of really cool “camping” style places you can stay that will really cultivate an even more memorable experience.
Aerial Tram/ Ski lift
If you are wanting to do something outdoorsy and fun, but either don’t have the time or aren’t a huge hiker, taking an aerial tram or ski lift is a great option for some easy epic views and great photo ops.
Take it even further and start at the drop point and hike out to some really impressive views that would normally take a multi day hike up the mountain.
Flight-Seeing Tour
Another great option for a tighter schedule, easier viewpoints or a more remote experience is booking a private flightseeing tour. There is no faster way to cover an insane amount of land than by air. You can take tours of glaciers, mountains, canyons, etc. Some tour options allow you to take some time in a remote area and explore around. Making it a great opportunity for some intimate moments, just the two of you in the wilds of nature!
Also, consider a heli hike tour, where you can land and actually hike around, or land in multiple places like a glacier for the first stop then along a river bed with an epic mountainscape in the back for another stop.
Pro tip: You could even say your vows somewhere completely remote, what a meaningful and epic way to promise yourselves to each other!
Land Tour
Are you having some friends and family come along to witness your elopement and want to carve out some time to recreate with them as well?
Check out 4x4, Jeep, UTV, train and boat tours! These are also great options for getting off the beaten path to more remote areas along the way. Imagine everyone piling into Arizona’s Pink Jeep Tour vehicles and 4x4ing up some dirt roads for your sunset ceremony in Sedona… holy hell that would be an experience!
To up the experience a bit, consider a small cruise or private boat tour. Depending on where you are eloping in the world, you could cruise around a vast array of natural landscapes and have a little party along the way! One of my favorites was a glacier cruise of Prince William Sound in Alaska, where we saw so much sea life and glaciers calving into the sound. It was an out of body experience kinda awesome!
Mini Road Trip + Sightseeing Adventure
Another favorite of mine, is a classic tried and true adventure… the road trip! A really great way to explore a new landscape is taking it on by car, bus, plane, train, boat, etc. But what I really love about a mini road trip is how personal it can be.
Pro tip: Some parks have shuttle services like Glacier National Park, Zion National Park and Denali National Park that you can explore the parks in and learn about the surrounding areas as well! -> yup I’m a nerd and LOVE learning about places while exploring them!
Imagine this- you meet at a trailhead with your favorite people, hike for about 30 mins to the most incredible viewpoint, you say your vows to each other in the most intentional and meaningful way, then you all hike back out as a group, pile into a bus and hit the road, exploring parts of the park or wilderness, stopping along the way to take in the sights and grab some epic photos of you two as well as candids of your peeps having the time of their lives. Maybe even hop onto another small trail or just soak it all in!
What a truly special way to celebrate your love with the people you love!
Choose Your Adventure
There really are SO many ways to celebrate in the outdoors on your wedding day, both with and without guests. These are just a few of my top faves that I hope can help inspire you and here are some more ideas to help you CHOOSE YOUR ADVENTURE experience on your wedding day!!!
Biking
Camping/ bonfire
Hot springs
Road trip/ sightseeing
Cliff jumping/ swimming
Fishing
Train/ tram/ chair lift
Boat excursion
Hammock hang
Star gaze
Horse ride
Hiking
Backpacking
Kayaking/canoeing/ SUP/ pack raft/ white water raft
climbing/ice climbing
Glacier trekking
Snowshoeing/ skiing/ snowboarding
Hot air balloon
Heli hike/ heli tour
Picnic
Hire a local guide to explore off the beaten path locations
Jeep tour/ ATV/ UTV
Know you want to elope but don’t have any idea where or what to do? We can help!! I am passionate about helping couples have the most badass wedding day experience ever!!
