Boston Elopement Ideas: 18 Ways to Make Your Wedding Day Actually Fun

Here is the thing nobody tells you about eloping in Boston: the hardest part is not the paperwork. It is the blank page. Most Boston elopement ideas you find online are somebody else’s day, not yours.

With a traditional wedding, the checklist already exists. Ceremony, cocktail hour, salad course, first dance, cake, sparkler exit, done. Somebody hands you the timeline and you just fill in the names. With an elopement, you get handed a completely empty day and told to make it yours. That sounds amazing right up until you are three hours deep in Pinterest, wondering if you actually want a mountaintop or if you just saw one really good photo of a mountaintop.

So let’s fix that. I have photographed 500+ weddings, elopements and engagements over the last 11 years, and I am also an ordained officiant. I have spent a lot of time watching couples figure out what they actually want their wedding day to feel like. Below are the Boston elopement ideas my couples keep coming back to, plus a few I am dying for someone to say yes to.

Fair warning: some of these Boston elopement ideas are very Boston, and some of them are a little unhinged. That is on purpose.

Where the best Boston elopement ideas come from

Before you pick a single location, sit down together and write a list of things you genuinely love doing as a couple. Not things that photograph well. Things you actually do.

Do you get a coffee and walk with no destination? Is there a bar where the bartender knows your order? Maybe you play video games until 1am, or drive to the ocean every time you have a bad week. Perhaps you have a dog who is arguably the main character of your relationship.

That list is your wedding day. Everything else is logistics, and logistics are my job. The best Boston elopement ideas are almost never the ones that look good on a mood board.

The couples who love their elopement photos the most are never the ones who staged the prettiest picnic. They are the ones who did something they would have wanted to do anyway, and happened to get married in the middle of it.

Boston elopement ideas that break the usual rules

Get married at Fenway Park

Okay. Let’s start with the big one.

Yes, people get married at Fenway. There is a whole history of it, including ceremonies out in the stands with the Green Monster behind them and the couple’s photo up on the scoreboard. It is one of the most genuinely Boston things you could possibly do with your wedding day.

Here is the current reality, because I would rather you hear it from me than from a Pinterest board from 2016. Private events at Fenway now run through Evergreen, the ballpark’s events brand. Their public list of event types covers social events, buyouts, corporate outings and so on. Weddings are not listed as their own category the way they used to be. So this is a “call and ask” situation rather than a “book it online” one, and site fees have historically started in the thousands.

Translation: it is worth an email. Just go in with realistic expectations and a backup plan.

If a full Fenway wedding is out of budget: book the ballpark tour, which runs almost every day, and do your portraits there. Or grab Green Monster seats. Or go to Bleacher Bar, which is tucked underneath the bleachers with a garage door that looks straight out onto center field. I have never been asked to photograph vows there. I would very much like to be.

Say I do in the morning, go to a Sox game in the afternoon

This is the version of the Fenway dream that is actually easy to pull off, and honestly I think it is better.

Get married somewhere quiet and beautiful in the morning. Boston City Hall, the Public Garden, the Boston Public Library courtyard, a rooftop, your apartment. Do your portraits. Have lunch somewhere good. Then change into jerseys and walk to Fenway. Spend the rest of your wedding day eating a sausage from a cart on Lansdowne and yelling at an umpire.

You get the ceremony you want and the day you want, and nobody has to negotiate a stadium contract. Bonus: the light on Jersey Street before a night game is unreal.

Pro tip from someone who has done this walk in heels: check the schedule before you pick your date, and check whether it is a day game or a night game. It changes your entire timeline.

Get matching tattoos instead of rings

I love this one so much.

Some couples do it instead of rings. Others do it in addition. It might be a tiny matching symbol, or each other’s handwriting, or the date, or something completely unserious that only makes sense to the two of them. I have watched people get tattooed in their wedding dress, and it is one of my favorite things to photograph. The look on somebody’s face while their brand new spouse holds their hand through a tattoo is not a face you can fake.

A few real logistics, because I want you to actually pull this off:

• Book it in advance. Walk-ins exist at most Boston shops but they are first come, first served, and “we have three hours and we are wearing formalwear” is not a great walk-in situation. Call ahead and tell them it is your wedding day. Most artists think that rules and will make room for you.
• Do it before the champagne, not after. Shops will not tattoo you if you have been drinking, and Boston’s body art rules back them up. This is the number one thing that derails a wedding day tattoo.
• Fresh tattoos are shiny, red and wrapped. That is fine and it looks great in photos, but plan the tattoo late in the day if you want clean portraits first, and know you will be in a wrap for the rest of the night.
• Placement matters for photos. Inner wrist, forearm and ribs photograph beautifully. Something under a sleeve you cannot roll up is going to be a challenge.

Get permanently welded jewelry

Same energy as the tattoo, slightly lower commitment, no healing time.

Permanent jewelry is a chain that gets custom fitted to your wrist, ankle or neck, then welded shut with a tiny spark. There is no clasp, and it never comes off unless you cut it off. It takes about fifteen minutes. It does not hurt. And it is a lovely stand-in for a ring if one of you works with your hands, hates wearing rings, or just wants something that is only yours.

Brave Daughters in the Seaport is Greater Boston’s original permanent jewelry studio, and they do 14k solid gold, gold-filled, sterling and stainless, so there is a version at basically any budget. You can add charms, initials and stones too, which means you can put your wedding date on your wrist forever.

Here is the part that made me sit up: their Seaport studio is at 70 Pier 4 Blvd, and Puttshack is at 58 Pier 4 Blvd. Which brings me to my favorite idea on this entire list.

Boston elopement ideas around the city

Play mini golf at Puttshack in your wedding clothes

Please. Somebody let me photograph this.

Puttshack in the Seaport has two floors and four nine-hole courses. The balls track your score automatically so you cannot cheat, which is the funniest possible way to start a marriage. There is a full bar, DJs at night, and a lobster mac and cheese spring roll. There is also a private event space that seats up to 74 if you want to bring people.

A round takes about 30 to 45 minutes. So this is not an all-day commitment. It is a perfect between-things activity: ceremony, portraits, mini golf, dinner.

Two things to know. Book ahead, because walk-ins are not guaranteed on nights and weekends. And it goes 21+ after 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays with the last tee time at 8pm, so if you have kids in your wedding party, go earlier.

And since Brave Daughters is a two-minute walk away, you can do welded rings, mini golf and a Seaport golden hour session in one afternoon without moving your car. That is a full day of Boston elopement ideas inside about a thousand feet.

Take out a Swan Boat in the Public Garden

Seasonal, cheap, ridiculous, deeply Boston, and the light through the willows in June is worth the entire trip.

The Swan Boats run spring through early fall. You cannot have a ceremony on one. You can absolutely float around the lagoon in a wedding dress while a nine-year-old on a field trip stares at you, and that photo is going on your wall. The Public Garden itself is a great ceremony spot too. Look into a City of Boston parks permit if you are bringing chairs or more than a handful of people.

Do a North End cannoli crawl

Instead of a cake, get four cannoli and decide, as your first act as a married couple, which one is best.

Mike’s or Modern is a legitimate Boston argument and doing it in a veil while people on Hanover Street cheer for you is a top-tier wedding memory. Add a stop for espresso, add a stop for a negroni, and you have essentially built a progressive reception through the oldest neighborhood in the city for under a hundred dollars.

Take a ferry to the Harbor Islands

Most people who live here have never done this, which is wild, because there is a whole national and state park out in the harbor twenty minutes from downtown.

Spectacle Island has hilltop views straight back at the skyline. Georges Island has a nineteenth century fort you can wander around in. You take a ferry, you get married on an island, you take the ferry back, and the boat ride itself becomes part of the day instead of dead transit time.

Do check permits and the seasonal ferry schedule, because the islands are not a year-round option and the last boat is a real deadline.

Eat oysters at a bar with no reservation

Not everything needs a floor plan.

Some of my favorite elopement dinners have been two people at a raw bar, still in their wedding clothes, eating a dozen oysters and splitting a lobster roll. The North End, the Seaport, Union Oyster House if you want history, Neptune if you want a wait and a very good time. You just got married. You do not owe anyone a seating chart.

Get married at Boston City Hall and then have the real day

City Hall is a legitimate, legal, ten-minute ceremony, and it is a great foundation for a much bigger day.

Do the paperwork in the morning. Then spend the entire rest of the day doing whatever you want with zero pressure, because you are already married and nothing left on the schedule can go wrong. I have a full walkthrough of the marriage license process, the three day waiting period and the one day designation on my Boston elopement photographer and officiant page, and you can start the license application through boston.gov.

Or skip City Hall entirely and let me marry you, since officiating is included with every elopement collection I offer.

Boston elopement ideas that make the day yours

Bring your dog (yes, this is a real Boston elopement idea)

I am contractually obligated to include this because my dog Brooklyn would never forgive me otherwise.

Your dog can absolutely be in your ceremony. The only real advice I have: assign somebody who is not you to be on dog duty, bring water and a backup leash that photographs well, and pick a location that allows dogs off-leash or at least on-leash. The Esplanade, the Arboretum and most of the harbor walk are all great for this.

Shoot part of your day on Super 8

I shoot 35mm film and Super 8 alongside digital, and the Super 8 is the thing couples end up crying over.

There is something about grainy, slightly wobbly, sound-free motion film that makes a day feel like a memory instead of a document. It looks like something you found in your parents’ attic. Thirty seconds of you two laughing on Super 8 will wreck you in the best way, and it is a completely different keepsake than your gallery.

Do something genuinely silly at night

Karaoke in Chinatown. An arcade bar. Roller skating. Candlepin bowling, which is a New England thing and objectively superior. A late night drive for ice cream.

The best photos I take are almost never during the ceremony. They are at 10pm when everyone has stopped performing and somebody’s spouse is losing badly at skee-ball in a wedding dress.

Boston elopement ideas that get you out of the city

Drive to the ocean, the Boston elopement idea for people who need a horizon

Boston is ninety minutes from a lot of very good coastline.

Cape Cod National Seashore is the one my couples ask for most, and Marconi Beach in particular is on the National Seashore’s approved permit list, which matters because you do need a special use permit for a ceremony out there. I wrote a whole Cape Cod wedding and elopement guide covering the permit process and the best beaches for it.

If you want the version with more cliffs, the Where to Elope in New England hub covers the Berkshires, the White Mountains, Watch Hill, Stowe and Acadia, all with the legal requirements for each state.

Get married on a mountain and ski down

This is the one I want most, and I say that as someone who can actually ski, which matters more than you would think.

I shot Hillary and Doug’s ski engagement session, and here is what I learned. Most photographers cannot follow you onto a slope. They meet you at the base lodge, grab a few shots by the lift, and that is the day. If you want photos of the two of you actually skiing, actually laughing, actually wiping out, somebody has to be up there on skis with a camera, going down backwards. That is me. I can get on the lift with you.

So the day looks like this. Ski all morning in your regular gear. Ride up one more time around golden hour, change at the summit, say your vows with the whole valley behind you, then ski down as a married couple while I chase you. Dinner at the lodge with a fire going. It is the single best use of a New England winter I can think of.

Where to ski elope in New England

• Stowe, Vermont. The Cliff House sits at the top of the Mount Mansfield gondola and turns into a reception space, and guests have to ride the gondola up to get there, which is its own experience. There is also a small interfaith chapel right on the slopes off Toll Road that is open most weekends starting in January, though everyone has to ride a lift in and ski down. Stowe’s venue package starts around $7,500, so this is the elevated version.
• Loon Mountain, New Hampshire. Ceremonies happen at a summit amphitheater at 2,733 feet, reached by the White Mountain Express Gondola, with Franconia Ridge and the White Mountain National Forest all around you. Very accessible off I-93 and very used to hosting this.
• Cannon Mountain, New Hampshire. The aerial tramway in Franconia Notch, which is a state park, so this one runs on permits rather than a resort package. Great if you want mountain drama without a venue contract.
• Wachusett, Massachusetts. The low-key option, roughly an hour from Boston in Princeton. You will not get Franconia Ridge, but you can leave the city in the morning, get married, ski, and be home for dinner. Perfect for a weekday elopement.

What to know before a winter elopement

• Layers under everything. Fleece-lined tights, hand warmers in your pockets, a wool base layer under the dress. You will look exactly the same in photos and you will not be miserable.
• Two pairs of shoes, minimum. Boots to get there, whatever you want for the ceremony, and a plan for the twenty feet in between.
• Golden hour is early. In January the light is gone by 4:30, and lifts stop running before that. Winter timelines are tight and I will build yours around the last chair, not around sunset.
• The resort needs to know. Even for two people, most mountains want you to talk to their events team before you hold a ceremony on their property, and you will need lift tickets for everyone including me.
• Cold kills batteries and fogs lenses. That one is my problem, not yours. But it is why you want somebody who has done this in February and not just in a studio.

If you would rather do this in summer, the same summit spots at Loon and Stowe are gorgeous with the gondola running and zero snow logistics. The Where to Elope in New England guide covers the White Mountains and Stowe in more detail.

Make it two days instead of one

This is my honest favorite structure and almost nobody considers it.

Day one: ceremony, family, a nice dinner, everyone in one place, the traditional-adjacent version. Day two: just the two of you, no schedule, out doing something you love, with a camera quietly following.

You get the celebration and the intimacy without making either one compete for time. It also means you do not have to choose between “we want our people there” and “we want it to be about us.” That tension is what sends most couples into elopement research in the first place.

Leave the country entirely

If your version of a great day involves a passport, the elopement is also the honeymoon and that math works out very well.

I have photographed elopements in Scotland, Amsterdam and the Faroe Islands, and I have full guides for Paris and the Faroe Islands that cover the legal side, the timing and the locations that are actually worth the trip.

Keep one tradition and invent one

You do not have to burn everything down.

Keep the thing that matters. Your dad walking you down an aisle, even if the aisle is a trail. Your grandmother’s ring. The song. Then make up something new that is entirely yours: a first bite of a specific sandwich, a shared tattoo, a coin flip for who says vows first, a rule that the day ends with a specific drink at a specific bar.

Twenty years from now the invented tradition is the one you will still be doing.

How to pick your Boston elopement ideas

Pick two of these Boston elopement ideas. Just two. One that makes you laugh and one that makes you a little emotional.

Build the day around those, and let me handle the rest. I will help you figure out the permits, the timeline, the light, the license and the order of operations, and if you want, I will marry you myself.

If any of this sounds like your day, let’s talk about it. I would especially like to hear from whoever is going to be the first to get married in a wedding dress at Puttshack.

xo erin