Wedding Dress Length: mini-dresses to cathedral trains

Mini-dresses: Mini dresses are cute and fun, but be careful that you don't go too short (unless you're okay with sharing all and maybe scraping up your bum a bit as you slide over a downed tree :D). You'll be moving a lot on your elopement day, so being sure you can take big steps while staying covered-up-to-your-comfort-level-and-safety-needs is key.


Tea-length: Tea-length is ready for adventure! You won't worry about ever tripping on your dress or showing off your hoohaw unintentionally on a big step up. The one challenging thing about tea-length dress is picking the right footwear. Feel free to embrace the dress+hiking boots esthetic, search for some stylish hiking sandals or river sohes (like Tevas or Chacos), or pick locations where you can go barefoot.


Floor-length: Congrats on choosing a style that's easy to manage and (mostly) covers your feet (feel free to wear your favorite sneakers!). Most of my tips for long @$$ trains will apply to you.


Long @$$ trains: Most brides assume that eloping with a long train is a no-go. Surprisingly, it's not that hard to elope with a cathedral train, if you have a strategy! Our favorite way to hike in 20 yards of fabric is with a Bridal Buddy. This undergarment fits under most gowns and allows you to hike your dress up to your knees, waist, or even shoulders! Don't worry about buying one--we provide a size S (which, due to the elastic waist, fits XS to M-ish brides).

The bridal buddy does NOT work with:

  • Fabric that wrinkles easily
  • See-through waist areas (e.g. dresses with lace around the waist)
  • Dresses that are tight and revealing between the waist and lower hips. If you can't wear underwear under your wedding dress because the lines show through, the Bridal Buddy won't work for you.
Bride in a white gown and groom in a dark suit share a dipped kiss on a winding dirt path surrounded by green mountains and trees.

This bride is wearing a bridal buddy under her dress for easy pick-up-and-go hiking.

Smiling bride in a white dress and groom in a dark suit with backpacks hike a muddy forest trail during an adventure elopement.

The bridal buddy in full-action mode.

The Basic Wedding Dress Styles


Form fitting on top and gradually widening from the waist down, an A-line dress is a simple and elegant classic.

Pros: Less fabric can be easier to manage! You won't need much of a strategy If you get wet, you won't be carrying 20 pounds of water.

Cons: Some A-line dresses (like the one below) have little flair at the bottom. If you're doing an extreme hike or need to take big steps (imagine getting into a boat), you might not have enough mobility. Make sure you can take a big step up, and you're good.

A-Line + Sheath

A-line is form fitting on top and gradually widening from the waist down, while a Sheath stays relatively straight the whole way down. Both are simple and elegant classics.

Pros: Less fabric can be easier to manage! You won't need much of a strategy If you get wet, you won't be carrying 20 pounds of water.

Cons: Most sheath (like the one below) and some A-line dresses have little flair at the bottom. If you're doing an extreme hike or need to take big steps (imagine getting into a boat), you might not have enough mobility. Make sure you can take a big step up, and you're good.


Bride and groom embrace among towering bamboo and moss-covered logs, she holding a vibrant orange tropical bouquet in a lush forest wedding.

Ballgowns


The ultra fancy princess dress. Form-fitted at the top (often with a boned bodice) and ultra full and fluffy at the bottom.

Pros: Easy to move in! The floofiness gives your legs a lot of mobility. The floor length also hides your shoes so you can wear whatever the eff you want.

Cons: There can be such a thing as too floofy when your eloping. A ballgown like the one pictured is relatively trim compared to some ballgowns, and it still got caught on branches and rocks. Imagine trying to wear a quinciñera ballgown in the forest! You'd be hung on EVERYTHING!

Additionally, ballgowns are VERY heavy when they get wet. Don't try jumping into the ocean in one unless you're ready to become an anchor.


Bride and groom embrace among towering bamboo and moss-covered logs, she holding a vibrant orange tropical bouquet in a lush forest wedding.

Mermaid


The perfect dress if you don't need to move, a mermaid dress is tight down past your knees.

Pros: You look hot like a Barbie and can move just as easily.

Cons: EVERYTHING! If you can't move, it's not worth it.


Pictured: NOT a mermaid dress (this is a trumpet dress, which widens avoce the knees), but it's the closest style I recommend for eloping.


Bride and groom embrace among towering bamboo and moss-covered logs, she holding a vibrant orange tropical bouquet in a lush forest wedding.

The Best Wedding Dress Fabrics for Eloping

The rule of thumb: How well does it show wrinkles?


If a dress easily wrinkles and the wrinkles show easily, it's not the best for eloping.

Best Fabrics:

  • Soft laces, especially polyester or poly-blend laces. These dresses can often be stuffed into a backpack and put on and look like it's been pressed at the tailor. While I normally loathe polyester fabrics, I must admit that they can be suuuuper easy to clean, so you can just hose yourself off after a muddy hike and look pretty darn good.
  • Soft Tulles

Good Fabrics (but test them out!):

  • Brocades
  • Tulles: Tulles wash out super easily. Honestly, I've put brides under beach showers when they were covered in mud and sand, and they came out clean. Tulle CAN be wrinkly, so test a section to see how to fluffs out after being wadded up. Another thing to know about tulle: you will be a giant bug net, so be prepared to spray the inside of your dress with lots of bug spray.
  • Textured, polished, crepe, or matte satins.

The Most Annoying Fabrics:

  • A Shiny Satin. Kill me now. There's no amount of photoshopping that I can do to make a satin wedding dress not look like a ball of shiny wrinkles.