Why Do Couples Elope? Latest Poll Results

As you may already know if you have been reading WhereToElope.com for a while, we have an ongoing reader poll where couples can share with us why they are choosing to elope instead of having a traditional wedding. It has been a while since we last updated those results, so we thought it was time to look at how the poll stands at present to see if anything has changed since our Summer 2015 update. So, let’s take a look at the current poll results as of March 2016.

Saving Money On The Cost of Your Wedding

One thing that remains apparent is that the most common motivation for choosing an elopement is MONEY! Saving money is still the most common answer when we ask couples why they are eloping, with almost 73% of couples mentioning money – That’s a slight increase on last summer when the figure was closer to  72%. This is not a huge surprise considering the fact that the national average for a traditional wedding is $25,000 and we can help you to find an all inclusive elopement for $2,500 OR LESS – that’s a 90% saving!  

More Reasons to Elope!

Of course, money is not the only reason why eloping is so popular! The next most popular reason according to our poll is to have fun and enjoy your own ceremony, which was selected by just under 59% of respondents. This is a similar number to the last time that we examined the results in detail and it highlights the fact that eloping gives couples an opportunity to plan the wedding that they want without having to deal with the stress or the family politics! Incidentally, those were also popular choices in the poll with over 48% choosing elopement in order to avoid family politics and 53.6% using it as a way to maintain their own sanity during the planning process!

There were also many other reasons given for eloping and for the most part the rankings have remained fairly constant over the years. One interesting figure which rose considerably was the number of couples who were choosing elopement in order to get started with immigration procedures. The figure for this currently stands at 2.4% – up from 1.5% six months ago. This highlights the fact that we are living in an increasingly global community with couples of different nationalities meeting and falling in love! Because of that, you might be interested in checking out our EU elopement information for couples choosing to marry outside of the United States!

Check out the full poll results below :

1. To save money : 72.82%
2. To have fun & enjoy your own ceremony : 58.85%
3. To avoid family politics : 48.38%
4. To maintain your sanity : 43.62%
5. To save time : 41.9%
6. To have freedom from the norm: 40.65%
7. To get around the high cost of destination weddings : 26.68%
8. To redirect money towards buying a house : 24.44%
9. Other : 13.72%
10. To start immigration procedures : 2.24%

Do you agree with these poll result? Why not head on over to our ‘Why Are You Eloping Quiz?‘ page and take part in our survey, telling us why you have made the decision to elope.