Big Love, little weddings

Big Love Elopements opened the doors this month to their Geelong West wedding venue, the perfect place to host a weekday elopement.

The Geelong business provides elopement packages for weekday weddings.

Couples can take off along the Surf Coast or find a corner of Geelong covered in street art to say their vows with their closest loved ones, before heading off for photos.

Big Love Elopements co-owners Jessie Walsdorf, of Jessie Belle Celebrant, and Jake Hogan, of The Hogans Photography, were well-versed in the wedding industry when they first decided to launch their new business.

Walsdorf said she saw the big, and often stressful and expensive weekend wedding wasn’t for every couple.

“I was looking for an alternative to weddings – smaller ceremonies and packages for weddings, but on a weekday, where it could be more affordable for couples, but not take away from the day.

“I wanted to make it a really amazing experience but on a smaller scale.”

The business partners took their time developing the concept until they were sure they had found the perfect wedding package.

“We started out with our two hours weddings package, which was a personalised ceremony and that also includes two hours of photography,” Walsdorf said.

“It’s up to 20 guests, it strips back your plans, you can only invite the people you want there and are really important in your life, and you can then enjoy the day, be present, and still get married.

“It’s still a beautiful day, on a smaller scale.

“That includes photographs of the ceremony and then the couple can take off along the Surf Coast and take lots of beautiful photos. It’s still our most popular package.”

Since then, Big Love Elopement have expanded to a team of seven, and last year they opened their offices on Pakington Street.

“It’s just grown and grown, and we’ve listened to what our couples want.”

Big Love Elopements’ wedding bundles now range from 20 minutes to five hours and include a celebrant, photographers and the added optional extras of music and a videographer.

“We’ve since added Ruby, Cal, Zena, Chloe and Verity to our team,” Walsdorf said.

As of this month, the business now has its own venue.

For anything else, from flowers to catering, the couples source with help from the team at Big Love, who give recommendations for suppliers.

“Our smallest package is 20 minutes, which is a short and sweet ceremony and 10-15 minutes of photographs, right up to our micro-weddings, which is a five-hour package, which is a full ceremony with unlimited guests on a weekdays.”

Walsdorf said they also wanted to create an alternative to the registry office – something that was simple, but beautiful and creative.

“We wanted a happy medium, so we wanted to make it a really personalised, beautiful experience, and capture that with gorgeous photos. So, we can say ‘Yes, we’ve got this awesome space, you don’t have to go to Melbourne to the registry office, you can come to our space have a short, sweet ceremony, grab a glass of champagne and then take off for photos’.

“Also, it’s an alternative for wet weather as well, because a lot of our couples say ‘We want to get married in a park’, and we say ‘Great, and if it’s pouring with rain what are you going to do?’… we do live in Victoria, so the weather’s always unpredictable.

“So, it’s really lovely a backup plan for our couples who attempt to have elopements out in the open.”

The Geelong West venue is in Little Arcade off Pakington Street in Geelong West.

“We’re making it really fun, funky, colourful, bright.

“You can come in there and get married and then head off to take photos around the area – you can head down to the waterfront, or to any of the cool pockets around Geelong with the artwork on the walls.

“It’s quite small, max 15 guests. And it will just be a really nice community space for us and our team as well, and we will hire it out to other creatives.”

But the Big Love Elopements team won’t stop doing elopements, and their willingness to go on an adventure with the couples is part of what they love most about the jobs.

“We love putting Geelong, the Surf Coast on the map as well for an amazing destination for elopements and weddings, we love that community feel.

“Our most popular elopement spots are the Surf Coast and Otways.”

“We just want to keep growing, we’d love to expand to more regional towns as well.

“The main thing for our business is that we keep it small and intimate but that doesn’t detract from it being an incredible experience. It’s really investing in every single couple and their elopement, no matter how big or small it is.”

To follow the Big Love Elopement journey, head to bigloveelopements.com.au