What an Elopement Plus Actually Is

The term is ours, not an official one. By an elopement plus we mean a wedding with the two of you and somewhere between two and eight other people: your parents, your siblings, a witness or two, a child, a close friend who made the journey. There is no seating plan and no master of ceremonies. There is a ceremony, photographs, one good dinner and usually a morning after.

Why does it work so well in Lapland? Because the setting is already special and the distances are short. A frozen lake, a forest clearing, a hilltop or an Ice Chapel can hold ten people easily, and the cold shortens everything in a good way: ceremonies are brief, dinners are warm and everyone remembers the day clearly.

Full disclosure: Rovaniemi Weddings is our own company. Alla founded it after planning her own wedding in 2024, and we plan weddings from two guests to over 200. This post is what we would tell a friend who wants a small wedding, whether or not they hire us.

Who It Suits

In our experience an elopement plus suits four kinds of couple.

• Couples who want family but not a crowd. The parents come, the cousins do not, and nobody is offended because the place itself is the reason.
• Couples with a parent or grandparent who cannot travel far. Rovaniemi has direct flights from Helsinki, and the airport is minutes from town.
• Couples marrying for a second time, who want warmth and simplicity more than ceremony.
• Couples with children, who want the children to be part of the ceremony. We have a guide on getting married in Lapland with your children.

It suits less well if you expect 40 relatives to be offended by not being invited. In that case, a small wedding of 20 to 30 guests is a better format; see our guide to a small wedding in Lapland for 20 to 30 guests.

Five Settings That Hold a Small Group Well

These are the settings we reach for first. Prices vary by scope, guest count and season, and we give a custom quote after a consultation.

For a group of four to ten, our favourite combinations are a villa with a ceremony in the yard, or a lakeside resort with vows on the pier and dinner in the restaurant. For a very small winter wedding, a ceremony in the Ice Chapel followed by dinner in the kota is hard to beat.

What the Day Looks Like

For an elopement plus in winter, here is a day that works.

1. Morning: hair and make-up at your accommodation. Guests have a long breakfast, and nobody is rushed.
2. Early afternoon: the ceremony. In the cold it lasts about 20 to 30 minutes, with the officiant, rings, vows and a short reading if you like.
3. Photographs: in short, ten to fifteen-minute bursts between warm-ups, with the whole group and then the two of you.
4. Toast and dinner: a private dinner at the venue, with the long table and candles.
5. Evening: a sauna, a fire or an evening walk if the sky is clear.

In summer the same structure works, but the ceremony can move to the evening, and the midnight sun makes the light very soft. Our guide to an elopement day timeline in Lapland shows the hours in detail.

The Legal Side With Guests

The paperwork for an elopement plus is the same as for any wedding in Finland. Foreign nationals can marry, and there is no residency requirement or waiting period. You apply for an examination of impediments through the Digital and Population Data Services Agency; it typically takes about seven working days, can extend to several weeks for international applicants, and costs around €60. You will need a valid passport each, a certificate of no impediment from your home country and, if previously married, the divorce decree or death certificate, with documents translated into Finnish, Swedish or English.

A civil ceremony is performed by a district court judge or other authorised official at virtually any location, and can be conducted in English. Guests can act as witnesses. Start the paperwork three to four months before the date. Our Getting Married in Finland page lists every document, and if you prefer to marry at home first, a symbolic ceremony in Lapland works equally well.

Cost: What Four to Ten Guests Changes

Our cost guide gives these ranges: an intimate elopement starts from around €5,000, and an event of 20 to 50 guests is typically €10,000 to €20,000. An elopement plus sits in between and closer to the lower end. Within it, the figures we publish are: a cabin or glass igloo for an intimate day €500 to €1,500, elopement styling from around €800, and photography packages starting around €2,000 depending on hours and travel.

With a handful of guests, three things add cost: their accommodation, their dinner and their transport. A sit-down dinner for 20 to 50 guests runs roughly €50 to €150 per person in our guide, so at ten people it is a small line. A villa you share, such as Arcticmint Villa, can hold the guests overnight, which saves hotel bills and keeps the group together. Our full Lapland wedding cost guide has the details, and the quote after a consultation is clear with nothing hidden.

Getting Your Few Guests There

With so few guests, travel is easy to organise and easy to get wrong in one place: arrival times. Rovaniemi Airport is about ten minutes from town, with direct flights from Helsinki year-round and seasonal direct flights from London, Paris and other European cities. Arrange for everyone to arrive the day before the wedding, never on the day, because winter delays are normal.

Tell guests early about clothes. In winter that means thermal layers, a real coat and insulated boots even for a dress or a suit; our guide to what to wear to a Lapland winter wedding is a good thing to send them. For summer, mosquito repellent and a light jacket.

Finally, think about the morning after. A slow brunch with the whole group, in the same cabin or villa where you stayed, is a favourite part of the format for many couples.

Making a Small Group Feel Included, Not Spectators

The risk of a very small wedding is that the guests become an audience while the couple become performers. With four to ten people there is a better way, and it is one of the reasons we like the format. Give each person something to do. A parent can walk one of you in or read a short passage, a sibling can hold the rings, a friend can take the first photograph after the vows, and a child can carry the flowers. None of this needs rehearsal beyond a few minutes on site, and it turns the guests into part of the ceremony.

The same idea works for the dinner. At a single long table, people talk to each other rather than to a head table, and a short toast from each person, in turn, is easily the most moving part of many of the small weddings we have styled. Ask guests in advance to prepare two sentences each; it removes the pressure of speaking cold.

Plan the movement too. In winter, keep guests warm: a villa, a kota with an open fire or a glass igloo gives them somewhere to wait while you have your couple photographs, and a thermos of something hot is the cheapest, kindest thing you can add. In summer, think about shade, insects and the long light, and move the dinner outside if the evening allows.

Finally, decide in advance what you want to be private. Some couples keep the vows to themselves and share only the photographs; others want everyone present. Tell us which, and we plan the timeline around it. That is part of how a small wedding feels unhurried: every decision is made before the day, by the two of you, with us handling the logistics.

How to Plan It With Us

Wedding planning with us runs in five simple steps.

1. Tell us about your day: your date, guest count, wishes and ideas.
2. Consultation and estimate: a meeting in person or online, and a price estimate during the call or shortly after.
3. Agreement and deposit: a simple agreement and a deposit that secures your date.
4. Planning together: we source and book suppliers; you choose, we handle every booking and email.
5. Your wedding day: we install every detail, run the timeline and quietly solve the small things.

We reply within one business day. Start on the contact page or read about our Weddings and the Elopement in Lapland approach.

FAQ

Our Honest Final Word

Plainly: Rovaniemi Weddings is our own company, and we would like to plan your wedding. But the idea works whoever you hire: if you want a quiet wedding and cannot imagine doing it without your parents, an elopement plus gives you both. Keep the group small enough to fit in one car, one long table and one set of photographs, and choose a setting that does the decorating for you.

Start with Elopement in Lapland and Getting Married in Finland, and look at Arcticmint Villa and Silver Birch Resort if you want a place that is yours for the day. We reply within a business day.

Rovaniemi Weddings · by Joona & Alla

Small weddings we plan in Lapland

Every option is planned, set up and quietly packed down by our own team, and nearly every proposal includes a photographer. Tell us your story and we reply within one business day.

WeddingsElopement in LaplandRovaniemi WeddingsSee more →VenueArcticmint VillaLake Norvajärvi, Rovaniemi — about 20 minutes from Rovaniemi city centre, 15 minutes from Rovaniemi Airport and Santa Claus VillageSee more →VenueSilver Birch ResortLake Jyrhämäjärvi, Rovaniemi — about 20 km from Rovaniemi, around 30 minutes from the airportSee more →WeddingsGetting Married in FinlandRovaniemi WeddingsSee more →

Rovaniemi Weddings is our own wedding planning and proposal design company — Joona & Alla, based in Rovaniemi. We plan, style and coordinate proposals and weddings across Lapland, Finland, Sweden and Norway.