Sarah Anderson wants to help you set virtual fire to your Pinterest wedding board and just elope instead. Anderson, the founder of East Coast Pop Up Weddings as well as an administrative justice of the peace, saw a hole in the wedding marketplace a year ago.
"I would get lots of couples who were looking for a JP, but people were asking for a few little extras that you might not get at a courthouse," she says.
Now, she offers those missing flourishes in a set of packages like The Modern Elopement, which includes artisanal cake and refreshments, and the Tiny Wedding, which lives up to its name with a guestlist of eight.
This weekend, though, East Coast Pop Up Weddings is taking the ready-made wedding one step further, throwing an event titled Pop Up Love in the upstairs of The Stubborn Goat (1579 Grafton Street), where four couples can tie the knot (though Anderson is quick to note only one slot remains).
"For lack of a better way to explain it, it's like a Vegas wedding chapel where you show up, get your bouquet, get married and then go do some photos with Applehead Photography. You pick a timeslot and you bring 20 friends and you have a ceremony," Anderson offers, adding that a champagne toast at the bar is included in the $2,500 cost. "So many brides and grooms, they get a ring on their finger and then there's this rabbit hole they fall into," she adds. But, "that whole attitude of 'Let's just get married,' that will never stop being romantic." —Morgan Mullin
