Updated on April 7, 2022: Elopify has rebranded as Eloply in an attempt to get away from this and other scam alerts about their company. While Eloply is not using photos stolen from my own business like Elopify did, I cannot recommend strongly enough that couples book their own elopement vendors directly instead of trusting a company like Eloply to handle their elopement planning.
As elopements grow in popularity, new companies are popping up all over the place trying to take advantage of the booming industry. One of these newcomers is called “Elopify — Elope Anywhere!” and I’m here to warn you about working with this company.
In October of 2021, I was made aware that Elopify was using my photos to market their business. I’m an elopement photographer based in Colorado, but I have never worked with/for Elopify, and they have never asked for permission to use my photos. (I would of course never give a competing business permission to use my photos to market themselves.) Anyone involved in the photography industry (heck anyone, anywhere) should know that photos are copyrighted by their owner, and that using them without permission is copyright infringement, illegal, and punishable by some hefty fines ranging from $750-150,000 per photo depending on the severity of the infringement.
What makes this so outrageous is that Elopify is stealing photos from local photographers across the United States in order to book elopements through their company — then advertising to couples as if they’re an experienced company who have done thousands of elopements. Elopify.com was first registered as a domain on October 20, 2020, so the likelihood of them having completed thousands of elopements in their first year in business is unlikely at best, and more likely a straight up lie.
It’s unclear from Elopify’s online presence how many real elopements they have actually booked and completed, since many of their reviews on Google sound fake and the photos on their website are all stolen. But I hate to think that any couple would book Elopify for their elopement thinking they are getting an expert photographer and vendor team, when in reality they are piecing together the vendors based on whoever is new to the industry and willing to work for next to nothing in exchange for gaining experience and portfolio photos of a real elopement.
Here are some of the locations that Elopify advertise as places they do elopements — where the photos circled in red are all my copyrighted photos that they’ve stolen from my website. The other photos are also stolen from other photographers.
Another big red flag about Elopify is that they do not have any information about who runs this company. The only contact information on their website is for their “legal department” with an address that leads to a coworking space in New York. Their About page shows a bunch of smiling faces — but no names, and each image is named “women/5.jpeg” and “men/1.jpeg”.
The Elopify website is incredibly misleading. For example, each location page shows a 5-star rating plus a large number of “votes.” I don’t know where they are pulling these numbers from, but I can guarantee it’s not the number of elopements they’ve done in this location. How can I say that? Because Maroon Bells only allows one elopement per day from late May through early October — do the math.
Lastly, Elopify has admitted to photographers that they have been illegally doing elopements in Rocky Mountain National Park and Zion National Park without the appropriate wedding permits, saying “they’ve been getting away with it” so they don’t need to follow the permit rules. As someone who spends a lot of money every year on permits, building relationships with the park’s permit office, and following the local regulations, nothing makes me angrier than seeing someone pretend like the rules don’t apply to them.
If you book Elopify for an elopement in a National Park, and they don’t get the appropriate permit, you are personally on the hook for any tickets given by the park for breaking the rules. Rocky Mountain National Park will ticket the planning company, any vendors, AND the couple who is eloping — because it’s your responsibility to follow the rules, even if you’re being tricked by a shady company.
Warning signs for elopement scams like Elopify
- The company does not have any clear contact information, names for the owner(s), or names of the vendors who are working for them.
- The company claims to have done thousands of elopements.
- The website sounds like it’s been written by a robot, not a real human being. (One example from Elopify: “30-Point Inspection. Each spot is verified for quality and unforgettable emotions.” How exactly can you verify a spot for unforgettable emotions?)
- The reviews are all short and generic. It’s incredibly easy to buy fake reviews online these days, so when looking at vendor reviews, look for ones that are long and personal with lots of detail that sounds like they’re written by a real person!
- The company is charging a “planning fee” to match you with vendors. Any real wedding or elopement planners will put together recommendations of vendors for you, then let you pick your favorites yourselves. If they claim to take care of everything for you, you have no control over what you’re actually paying for.
To sum this post up:
Elopify is a scam that’s using stolen photos to market their business. Do not book them.
About Nina Larsen Reed
Nina Larsen Reed is an elopement photographer based in Boulder. She plans and captures adventure elopements and micro-weddings across Colorado, and has photographed over 220 elopements since 2017.
Yes- thank you for taking action and writing this post to warn off unsuspecting couples.
Thank you for sharing this information! I had my photos stolen from this company, too. People deserve to know that this company is scamming people.
Thank you so much for sharing this Nina—I also had photos stolen by this business and they are also shooting illegally in National Parks without the proper permits—putting couples at risk to get fined and have their wedding day ruined. DO NOT HIRE ELOPIFY!
It’s so gross on so many levels. They’re really just taking advantage of couples on what’s supposed to be the happiest day of their lives.
Elopify tried to hire me, and I can confirm they have no experience. Their messages were insane, I couldn’t believe it.
I am also an elopement photographer who was impacted by this! They stole photos right off of one of my blog posts and used it to advertise weddings at that location.
After going through their website, I recognized many of their images that were taken by other photographers. Even down to stealing self portraits of photographers who work in the industry! Don’t book Elopify, as it’s a scam! Companies like this set a bad example for photographers who do business properly.
I’m so sorry you had your photos stolen too Paige! I can’t believe they thought they would get away with this and no one would notice.
Thank you for sharing! And so sorry you experienced this. What a crummy fake business!
OMG! I’ so sorry to all the photographer affected bu this SCAM! We work so hard to build our portfolios and provide our couples with unique experiences! DO NOT HIRE ELOPIFY! They should close their doors for good if they have any decency left. Thank you Nina for bringing this to the attention of so many!
Thanks for putting this warning out, it is so heartbreaking to see someone so fraudulent entering the elopement space! This article is awesome 🙌🏼
Looks like I’m one of many here, but also just wanted to say that they stole photos from me as well, and then took zero responsibility for it in their response.
Great awareness you are putting out there! Thanks for the wonderful info!!! Sad these places not only STEAL FROM OUR COMMUNITY- but are breaking rules in the places they are having elopements- this shit will eventually RUIN IT for those of us following the rules 😢
this company also stole my images and sent back the same bogus email response claiming it was an innocent mistake. that’s absolute nonsense as anyone who works in the industry knows – especially for an organization claiming to have planned numerous beautiful elopements for their own clients. then why don’t they feature those pictures if that’s the case? i hope they get fully shut down after pulling this scam.
Thank you for posting this! It’s so insane what they’ve done :/
When I saw this companys “portfolio” I immediately saw red flags. First of all images I knew personally as a photographer in the area was a colleagues but 2 their images were a huge range of editing and different styles. And they had been added in chunks as if they had pulled all the images at once and didn’t even bother to stagger them. Completely different images were on their instagram that were clearly travel influencers or groups of the same persons travel photos. Most weren’t even wedding but staged proposals or overly photoshopped famous travel locations like Cappadocia In addition, after calling out the company for their practices their instagram page disappeared. I wouldnt be surprised if they changed names and rebranded.
Thank you so much for putting this warning out! And I’m sorry to all those affected! As an elopement photog myself who really cares about client experience and the land we photograph on, this is a great warning for any couples. Thank you!
Preach it! If it’s too good to be true, then it is. This company is shady AF. Stealing other photographers photos is shameful and they knew exactly what they were doing. Do not choose Elopify for your wedding day. They are scam artists!
Thank you for sharing. As a bride who used Larsen photo co I would be beyond livid if a company used photos of my private day on a National website without my permission!! How disgusting.
It’s one thing for my photographer who I know and trust to have her portfolio but it’s a violation of a deeply personal event to post photos of someone’s elopement without their permission. Especially because most people seeing elopements may not want all of the attention of a big wedding. Thank you for sharing.
And agree those Google reviews are fake af. How does one get 100 5-star reviews in essentially a 3 week window? Not honestly.
I’ve seen at least TWO of my photos so far! This is a preposterous tactic and this “company” should apologize to all of us whose had to learn vicariously that their own photo were pirated, and face penalties! #madface
Elopify is a disgrace to the wedding industry. Thanks for making couples aware of their scam!
I was just texted from one of their planners to photograph a wedding for them for $200. I laughed so hard and then I decided to look them up on the web which is how I found my way here. Their website is down now, thankfully.
Thank you for posting! Here is my review on elopify
While Caroline is a delight to work with it, the whole process was stressful. We paid over 3k plus on a basic package having to tip not only the company (which was NOT disclosed Upon signing with them which was range from $400-$1000 at which you had NO CHOICE not to tip) but also tip the officiant and the photographer. We originally had picked somewhere in Estes park and multiple times asked about permits we needed and multiple times were told we didn’t need anything. Only after talking to our second photographer where we told that Eloplify was booking illegal weddings in the park, it’s a national Park so yes you do need a permit to get married there. It was not a pleasant call to get a week before we get married that our photographer was reporting elopify for illegal activity and refusing to be our photographer. We then had to frantically search for a new location a week before we were getting married. Luckily we didn’t have any guests there, it was just the two of us because we would’ve had to send out or text out a new location to all of our wedding guests. We eventually had to choose garden of the god so I didn’t get my winter location like I wanted but instead a desert looking area while it was 75+ degrees and I was sweating the whole time because I got a long sleeve dress because I was getting married up in the mountains with the snow. We went though 2 photographers before having to settling on the 3rd because we were a week before the wedding. Our photographer was a landscape, nature photographer not a wedding photographer. Our pictures are unsatisfactory. Half of the picture I got from my photographer my eyes or husbands were closed and the pictures were so dark that I couldn’t even edit myself to make them brighter or she put some weird spot light on us so we are lit up and the rest of picture is dark. The quality of the pictures are so poor that when I got them professionally printed they came out blurry. I tried to edit them myself at least make them brighter so you could see any sort of color in the picture, didn’t work. I probably got 48 pictures out of the 75 high quality pictures that I was promised because the other one she sent we had either stupid expressions on our faces, picture was so poor quality or eyes were closed. Almost every picture she took she took from a ground level so all of our wedding pictures we have double chins from having to look down at her. To make it over 75 pictures she sent a ton on this weird monotones/black and white color. Now onto the officiant, as soon as we said I do and we can kiss each other she started asking us questions about how much we paid elpofity and how she was not paid enough and how “she charged us 1980 prices” (exact quote) so she basically guilted us into giving her a tip because she did not get paid enough. The photographer said she was only paid $125 out of the 3k we paid eloptify, so where did all our money go to?! Because it obviously did not go to paying the people we needed there. I will not recommend this company to anybody looking for an elopement planner. If you want to elope just have your location in mind have a family friend, or family member go online to become an officiant and pay a for a good photographer. The photography was the most important thing for me to get out of the experience besides marrying my husband and I did not get the pictures that I always dreamed of having for generations to see. By doing this you will pay the exact same amount that you will pay this company.
Oh my gosh Mikayla, I’m so sorry you had such a poor experience with them! Thank you for taking the time to share your review — hopefully it’ll help other couples avoid the same problems in the future.
I’m scared that this is happening to my fiancé and me. We bookeda destination elopement in Puerto Rico with a company called Eloply, and some of the things mentioned here sound similar to what we are experiencing. I will be devastated if we end up being scammed, especially when we have people coming.
Eloply is using the exact same website design/template as what Elopify used to, so I suspect that it’s the same company under a new name. I hope all works out well for you!
I “reserved” eloply for their services for $249 for my wedding in Puerto Rico and the woman sent me a pic of a beach in San Juan but would not give me the exact address. After a few times, she finally gave me a screenshot of a map and after I searched for it on Google earth, it was a nasty ghetto beach part of San Juan. After a few back and forths, and never being able to get locations, I asked for a refund. That was a month ago and I still have not received it. I am on the phone with the bank right now trying to get my money back.
Cancel whatever you have planned with them and get your money back!!!
Have you eloped as we are through them in September and I’m crapping myself now!
They’ve been on our radar for some time as well. HALF of their images are from Simply Eloped ceremonies (ceremonies we’ve performed and published).
That’s unfortunately not surprising. They did take down all my photos after I emailed their “legal department” a cease and desist letter, so I’d recommend doing the same. Not sure how to stop them from stealing more photos from others in the future, but at least this post seems to be helping people.
They are also under the following sites:
https://placestoelope.org/
https://allweddings.org/
Just got scammed big time by them (non-refundable 800 deposit). I blame myself for not doing enough research. If anyone has any recommendations on how to get their money back, please let me know. lol. My husband and I really calling it a wash and moving on; however, there are NOT enough reviews on this scam organization.
I’m so sorry they got you, too! They usually have an email address for their “legal department” listed in the Terms & Services page on their websites, linked from the footer. They even have a Refunds section in there. I would try contacting that email to demand a refund, and refer back to their own T&S. You might want to include that you know they are the same company as all these others scams—it could help you get the refund if they know you’re “onto them,” and not just asking for a refund because you changed your mind. Best of luck, and thanks for sharing their new links/names!