Weddings at South Court Inn

Good morning!  I want to share with you part of an email I received recently. The couple called us at their wits end.  They had gotten caught up in a “big wedding.”  The guest list and budget were skyrocketing and they didn’t want any of it.  I suggested they read my blog post about eloping and then call back.  Well, they did read the blog, called back and scheduled an elopement here at South Court Inn and everything else fell into place!

“Hi Tom!  I just wanted a chance to thank you again for all of the help and advice you have provided my fiancé and I. We are so excited to come see you this afternoon! I can’t imagine pulling everything together and telling our families without your advice; turns out you were completely right. We broke the news to our most intimate family yesterday, explaining (as you said) that this was OUR wedding and we were going to do it in a way that not only would be comfortably affordable, but one that we would be able to cherish forever. Low and behold they were impressed by our determination, and the five people we told starting asking if we needed any help [The groom's] father made reservations for us somewhere in XXXXXX  (They won’t tell me where!) My father helped [the groom] pay for my wedding band, and my mother is making me a bouquet from her own garden.  I would love to have a piece of my mom there with me….  So as you said, those who love us bit there tongues and gave best wishes, and we couldn’t be happier!

This said, thank you so so much for that advice, I really appreciate how much you have worked with us.”

We hear it all the time … “We wanted a simple affair and then our families got involved!   Suddenly, it wasn’t about us at all….”  If this sounds like your latest discussion with your closest friend, take a deep breath, relax for a minute and then read on.  Simply put, relief is just a short drive away and you can have a ceremony you’ll be proud of the rest of your lives … without breaking the bank.

South Court Inn's Bride's Memory Robe

First, don’t tell anybody! If you’ve already been drawn into the big wedding frenzy, do you think anyone is going to pay any more attention to your wants than they did before?  Not likely!  So, keep it to yourselves… for now.

Second, do your homework. Sit down with your partner and decide what you want your elopement to be … a nice ceremony one afternoon and back home the same day? … an overnight getaway with more of the works? … a mini-honeymoon or several days with lots of bells and whistles, but still budget friendly? … or an extravagant getaway that hits the bank, but balances the memories nicely.   Then, do a list of the things you expect your elopement destination to provide as part of their services or getaway package.  This list will become critical to your success and budget when it comes time to decide where to go to be married!

Pavilion Niche with Victorian Cross and Optional Flowers

Third, find out who offers elopement services and what they offer. Know from the start that the bottom line can grow unless you’ve tacked down the details from the start. Move over to your computer and search on terms like “elope Virginia,”  “elopement packages Virginia,” “Virginia elopement,” or others including “elope” and “Virginia.”  If you have a favorite area of the state, include that area as part of your search.  You’ll find establishments across the State that offer small wedding and elopement packages, so keep a pencil and paper handy and write down the names of those you like the most.   Notice too that prices are higher for some locations than others, so if your budget is a concern, be prepared to be flexible about the location.  Compare what is offered with your list of wants and make sure that what you want is included as part of the overall package price.  This can be hard to do and end with lots of surprise add-on expenses, so read carefully.  Some establishments provide only the venue and you have to find and pay the officiant, florist, baker, photographer, etc.; others provide a venue and some additional services and then, there are places such as South Court Inn that provide “all inclusive” elopement packages.

Fourth, pick the top three locations that come closest to your list and budget. Look for on-line reviews couples have posted about their elopements and small weddings. Revisit web sites and review in detail what is included in the price of the packages.  Is there something missing?  Can you invite guests;  how many and at what charge? What does it mean when they don’t post pricing information?  Is there something unusual you want?  Will they provide and, if so, at what charge?  Look too for photos of ceremonies at these locations.  Is photography included? How about a video recording?  If they are included, what do you get, how is the quality, will you be satisfied with what you see, do you get the imagery data and ownership of the data provided?  Continue until you have whittled down your list down to the best match of your want list and budget.  Contact that establishment and make your reservation.

Fifth, decide when or whether you will tell your family and friends about your elopement. Keep in mind that many locations cannot accommodate guests as part of your elopement or must limit the number who can attend.  More importantly, if you want to tell friends and family before you have eloped, wait as long as possible to tell them.  If your destination can accommodate only a few guests, let everyone know that you cannot invite them to the ceremony and extend personal invitations to only the select group you want to be there.  Then, finish packing and head out of town.

Sixth, relax and enjoy your elopement. Don’t rush the experience.  You’ve already read or written the vows; take the time to let the promises you make sink in, all the way to your heart.  Take the time for good photography.  The only time you can get wedding photographs is the day of your marriage, so help your photographer get all the photos you want.  If you have a special photo you want, make sure the photographer know it…and gets it. Enjoy the time allocated to you and your time together.  Gather everything up before you head home and know that you got what you paid for.  Head home with a smile on your face, a song in your heart and a spring in your step.  It is official: you had a ceremony and experience that matched your wants and budget.  You are married!

Share your photos and tell your family and friends you're married!

And seventh, announce your elopement after you return home. Think about having a home party or reception where friends and family can come to celebrate your happy union.  Make enlargements of the photos from the ceremony and set them out for everyone to view.  Set up a slide show of the photos on a laptop and leaving it playing all evening.  Ditto for the video of the ceremony. Even better, have the destination where you were married put the photos out on the web where friends can view the photos and make prints for themselves . Let everyone know how stressed out you felt about facing a “big wedding,” and how happy you are with your elopement.  Thanks them for their love, understanding and support.   Enjoy your time with your friends and family!

Finally, if you have read this far, we hope you will consider South Court Inn in Luray, Virginia, for your elopement. We specialize in elegant elopements and offer 5 elopement packages to help every need and budget level have a great marriage ceremony experience.  We look forward to hearing from you to set up your reservation for one of our elopement packages.

Surprise!  It is no myth; you can get married quickly, legally and easily in Virginia!  Read on and learn how!

Hurrah!  In Virginia, there is NO waiting period between the time you get your marriage license and when you may be married.  You can be married a minute after you receive your marriage license. Virginia treats you as adults, so there is no” cooling off” period or “let me reconsider this proposition” time imposed by the State.  Note too that Virginia requires NO blood test or medical paperwork and NO witness to the marriage ceremony itself.

Three cheers…Here’s How!!  In Virginia, it is easy to get a marriage license.  You get your marriage license from the Clerk of the Circuit Court anywhere in Virginia.  You will need a picture ID and about $40 in cash…no checks or credit cards.  The two of you must go to the Courthouse together between about 8:30AM and 4:30PM, Monday through Friday.  No weekends, no holidays! Fill out the application, hand it to the clerk along with the cash, and the staff will give you two copies of your marriage license in a matter of minutes.  The license is valid for 60 days and you may be married anywhere in Virginia with that license.

Get Married:  Take the two copies of the marriage license to any clergy or Marriage Officiant certified by any Virginia Circuit Court to perform legal marriages in Virginia and they may marry you without delay.  Of course, we hope you will set up a reservation for one of our 5 elopement wedding packages and get married here at South Court Inn in Luray, Virginia.

Get Legal Proof of Marriage…It’s Important:  Once the ceremony is over, the clergy or Marriage Officiant will sign both copies of the marriage license and must mail both copies back to the Clerk of Court who issued your marriage license.  The Clerk of Court then records your marriage and can issue you a certified copy of your Official Virginia Marriage Certificate.  Why should you care?  Because this is the only official proof that you are legally married in Virginia and many employers require official proof before they will place a spouse on your health plan, life insurance and/or other benefits paperwork.    To obtain a copy of your official Marriage Certificate, you must return to the Clerk of Court’s office where you got your license or write the Clerk of Court and request a copy.  Contact the Clerk where you got your license…there are procedures to follow and fees to be paid!

But the Best News Is:  South Court Inn is only a quarter mile from the Courthouse here in Luray, Virginia.  If you get your marriage license from the Clerk of Court at the Courthouse right here on South Court Street AND get married here at South Court Inn, we will obtain copies of your official Marriage Certificate for you before you leave the area or send copies to you by mail the next day the Clerk’s office is open.   We do not charge for obtaining theses copies of your Official Virginia Marriage Certificate.   Call us toll free at 888-749-8055 to set up your reservation for one of our 5 elopement packages here at South Court Inn.

Good afternoon! This is a great day to work on blog posts! What else can you say about another brilliantly sunny day with temps headed over the 100F mark…. again …. and an electric meter that has been screaming like a police siren for about 10 days now? Oh, well …maybe I’ll sit in a recliner later and try to psyche myself into feeling the chill of the knee-deep snows of this past winter. Sure seems as if Mother Nature is pouring on the heat now to balance out the sub-zero F of winter.

Anyway, we want you to know that we are proud of the packages we offer our guests, especially our elopement and intimate wedding packages here at South Court Inn. We include far more in our packages…at no additional charge to you…than anyone we know of. To underscore that fact, today I want to tell you about the Bride’s Memory Robes included with our overnight elopement packages.   First off, you need to know that the robe itself is a great, high quality, 100% cotton spa robe, woven with a white-on-white diamond pattern.  We get them custom embroidered with a design featuring intertwined hearts and vines and use them robes for several of our packages.  Second, please note that we also sell them priced at $70 each to guests who have seen them on the web site  and and ask to buy them.  For our overnight elopement packages, we go one or two steps further and add the marriage date, and at the higher package level, an initial for the bride and the groom.

Our Overnight Elopement Package includes one Bride’s Memory Robe, custom embroidered with the intertwined hearts, vines and the date of the ceremony. Here is an example of how the robe looks:

Our (two-night) Marriage and Honeymoon Package includes one Bride’s Memory Robe, custom embroidered with the intertwined hearts, vines, the date of the ceremony, and one initial for each member of the couple.    Here is an example of how the robe looks:

Our (two-night) Ultimate Elopement Honeymoon Get Away includes two Bride’s Memory Robes, custom embroidered with the intertwined hearts, vines, one initial for each member of the couple and the date of the ceremony. Here is an example of how the pair of robes look:

We hope you will agree that South Court Inn’s Bride’s Memory Robes are an outstanding keepsake you’ll use for years to come and that you will review all our elopement and wedding packages for the one that matches your needs. We willingly tailor our packages to your needs and look forward to hearing from you to set up reservations for an elegant elopement or small wedding here at South Court Inn! Call toll free 888-749-8055.

Here is a special offering for those who call us wanting to get married in an elegant location with nothing extra added. Well, we heard you and are happy to offer this economy package for just the two of you.

This package includes:
Legal marriage by the Innkeeper
The ceremony conducted in the elegant living room of South Court Inn
Keepsake copy of the vows in gold stamped folder
Submission of paperwork as mandated by the Commonwealth of Virginia

Get your marriage license from the Clerk of the Circuit Court anywhere in Virginia and then call us to schedule a time for the ceremony. Next, the two of you arrive at the scheduled time, dressed and ready to be married. We’ll conduct the ceremony in the elegant living room here at South Court Inn. In half an hour or less, you’ll be on your way, legally married and with a keepsake copy of the vows and marriage certificate in hand. The fee is due at the time you make your reservation and is non-refundable.

Value priced at $99, plus taxes.

When I sat down to write this posting, I thought I’d write a mission statement and talk about philosophy. The further I got, the more it struck me that my readers might actually like to hear from the heart what we are doing with our elopement and wedding packages here at South Court Inn. So, here it is in a one sentence statement: South Court Inn is committed to providing elegant elopement and wedding ceremonies for all couples who want a ceremony they can be proud of for the rest of their lives without hassle, stress or breaking their bank.

We hear it all the time, some personal insight and comment provided by our guests… “Everybody but us wanted a big wedding.”… “She and her mother were both in tears every time we visited over the past month.”… “Suddenly, everything was out of control and there was going to be nothing fun about it.”… “We want to buy a house and the guest list just kept growing. Next thing we knew, we’d be spending all our savings and going into debt for a 2-day bash with people we didn’t even know!”…and, finally, “Then we found your web site and knew we had found the answer.”

That last comment is where South Court comes in, because, yes, we do believe we are a great fit for many couples. Yes, you can have an elegant wedding you can be proud of for the rest of your lives, and you don’t have to break the bank to have it!

More on that a little late, but first, let’s clear up one important point: A travel writer recently listed South Court in an an article highlighting “Cheap Wedding Elopement Ideas.” Although we appreciated the publicity, we did not care for the classification. The bottom line is: we don’t do “cheap” weddings at South Court.

What we do is provide elegant weddings at affordable prices. Whether in the living room, on the porch or anywhere in the garden you want to do it, your South Court wedding will be done with an eye always on elegance, style and grace.

We work hard to make every ceremony seem like it is the first one we ever did and that it is….staged in beautiful surroundings….includes free service of the marriage officiant and submission of proper paperwork, includes florist arranged bridal bouquets, includes keepsake toasting flutes, includes a cake for two or more, includes a cake cutting ceremony and post nuptials toast, includes a video recording of the ceremony, includes lots of digital photos during and after the ceremony, and includes your own keepsake copy of the vows presented in a gold embossed folder…all at a very affordable package rates.

We encourage you to get a look at our packages…and those of other venues. Compare them with a sharp eye and look at whether items are included in the base price or available at an extra charge. Across the board, if we talk about it on the web site, it is included in the price of the package….no extra charges…period.

Want to stay the night after the ceremony? We have a package for that. Want to stay 2 nights or more and include a few more services as well? We have a package for that. Want to have a great honeymoon with lots more bells and whistles? We have a package for that too … and again…all at prices far better than you’ll find just about anywhere else in the state.

So, do your research and give us a call toll free at 888-749-8055 when you are ready to get off the stress mill and onto the South Court Inn schedule! Thanks, Tom

South Court Inn is located 2 blocks from the Clerk of the Court office in Luray, Virginia.  You can be married at the Inn immediately after you obtain a marriage license there. Innkeeper Tom, a Court Appointed Marriage Officiant performs ceremonies by advanced reservation any time of the year!

South Court is proud to offer a wide variety of wedding packages, all priced to provide everyone an opportunity for an elegant wedding and/or honeymoon by eloping to South Court Inn in beautiful Luray, Virginia.

Click here to see our newest addition, the Wedding Pavilion at South Court Inn.

Call us for details today!