Elopement photography · Vietnam
Just the two of you
Limestone, cloud, pine forest or an empty beach, and nobody watching.
Limestone, cloud, pine forest or an empty beach, and nobody watching.
Couples write to us for this more often every year: no banquet, no three hundred guests, no stage. Two people, a country neither family can turn into a logistics problem, and photographs that are the only record of the day. This is how it works with us, what it costs, and the one part we will not pretend to handle.
Two of you and a photographer, six working hours with our travel and stay included: USD 1,280 in Ninh Binh, USD 1,380 on Phu Quoc, USD 1,480 in Sapa, Da Lat, Da Nang and Hoi An or Nha Trang. With a real ceremony and a few guests it becomes a wedding day, photo and film, from USD 3,000. Planning in English. A deposit of USD 100 holds the date.
In practice it is one long unhurried block rather than a schedule. We start before sunrise or finish after sunset, because that is when the places worth coming for are empty, and we walk. There is no aisle to time, no banquet to reach, and no relative asking for a photograph at the wrong moment.
Most of the day is unposed, the same way we work a documentary wedding day. We direct in short bursts, mainly to put you in light that will still look good in twenty years, and the rest of the time you are walking, talking and forgetting where we are.
Vows happen in about a third of the elopements we photograph. Sometimes to each other with nobody present, sometimes with two witnesses found that morning. If you want that, tell us early, because the one thing that cannot be improvised is a quiet place at a good hour.
The month decides the province more than taste does, because the three regions of Vietnam run on opposite calendars and the central coast floods in October and November. Read the month by month note before you book flights.
Marrying legally in Vietnam as two foreigners is possible and almost nobody does it. The file goes to the provincial Department of Justice, the documents have to be legalised at home and translated here, and the process runs in weeks rather than days.
What nearly every couple we photograph does instead: hold the ceremony here, sign at home. It is a short appointment there and it changes nothing about the day. We have set out the whole thing on its own page, including the case where one of you is Vietnamese, which is a different file.
| Where | What is included | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Ninh Binh | 6 working hours, hair and make-up, 2 gowns and 1 suit, bouquet, our travel and stay | $1,280 |
| Phu Quoc | Same, on the island | $1,380 |
| Sapa, Da Lat, Da Nang and Hoi An, Nha Trang, Ha Long | Same, our travel and stay included | $1,480 |
| With a ceremony and a few guests | A wedding day: photo and film by our crew | from $3,000 |
We do not sell a separate elopement package at a higher price for the same hours, which is worth checking wherever you book. The number above is the session price, and it is the same six hours whether there are two of you or twenty.
You write in English, you get an answer in English within 24 hours, and the plan, the quote and the contract are all in writing before anything is paid. We talk to the venue, the car and your make-up artist in Vietnamese, which is the half that usually keeps one version of the schedule alive.
What we arrange: locations and the hour to be at each one, permits where they are needed, transport, hair and make-up, two gowns and a suit from our wardrobe, and a bouquet. What we do not: an officiant, catering, a resort contract. For those you want a planner, and we work alongside one happily.
It depends on whether there is a ceremony to cover. If it is the two of you and a photographer, we price it as a session: USD 1,280 in Ninh Binh, USD 1,380 on Phu Quoc, USD 1,480 in Sapa, Da Lat, Da Nang and Hoi An or Nha Trang, with our travel and stay inside the fee. If you are holding a real ceremony with an officiant and a handful of guests, that is a wedding day, from USD 3,000 with photo and film. A deposit of USD 100 holds the date.
You can, but almost nobody does. The registration is done at the provincial Department of Justice, it needs documents legalised at home and translated, and it takes weeks. Most couples we photograph hold the ceremony here and register at home, where it is a short appointment. We have set out why on the page about getting married in Vietnam.
Ninh Binh for limestone and rivers with almost nobody in frame, Sapa and the northwest for mountains and cloud, Da Lat for pine forest and mist, Phu Quoc for a barefoot beach at sunset. The north and the south are rarely good in the same week, so the month decides the province more than taste does.
Up to a point, and we will tell you where that point is. We arrange locations, permits where they are needed, transport, hair and make-up, gowns and a bouquet, and we know which spots need an early start to be empty. We are not a planning agency and we do not pretend to be: for an officiant, catering or a resort contract you want a planner, and we are happy to work alongside one.
Much, and that is usually not the reason couples choose it. The saving is in the guest list, not in the photography: a session in the mountains costs about a third of a full wedding day because it is a shorter job with a smaller crew, not because it matters less.
Everybody says this, including the couples whose photographs you like. It is also why we keep the directed part short and spend most of the time walking, talking and letting you forget where the camera is. Nothing on an elopement day has to be performed for an audience, because there is no audience.