As lavish and beautiful as celebrity weddings can be and have been before, even the stars want to keep things simple sometimes. While months of invite-sending, dress-picking and menu-tasting may be a dream for some, others—even those claiming A-lister status—prefer to skip straight to the important bit: actually saying ‘I do.’

Or maybe the glare of the spotlight plays a factor, with some celebrities wanting to keep things as under wraps as possible, away from prying eyes. For others, it’s a logistics play, sneaking off to make things official before a big destination wedding. And some (looking to you, Kourtney and Travis) just really, really like Elvis Presley impersonators. 

Whatever the reasoning, elopements have been a popular choice for celebrities for years.

Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker, Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, and Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas all opted for the most iconic of elopements: a Vegas wedding, complete with Elvis officiator. Meanwhile, a courthouse wedding was the favoured option for both Emily Ratajkowski and Kristen Bell. An elopement overseas (usually on a beautiful quiet island) appealed to the likes of Miranda Kerr, Mariah Carey and Penelope Cruz. 

Whatever the locale and thinking, an elopement is a fun and unexpected way to celebrate the beginning of a marriage. 

Below, 23 celebrity couples who skipped the big day for something more spontaneous.

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Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck

In late July 2022—more than 20 years after their first meeting and engagement—Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck made it official, tying the knot in a small Las Vegas ceremony. The news was confirmed to People, who reported, “It was super, super small. [Jennifer's] mom and kids were there. They just wanted to be married so they got married.” The report also notes that Lopez had filed paperwork to change her name to Jennifer Affleck. The couple first met in 2001 on the set of the movie Gigli. After calling their engagement off in 2004, they rekindled their relationship in 2021. 

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck's Las Vegas wedding.

Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker

In early April, the news broke that everyone’s favourite (or, at least, most-watched) goth-adjacent, PDA-loving couple had tied the knot. According to People, the couple were married in Vegas, at the iconic One Love Wedding Chapel, shortly after attending the Grammys. Wearing the same outfits they wore on the red carpet, the couple said their vows before an Elvis impersonator—a must, according to the chapel’s owner. “They paid and they requested Elvis Presley, that was mandatory. I called back five minutes later and was like, I got an Elvis, and there they were.” The pair followed it up with a more lavish ceremony in Italy in front of family and friends. Kardashian officially changed her name to Kourtney Kardashian Barker after the wedding. 

Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker's Las Vegas wedding.

Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas

Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas also heeded the call of the Vegas wedding—although they got to have their cake and eat it, too. The pair tied the knot quickly after the Billboard Music Awards in 2019, with Diplo and the rest of the Jonas brothers in attendance, before their lavish wedding ceremony in France the next month. The pair welcomed a daughter, Willa, in 2020 and their second daughter in 2022. 

Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas' Las Vegas wedding.

Demi Moore and Bruce Willis

Also fans of the Vegas elopement, Demi Moore and Bruce Willis opted for the City of Sin as the backdrop to their nuptials in 1987. The pair married in Vegas’ Little White Chapel, and had three daughters before separating in 2000.

Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee

Considered one of the most iconic celebrity elopements, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee married in 1995 after knowing each other for only four days. Anderson wore a white bikini. It was reported at the time that Anderson’s mother found out the news by reading it in the tabloids. The couple divorced in 1998.

Lily Allen and David Harbour

Lily Allen knows the secret to making a Vegas wedding chic: wear a vintage Dior suit. Allen and her Stranger Things beau married in Vegas in 2020. The only people in attendance were Allen’s daughters, and the family celebrated the day with In-N-Out burgers after the ceremony. 

Lily Allen and David Harbour's Las Vegas wedding.

Kim Kardashian and Damon Thomas

Kourtney isn’t the only Kardashian to have eloped. Her sister Kim (then 19) married music producer Damon Thomas (then 30) in 2000, however under much more unfortunate circumstances. Kardashian admitted she was high on ecstasy during the elopement, and filed for divorce in 2004, citing domestic violence in the proceedings.

Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie

One of the most controversial celebrity couplings, Billy Bob Thornton was still engaged to actress Laura Dern when he eloped with Angelina Jolie in Las Vegas in 1999. ("I left our home to work on a movie, and while I was away, my boyfriend got married, and I've never heard from him again. It's like a sudden death. For no one has there been any closure or clarity,” said Dern of the marriage in 2000.) The couple married just two months after meeting on the set of Pushing Tin. They split in 2002.

Jessica Alba and Cash Warren

Alba and Warren’s spur-of-the-moment courthouse wedding came when Alba was nine-months pregnant with their first child, Honor. In an Instagram post celebrating 11 years of marriage, Warren wrote: “It wasn’t the dream wedding you deserved, in fact, it was laughably awkward. Standing under an arch of dusty plastic flowers in the courthouse chapel, we held hands and said I Do. No friends or family in attendance...just you, me and the courthouse employee who served as our witness. We walked out holding hands, giggling with excitement and a touch of nervousness.” The couple are still married and have three children, Honor, Haven and Hayes.

Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds

Although both happily married to different people now, Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds eloped in 2010 at a wilderness retreat in Reynolds’ native Canada. According to reports, only a few family and friends were there to witness.

Scarlett Johansson and Romain Dauriac

But, perhaps, Johansson just isn’t a fan of big weddings. She also eloped (in Montana, no less!) with her second husband, French journalist Romain Dauriac, with whom she welcomed a daughter, Rose. The pair split in 2017. 

Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady

The model and star quarterback’s wedding had all the makings of a massive bash, but the two chose to go a little more low-key, marrying at a church in Santa Monica with only their parents and Brady’s son in attendance. "We planned it in like ten days, and it was perfect," Brady told GQ. "We went back to the house and I barbecued aged New York strips. We had champagne, a cake, some ice cream. It was a great night. I think you always have this idea that weddings need to be 200 people and you invite everybody, and I'm all for it if people want to do that, but I think there was really something special about just having our parents there."

Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady's Santa Monica wedding.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin

Another couple to tie the knot in California was Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, who married in an under-the-radar hotel wedding in 2003, while Paltrow was pregnant with their daughter, Apple. The couple later welcomed son Moses, before famously ‘consciously uncoupling’ in 2014.

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon

Secrecy was the name of the game for Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon, who eloped during a low-key trip to the Bahamas in 2008. "We only told people who had to know. [To everyone else] we said we were [going to the Bahamas] for the video. If we brought a million people with us, it would’ve been obvious we weren’t shooting a video," Carey said of the nuptials.

Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem

The Bahamas were also the destination of choice for Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, who eloped there in 2010. The bride wore John Galliano.

Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom

After dating for three years, Australian model Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom tied the knot in LA in 2010. They had one son, Flynn, before separating in 2013. Kerr is now married to Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel, with whom she has two sons, while Bloom is in a relationship with singer Katy Perry, with whom he has a daughter, Daisy Bloom. 

Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig

A low-key New York wedding was on the cards for Weisz and Craig, who had known each other for years before reconnecting on the set of Dream House in 2011, and marrying six months later. They have a daughter together. 

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard

Bell and Shepard famously said that they wouldn’t get married until same-sex marriage was legal in California. After it was indeed legalised in 2013, the pair got married at a Beverly Hills courthouse, with Bell wearing an all-black outfit. 

Cardi B and Offset

While the Bahamas, Las Vegas and Los Angeles were all popular elopement destinations for celebrity couples, musician couple Cardi B and Offset chose somewhere a little more unconventional: their bedroom! “Our relationship was so new breaking up and making up and we had a lot of growing up to do but we was so in love we didn’t want to lose each other, was one morning in September we woke up and decided to get married,” Cardi B wrote of the wedding on Twitter. The couple have a daughter and a son.

Emily Ratajkowski and Sebastian Bear-McClard

Although they had been friends for years prior, Ratajkowski and Bear-McClard had only been dating a few weeks before they got engaged—Ratajkowski revealed Bear-McClard popped the question with a stand-in paperclip ring during dinner. They married at a New York courthouse in 2018, where the bride wore a mustard Zara suit. They welcomed a baby, Sylvester Apollo, in 2021.

Emily Ratajkowski and Sebastian Bear-McClard's New York courthouse wedding.

Britney Spears and Jason Alexander

In 2004, Britney Spears and her childhood friend Jason Alexander married in a Las Vegas wedding, which was quickly annulled. During the annulment, Spears stated she "lacked understanding of her actions, to the extent that she was incapable of agreeing to the marriage."

Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart 

Not only an elopement but a surprise elopement, Ford and Flockhart made things official after years of dating in 2010, when they invited friends and family to watch them wed without them ever knowing. It was held at the governor of New Mexico’s house. 

Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher

Just six guests were in attendance at the wedding of Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher in Paris in 2010. “When you are in the public eye, to keep that private and to make it happen without it being really visible is really difficult,” said Isla of the elopement. 

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