WE CREATE PERSONALIZED ELOPEMENT EXPERIENCES FOR COUPLES WHO WANT TO FOCUS ON THE HEART OF THE WEDDING DAY.
We love the flowers, fine details, and beautifully created spaces that are often associated with a wedding. But at the heart of any wedding is the ceremony and, when you choose to elope, all you have is your ceremony.
Creating space for elopement ceremonies that are 100% inspired and influenced by your life together and the origin story of your love is what we are the most passionate about and called to create.
Our elopements go beyond legal formalities and transcend traditions, rituals, and denominations. Your story alone will determine the elements of your ceremony and anything else you wish to include will be the supporting characters.
MEET THE TEAM
Shannon-May Pringle
She/Her — Founder, Lead Planner & Principal Photographer
Shannon-May is one of New Brunswick’s premier wedding photographers, having photographed more than 165 weddings and elopements since 2011. She is known for her candid, timeless, and honest imagery while making her clients feel comfortable and natural in front of the camera. Shannon-May is passionate about weddings and preserving this remarkable life event for each couple she works with. Originally from the west coast, she has happily called New Brunswick home since 2010 and lives in St. Andrews with her husband and three fur-babies.
Jessica Williams
Jess is a pastor, a writer, a runner, a mother, and a life-long learner. She delights in nature: ocean, forests, rivers, mountains, lakes; and in connecting with her body and place in the world through movement: swimming, hiking, running, biking, and breathing. She will happily spend hours playing with words for a ceremony, a sermon, a lecture, or a poem. She loves learning about people, hearing their stories, and weaving words together in a way that honours each person's journey to get to the place they are in. She finds meaning in creating beautiful ceremonies that are personalized and prioritize the people at the centre of them.
She/Her 🏳️🌈— Principal Officiant for Elope New Brunswick
Renee Chiasson-Harris
She/Her — Elopement Accomplice
Renee is passionate about creating beautiful event experiences for couples getting married in New Brunswick. Her organized, nurturing, and joyful personality makes her the perfect “elopement accomplice” to support our team and couple on the elopement day and to step in as a witness for couples who want to elope secretly. Renee joins us for select elopements as the location and logistics require. When Renee is not working alongside us, she is supporting couples as a wedding planner through her company, Ivory Events, works as a registered nurse with New Brunswick’s tiniest patients, and enjoys life with her son and husband.
OUR CORE VALUES
Inclusivity
Love is love. We are always working on educating ourselves about being better allies and committed to creating a safe space to express your committed love. Because all human beings are created equal and free to love regardless of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, or religion.
Collaboration
We will work hard alongside you and our colleagues in the wedding industry to offer a collaborative approach to our services to you. We have carefully selected like-minded vendors that we feel great referring to you.
Acknowledgement & Respect
We acknowledge that we carry out our work on the traditional and unceded territory of the of Wolastoqiyik, Mi’kmaq, and Peskotomuhkati peoples, covered by the Treaties of Peace and Friendship, and we are grateful for their welcome and friendship.
We respect the environment and the land that we tread on. Therefore we try to minimize our impact on the earth, practicing, ”leave no trace” values.
Safety
We are committed to being informed and current as Covid-19 restrictions change and/or are adapted. We have created an operational plan to keep all of us all safe. This applies to where we conduct both your elopements and portraits.
READY
TO BOOK?
Let’s take the first step and get to know one other. Book a no-obligation meet and greet with us. Let’s dream together about your elopement and discover if we’re the right team to make your dream a reality.
OUR ORIGIN STORY
They say weddings are a great place to meet someone. This was certainly true for Co-founders, Shannon-May Pringle and Deanna Balcarras.
They say weddings are a great place to meet someone. This was certainly true for Co-founders, Shannon-May Pringle and Deanna Balcarras.
We met at one of the most beautiful and difficult wedding ceremonies either of us had been to. Both of us were volunteering our services to a couple in their home. Deanna performed their marriage ceremony while they were cuddled up together in a hospital bed and Shannon-May was there to document the tender, joy-filled and difficult moments.
Creating sacred space for them to share their love for one another through intimate vows, painful laughter, and deep sadness and photographing these moments was an incredible honour.
This was their wedding ceremony and their final days together. The circumstances were tragic but we knew something incredible happened in that room that day.
When you meet someone in these circumstances you know there is so much more to them than the trade they have chosen. We both have a passion for people and their stories and this is what brings us together.
Creating New Brunswick Elopements allowed us to create beautiful and intimate soul moments for couples looking for an intimate and deeply meaningful elopement experience.
While Deanna is no longer part of the New Brunswick Elopement Team, her spirit, and heart which helped form the core of what we do, remain.