Jennifer Allen never set out to become a wedding officiant. Her journey began in 2010 when her then-boyfriend, now husband, proposed just days before leaving for military deployment. “About three days before he left, he said, you know, we should get married before I leave,” Allen recalled. “And I’m like, why would we do that?”
Jennifer Allen never set out to become a wedding officiant. Her journey began in 2010 when her then-boyfriend, now husband, proposed just days before leaving for military deployment. “About three days before he left, he said, you know, we should get married before I leave,” Allen recalled.
The decision meant scrambling for vendors and facing rejection when no one would accommodate a short-notice wedding. “We were like, we’re either going to have to go to Vegas or we’re going to go to City Hall. And I did not want to go to City Hall, and honestly, we could not afford to go to Vegas,” she said. Instead, they married at City Hall on the day he left. “It was super sad. And I’m like, why in the world did I do this?”
Out of that experience, she later built Just Elope, a Dallas-based company designed to help couples who want meaningful, intimate weddings without the stress of traditional planning. “In 2017, I said, I want to start a business where other couples, if they need to get married at the last minute, or they just want something small, they don’t have to go to all these different vendors,” Allen said. “Just Elope was born in February of 2017. We married our first couple. That first year we married eight couples. And we are on our way to, if we’re not at 600, we’re just shy of that at this point.”
Among those hundreds of ceremonies, Jennifer treasures two in particular. One reminded her of her own beginnings — a couple who “didn’t really have a lot” but wanted forever. “It just reminded me of why we started every time somebody says that,” she said. Another was officiating the wedding of NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice’s daughter, which underscored her belief that every couple deserves the same treatment. “Everybody is treated the exact same with the white glove service. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you spend, you are treated as you should be,” Allen said. “I’m not up-charging you because you’re a celebrity. I’m not giving you a discount because you’re a celebrity. Our pricing is definitely aligned with the experience that I have and that my team has, while still maintaining that we always want to keep a lower tier package for couples so that no matter what, our services are accessible to everybody.”
Trends in weddings may shift, but Allen believes the heart of the day remains the same. “COVID blew up elopements and micro weddings because people realized, well, they didn’t have a choice,” she said. “Even if you have a smaller guest count, people are having higher budgets. So it’s not that the budget is being cut, it’s the guest list to up the wow factor for the guests that are there.” Through it all, she treats every couple like family. “I’m going to take care of you and treat you as if it was my own sister that was getting married,” Allen said. “That’s how much I’m gonna hold your hand throughout this entire process.”
📲 Learn more at justelope.com.
🎥 Watch the full interview with Jennifer Allen below:
The Chundria Brownlow Show 
Leave a comment