Jon-Paul Brown

I built one of the most successful elopement businesses in the country before “elopement business” was even a recognized category.

In 2010, I moved to Asheville, NC and started what became Elope Asheville: a streamlined, all-inclusive alternative to the traditional wedding machine. No big venue. No year-long planning spiral. No bloated guest list. Just couples, beautiful mountain locations, a simple process, and a business model that worked.

Over the years, that idea grew into a 7-figure wedding business built around a simple truth: couples don’t always want more wedding. Many of them want less stress, less cost, fewer decisions, and a better experience.

Now I help photographers, officiants, venues, and wedding pros across the country build their own local elopement businesses using the same systems I developed in Asheville.

My background is unusual. I started in radio and TV, served in the Air Force as a meteorologist, built a business from scratch, survived a major internal business betrayal, won back control, and came out the other side with a clearer understanding of what actually makes a business durable.

I’m a good podcast guest because I’m comfortable on a mic, I know how to tell a story, and I don’t speak in empty entrepreneur clichés. I can talk about business models, category creation, elopements, marketing, pricing, systems, leadership, failure, and rebuilding.

Most importantly, I talk about what wedding pros often get wrong when they try to offer elopements.

The headline is this: I created my own lane in the wedding industry before it really even existed, proved the model for more than a decade in multiple locations throughout the US and Ireland, and now I’m helping other people do the same in their own markets.