Terms & Agreements

Submitters retain all copyright to their submitted images.

Submitters confirm that they personally took every photo (pushed the shutter button) that they submit and own the rights to every image submitted. Submitting photos you did not take on behalf of others is prohibited.

1. Submitters confirm that the photographs submitted are from real, paid client elopement work at which a legal or symbolic wedding ceremony took place, and that there were no more than 25 invited guests present, not including the couple, officiant, celebrant, and members of the photo/video team. Submitters may submit photos from vow renewals and photos from multi-day elopements so long as the days of coverage are part of the same contract as the elopement and were genuinely part of the elopement experience. Photographs from proposals, engagement sessions, pre-wedding shoots, post-wedding shoots, styled shoots, workshops, shootouts, shoot swaps, anniversary sessions, promotional portrait shoots, or of friends/family of the photographer are not eligible for the awards and will be disqualified.
2. All elopement photography images submitted in the Elopement Legend Awards must be taken in legally accessible areas that are not off-limits, using Leave No Trace principles. Photos taken in off-limits locations will be disqualified.
3. Submitters confirm that the images submitted are purely photographic in nature; have not been AI-generated; and that the reality of the scene has not been altered by adding elements that were not present (ie rainbows, unicorns, storm clouds, etc.). At this time, cloning to remove distracting elements is allowed, and AI masking is allowed.
4. Do not include watermarks, logos, or your name in the photograph.

Images that have won a Legend Award are not eligible to win additional Legend Awards and will be disqualified.

You may receive feedback from the judge or the awards team on your images after submission. This is intended to help you understand what judges appreciate and what they want to see to become a winner. Submission feedback is not guaranteed, and you can choose not to receive feedback by opting out when you submit.

The Submitter expressly agrees that they have the consent of all subject(s) in their photographs to be submitted and published in such manners as described above. If functioning as an associate or contracted photographer, the submitter ensures they have the permission of the studio to submit the photo(s) for this contest.

The Submitter grants the Elopement Legend Awards a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive license to use their submitted images to promote the Elopement Legend Awards and its members through the organization's public websites, social media, and email communications.

The Elopement Legend Awards may seek to share and publish Legend Award winning images on third party sites for the express purpose of promoting photographers and their websites. By submitting their photos, the submitter(s) grant their permission for their images to be published on third party sites or other media features. Credit to the photographer by name or studio name will be given, and where possible, a backlink will be included.

The Elopement Legend Awards expressly disclaims all liability arising from the unauthorized reproduction, transmission, misappropriation, alteration, or other misuse of any photo hosted and displayed by Elopement Legend Awards or by third parties. You shall save, defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Elopement Photography Awards, Lucy Schultz, and its officers, judges, agents, or employees from all claims, suits, and actions of any nature resulting from or arising out of the activities of displaying your images.

In every round, both members and non-members may submit up to 5 images by default. If the photographer submits fewer than 5, the unused number of submitted images will not roll over to the next contest. However, both members and non-members can use promo codes to receive additional image credits, which do roll over.

The Submitter is liable for keeping their email and website links accurate for purposes of giving credit when awarded.

The Administrator's decisions are final on all matters relating to this process. By participating in the Elopement Legend Awards, by submitting a photo or photos, submitters (you) agree to be bound by these official rules and the decisions of the Administrator, Lucy Schultz.

The submitter consents to receiving notifications by email regarding their submissions.

Memberships must be paid for in full at the time of purchase. No partial payments or deposits are accepted. Every individual photographer may have their own membership. Memberships are personal and cannot be paused, put on hold, sold, shared, or transferred to another person. A studio with 2 or more photographers (including married teams) must purchase 2 memberships if they would like both photographers names represented with an account. Members may not submit images on behalf of others. The member consents to receiving notifications by email regarding their membership status, account, monthly themes, submission deadlines, member perks, and renewal date. Having a member listing on the Elopement Legend Awards does not guarantee leads, bookings or revenue.

Membership includes the following for 12 consecutive months from the sign-up date:

• Free entry (5 images) into all open Legend Award competitions.
• Free entry into monthly themes (up to 5 images). Members submissions are guaranteed to be featured if they fit the monthly theme's category. Members will receive a badge on their profile for every feature.
• A profile in our international and location-specific member directory. Profiles include a great backlink to the member's website and socials; their studio name and location, a 20-image portfolio uploaded by the photographer; a Legend Award counter and display of their award-winning images.
  • Photographers must include their profile photo, name, location, studio name, email and website link in order for their profile to be visible in the directory. The Member is liable for keeping their account information accurate, including but not limited to their service area, website url, email, contact information, studio name.
  • Member profiles are displayed in our international (main) photographers' directory and in one location-specific directory page that accurately represents the photographers home location. Adding additional locations will be available in future updates.
• Photographers may submit a feature article to our blog. This article must be a new article, written by you (not copy pasted from your own blog) and may include up to 8 images. Members are encouraged to write articles that serve as resources to help couples elope, plan their elopement, or choose a photographer. Articles may feature the photographer's unique offerings; skills; and position the photographer as an expert in their field. A backlink is included and every post will be shared on our social media and blog.
• Members may view their past submissions to the Elopement Legend Awards and view any judge's past feedback from their member dashboard.
• Members can refer new photographers to membership. For each photographer that creates a membership using the first member's promo code, both will receive 2 additional image credits to be entered into the Legend Awards. For example, an Elopement Legends Member named Avery refers Bailey and Bailey signs up using Avery's promo code. Both Avery and Bailey are both able to enter 7 images instead of 5 images into any future round, including the current round, of the Legend Awards. Image credits roll-over as long as the member's account is active.

Photographs in the portfolio must represent the member's own work and are not limited to elopements. The Member expressly agrees that they own the rights to all uploaded content and that members have the consent of all subject(s) in their photographs to be uploaded, displayed and published in such manners as described. If functioning as an associate or contracted photographer, the member ensures they have the permission of the studio to upload the photo(s) to their membership profile.

Members retain the copyright to all uploaded images. The Member grants the Elopement Legend Awards a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive license to use their uploaded images to promote the Elopement Legend Awards and its members through the organization's public websites, social media, and email communications.

The Elopement Legend Awards expressly disclaims all liability arising from the unauthorized reproduction, transmission, misappropriation, alteration, or other misuse of any photo hosted and displayed by Elopement Legend Awards or by third parties. You shall save, defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Elopement Photography Awards, Lucy Schultz, and its officers, judges, agents, or employees from all claims, suits, and actions of any nature resulting from or arising out of the activities of displaying your images.

Memberships can be set to auto-renew. This is up to the preference of the photographer. Photographers may adjust their renewal settings, including opting out, via Stripe in the member dashboard.

The Elopement Legend Awards reserves the right to remove listings or content that violate community guidelines without a refund.

Should the photographer opt out of auto-renewal, their card declines, or fail to make a payment by their renewal date, or for any other reason fail to pay, the membership will lapse. After a 1 week grace period, the member's listing will be automatically removed from the directory. Any unused image credits may be lost. The photographer can reinstate their membership at any time for the current price. The price the photographer paid previously will not be honored. The member's information, portfolio, and legend awards will never be lost or need to be re-uploaded, and will appear again once the membership is reinstated.

1. All cancellation requests must be made in writing to elopementphotographyawards@gmail.com.
2. Refunds: If the member wishes to cancel their membership for any reason, the Elopement Legend Awards will refund any unused months from the amount paid minus 1 month. For example, if the member wishes to cancel after 6 months of membership, they will receive a refund for 5 months. There are no refunds given for unused image credits, which have no monetary or non-monetary value. Refunds will be processed within 30 days from the cancellation notice in writing.