courthouse weddings??!! :)

My Mother and Father did this. they had 2 witnesses nothing fancy just each other, they were married 33 years . Dad just passed in April. =( they were happy tho =)

Sorry to hear about you loss- thats wonderful they were happy

I wanted to get married at the courthouse. And go on a honeymoon to the bahamas for a two weeks. But fh says his mom would be really hurt if we did that. So now I am stuck planing a wedding. But i am very excited about it.

I know that you can have two witnesses. Its not expensive at all. Acrually where I live they have some really nice chapels and you can have up to 30 people in a private ceremony.

One of my best friends got married at the courthouse... very simple she wore a cute dress he wore a sports jacket and jeans there were a total of 6 of us there. and then we all went out to dinner and dancing... they didn't seem to feel they missed out on anything and in the end they were husband amd wife which is all they cared about.

I was going to marry at courthouse and wear wedding dress, but so many guests questioned why courthouse? It just so many churches require six months of counseling and we couldn't since he is in deployment. Navy does demand a lot of his time when he works sea duty as well. So I dunno yet

I saw your post about the cruise but did not comment over there. If you are having second thoughts on the courthouse thing why don't you have someone marry you on the dock before boarding the cruise? That would be different and yet not just the courthouse. I do like your idea of the family cruise and then the cruise alone after that instead of spending all of that money on a wedding.

In the military, A LOT of couples have court house weddings because, depending on the service member's rank, they don't make that much money. Most people leave well enough alone but a good number go back a couple years later and do a ceremony and whatnot. It doesn't make their marriage any less happy or legitimate :-)

FH and I were going to do it and pocket the 15K we're saving but he didn't want me to regret not having a wedding. I think a lot of people don't realize you can have a ceremony and not have a reception, especially if you don't have any OOT guests. Psh, if we were in NY I wouldn't even bother with a reception.

You can do a small cocktail and hor'dourves (sp?) hour before the ceremony with wine and finger-food, a nice ceremony and then bee line to your honeymoon! If you watch Monster In Law, that's what Jennifer Lopez did for her wedding :-)

We got married in the court house because at that time our famimiles couldn't be there. Now we are having a church wedding in Poland were my family is and a lot of ppl is flying from US. On our ceremony we had other couples to, but we had my sisiter and couple friends with us. Across the street from court was our friend's restaurant and we went there for drinks before ceremony. After ceremony we went for a very nice dinner with sister and friend. Check our pics out on my website - they're all from that day : www.weddingwire.com/justinandalicja

Brian, I disagree. My DH and I got married at the courthouse almost two months ago. It was short, yes, but there was plenty of emotion in that room and a lot of sentiment.

The JP that performed the ceremony was very kind, made us laugh and didn't say a word when I turned in the middle of our vows and snarked at the kids... It was my DH, my three children and I, and it was perfect. The only thing I do regret is that we didn't get any pictures done that day.

Megan- the ceremony is what you make it. I don't think it matters if you get married in a court house or in a church. It's about what is "best" for you and your FS.

We had to get married before our DW. My brother and his ex-wife had to get married a month before their wedding in order to get on the list for base housing (so the house wld be ready for right after their actual wedding). DS and I had a ceremony at my uncles house. And my brother did it in one of the small rooms ofour church. I would have been completely happy with just the wedding at my uncles. Lol.

It keeps sounding like you'd rather have the money for just you and your FS. Obviously we were the same way. I never thought I'd get married and therefore never dreamed about a wedding day. I couldn't imagine spending thousands for just one day. We spent thousands on a week with our fam and friends on our dw!

A friend of mine got married at the San Francisco Courthouse in CA. Her pictures were beautiful as the building has stunning architecture. She was also able to wear a very nice tea lenghth white dress which she topped of with read heels.

My Mom got married in one and it was really nice..I mean not the place its plain and boring but the Judge made it really personal and meaningful.

Im not but I wish we were! I am not very religious and would rather have the courthouse but my family is VERY Catholic and would die if we didn't get married with a big wedding! But if it fits you, you should definitely do it! Have fun on the cruise! Heck you could get married on the cruise...the captain will do the ceremony!

My parents did that and when i got in engaged she told me don't do that because she has spent years wishing she had a wedding. So in 2008 for their 40th anniversary - they had a wedding see pics below.

Thats awesome your parents got to do their wedding on their 40th. I personally did the courthouse wedding in January because my Husband didn't want to be a couple that was engaged for 3 years and other reasons too. We agreed though that I still wanted the Big Wedding and to have my Dad walk me down the Isle in the White Dress. So we decided to do a Ceremony and Reception later. Which worked out great.

We are going to the courthouse a little over 3 months from the wedding ceremony. I'm just as excited about that day than I am about the wedding ceremony! It ends up working better for us! Go for it...it can be cheaper and the end result is still the same!

I went to one in my city. It was cold impersonal and like herding cattle through a line. It was horrible! The bride felt cheated and they actually ended up getting a divorce solely to have a real wedding 2 years later. Then, they did a small, simple ceremony in their home.

It sounds like your courthouse does something for the couple, but the idea of having a courthouse wedding makes me cringe.

I still recommend a private ceremony somewhere- a restaurant meeting room, a neighborhood park, someone's home. You can have a beautiful ceremony with next to no costs. We found an officiator for $150 and having it at a restaurant, the room was free!

I would do that Meghan BUT I am planning to spend a lot of money on a photographer that I feel that the pictures won;t be nice if it is at resturant. Don't get me wrong, I want to have reception at resturant but I hardly see wedding professional pictures at a resturant. I would love to marry in a room at resturant but the wedding is getting so close that I feel I am too late to find a room

Well, seems some say yes some say no...we are getting ready to leave in a few min to go check out the courthouse in our area...HOPEFULLY i will get good vibes and not cringe! But, yes, I really LOVE the idea of taking our family on a cruise to celebrate and then after that FS and i will turn around and take a 7 day cruise by ourselves. I just hope wearing a wedding dress wont look silly at a courthouse.

Meagan that is so funny, cause that is how I feel as well! But I might just found a chapel to marry at.