Elopement

I think it definitely would be a lot less stress. Unless you really want a wedding, I doubt it’s a good idea to invest all the money and stress.

How does your partner feel? Where might you guys want to elope???

I’ve thought about it, especially when my family started causing drama. We are already planning a small wedding, max of 60 guests maybe less, and we’ve discussed cutting it back to immediate family only (or just running away and doing it just us, but my mom would be DEVASTATED).

You're not crazy. There isn't as much stress with planning but you may have family drama if they feel strongly about being a part of it.. what are your partner's thoughts on this?

DH and I were married alone on Tuesday and we never planned to have a traditional wedding. Not what we wanted. Our families were understanding since we are all living in different countries and have different life circumstances. We married in an expensive place but our plane tickets and accomodation didn't cost more than $1000. So it's doable. You could always plan a smaller celebration after. Really depends on your circumstances.

You are far from crazy and in all honesty, I don't blame you. It's been stressful. I'm not even sure how my FH and I got to this point. We got sucked into traditional after all our planning for elopement. I'm pretty sure my mom had something to do with it but I guess I can't really blame her either. Also the more people I realized we weren't inviting gave me time to think about whether or not they'll even live long enough to see it.

It's all about what you want and what would make you happy. We started a bit backwards but for those who I don't think would have a lot of time left, I would definitely want them to be there so now we're doing traditional. As long as it's worth it to you, go for it and don't be sorry. Even if you were to elope now and do traditional (like a vow renewal or something) for friends and family later down the line. People do that as well.

We did the same thing. Planned for the 60-70 person wedding. We would have to wait for 2 years to save enough money. We wouldn't even able to go to a honeymoon because of $$ spent on the wedding.

So instead we decided to have a small ceremony with 15 people and then have a celebration in our backyard. And we do not have to wait for 2 years! I'm getting THE dress, a great photographer, good food, all under $5k. We already booked out honeymoon

Hey Amanda! Have you decided to elope or continue planning the wedding?

We have. We put a deposit down on our venue, booked a photographer and a dj. We quickly realized how expensive planning a wedding actually was and decided to hold off (luckily we were able to get a deposit back).

Just recently we realized we are not much of planners (and cannot afford one) and decided to elope instead in the White Mountains. We are eloping next month and I am so thrilled especially because we literally got all our ducks in a row yesterday, just need to get our marriage license!

Ours is shaping up to be half & half. We have some traditional elements but cut out a bunch of the "junk" that doesn't matter to us. We are having a quickie outdoor ceremony and then a backyard BBQ reception. We talked about what was important to us and what was't. We decided that we have been to too many awkward/uncomfortable weddings in our lives...We decided to mirror our wedding with how we are in real life-casual, fun, low-key... I personally can't justify spending a metric crap ton of money on a wedding...it's really not that important to me. The fact that we will be married at the end of that day and we will be spending time with our cherished friends and family is what IS important. Seeing the amount of money people spend on a wedding...its crazy! I mean kudos to the people who can afford an extravagant event (if that's their thing) but its not our thing. I would rather spend the money on an epic adventure...

I started planning a traditional wedding and after assessing the cost ( $12,000) so far for a small 15-25 person wedding, we have decided to elope and spend that money on the honeymoon.