To elope or not to elope

We did something kind of like this. Wanted a private ceremony, and just a small celebration later, so that's what we're doing. DH's family can be drama, and we wanted the getting married part to be private. We thought about a courthouse elopement. We ended up getting married with our pastor, standing by the ocean (lucky I live on the coast, so that was beautiful and free), with just our daughters and my parents. And it rained. Went out to lunch with them and DH's parents, then had a nice wedding night alone at a nicer local hotel.

Now in April, we're having our celebration of marriage with just our nearest and dearest, about 35 people, and are going on our honeymoon afterwards. We have a small budget, and ended up finding this wonderful renovated barn/vacation home rental on a mountain with gorgeous scenery. It just ended up working out perfectly, as the owners currently rent it as a vacation home, but had plans to turn it into a small event venue as well. So we'll be their first, and they are awesome and flexible. It was exactly the kind of thing we wanted, and is saving us a ton over traditional wedding venues.

So basically, my advice is to think outside the traditional wedding box, and make it your own. Do what you want.

We eloped, no regrets!

Team elopement!!!!! I WISH we would just elope. I would lose all deposits tomorrow if FH said ok. If you are contemplating it now, find a beautiful location and just do it. We could have gone to Hawaii with 5 people for a week for half of what my wedding is costing

Honestly this wedding thing is stressing me out so badly I wish I would have thought about eloping before putting down a ton of deposits and stuff. - if your families would support you eloping I would go for it!!

I wish we could elope. I would happily lose all the deposits if FH said yes, but his family would hold it against us for the rest of our lives