Hellobee Boards

I wanted to elope--maybe be cliche and fly to Vegas, or Niagara Falls or somewhere smaller, or get married at City Hall, but it was important to DH that all of our family and friends be there to celebrate with us, so we had a really tiny (<50) casual wedding. If we could do it over again I still wouldn't mind eloping or going to a City Hall but I know how important it is to DH that it be an actual thing.

I did! Well, we hired a notary and signed paperwork on our back porch, lol.

My first marriage we did the huge wedding and I hated it...all the planning and everything, and for what? That marriage didn't last. So, this time around we just decided one weekend to get it done, lol.

My MIL did decorations and stuff, and insisted I have a cake, so I baked one...but really for us, we were about as low key as we could get. We were in t-shirts and shorts!

We technically got married in our house by a JOP with just our parents as witnesses. We had a wedding ceremony a few weeks later in Jamaica but the official legal stuff was done right here where I'm sitting, and I love that. I wouldn't have a big hometown reception, too much fuss!!!!

I think about this all the time! My parents gave us X thousand dollars to put towards our wedding or whatever else we wanted. Whatever we didn't spend on the wedding, was ours to keep.

We decided to throw a big outdoor wedding with fabulous food and friends at my parents' home. It was an absolute dream. Now three years later I sometimes wonder if we should have taken the money, but I keep concluding no. We have such amazing memories that are worth every penny. (I'm sure we'd have the same wonderful memories with a city hall wedding too though!) It just seems like things are sooooo expensive where we live that the amount of money we could have taken wouldn't have bought us more house than we have, we've been able to do improvements to it when we want and we're comfortable. So I guess because we're not "missing" the money, I'm glad we had the wedding of our dreams.

We paid for the wedding ourselves so if it meant we could keep all that money minus the license and court fees, that'd be awesome! But I think a big ole wedding celebration was fun. I planned ours in 1 month, and the biggest headache was picking out the bm dresses and my gown. Plus, (Asian) weddings are a place for all friends and family from all over the world to meet in one place and re-connect that wouldn't make the journey otherwise. At least for my wedding it was this way.

no, but for the $$$, we could have taken 50 of our nearest & dearest on a pretty sweet trip for a destination wedding & had a great time!

for us marriage isn't about being married in front of god (UU wedding in a barn at an at risk youth summer camp- haha, did i just add to the HB crunch factor??), it's was about being married in front of those who will hold us to our vows- there was a community vow where everyone was asked to be part of our marriage by supporting us & holding us to the promises we made that day. if we had been married at city hall without our guests, we would have lost that part of our wedding.

that said, we def didn't have a cookie cutter wedding- we had african dancers & drummers and 2 ceremonies and fireworks and the donation to camp (instead of paying a hotel or other facility, we chose to pay the camp an equal amount) meant a lot to us because it was enough to cover the cost of much needed renovations for them so we felt good about where the $$ from our wedding was going & we had the time of our lives, BUT i don't think a typical wedding would have been worth it to me, i think then i would have been cool with taking 50 for a destination wedding.

We would have gone the destination route and would have told everyone to come if they wanted and if not no worries. We spent waaay too much money.

I think a destination wedding or eloping would have been fun. I loved my traditional wedding, but there was a lot of unnecessary drama that occurred thanks to family (thankfully not my family of origin). I'm Catholic, so I wanted a sacramental marriage. It was important to me.

I work next to City Hall. I love seeing brides in cute dresses getting married during the summer. It's one of those "aww" moments I get when I'm walking around.

If I were doing it all over again, I definitely would! I used to think a City Hall wedding would be sterile or un-emotional. However, last fall my best friend had a quick wedding at City Hall so she could go abroad when her husband's job transferred him. It was beautiful! The judge gave them some options about what sort of vows they wanted to say, whether they would exchange rings, etc. It was very intimate (four guests + one baby) and just so very "them."

We actually got legally married at our favorite bar/restaurant with two of our friends there as witnesses. In PA you can have a self-uniting ceremony. It was awesome - paperwork signed over good beer and sandwiches

We had a big, casual family ceremony and reception a few months later.

Knowing what I know now, I would have definitely eloped.

I did have moments during the planning process when I seriously thought it would be easier to just have a city hall (presume this is the US equivalent of our registry office) ceremony. Though we did go the whole hog and have a big do, which I wouldn't change now for a second. I don't regret the money we spent because if I didn't think we could afford it or we were sacrificing anything else, we would have done things differently.

Nope, never. Even after going through the trials and tribulations of planning and financing the big expensive wedding, I wouldn’t have done it any other way. Our wedding day was one of the happiest of my life and I wouldn’t have those memories had we just gone to city hall or went off and eloped. Sure, the ultimate outcome would have been the same (being married and all) but the experience would have been entirely different. I loved our wedding and if I could go back and do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.

I wouldn't. I never ever ever wanted that and luckily neither did Mr. Hedgie. I don't regret having a big fancy wedding one but and if we had to do it over, I would do the exact same thing! Maybe change some details but then again, who wouldn't? lol

I adored our fancy interfaith wedding and it just wouldn't hold the same emotional and exciting memories if we had just eloped or gone to the courthouse. Not saying anything against those who choose/chose to do that! Heck, my parents wanted to elope but only had a big wedding for their families! They plan on eloping for a vowel renewal one day.

We eloped in Kauai! We followed that with a casual party at my parents house a few months later.

My wedding looks beautiful in pictures but I was so, so stressed out that day. I wish I had gotten married at City Hall but being the eldest daughter and granddaughter in my family I felt pressure to have the big wedding. Our wedding took almost two years to plan and it totally consumed my life. Small wedding all the way!

My dad told me to elope and I wish I had!

@.twist.: I think it was. Creeper here too but she put up a picture of her in her dress and I was like I REMEMBER HER!! Hahah

Yes, we were married by a JOP and also planning a wedding for the following August. Plans changed when I got pregnant three months after we were married!

We are talking about renewing our vows on our fifth anniversary (two years from now) and having a nice reception.

For me, I'm glad we had the big wedding and I'd do it again. My family had had a couple big funerals leading up to our wedding so I was happy we could give people a reason to celebrate.