Did you elope? Please tell your story.

I didn't elope either but my wedding was pretty small. We took a vacation to Vegas. This was DH's second wedding, my first. His daughter was flower girl, my uncle the bestman, and my sister my maid of honor. My plans were for it to just be me, him and Shelby. But when my dad walked me down the aisle both my uncle and sister were standing at the altar with DH.

My family all came out to Vegas but his parents chose not too.

We got married in the Excalibur hotel and had dinner at the italian resturant in the hotel. This was a surprise for both us but together by my parents.

The week was fun and stress free. And four years later we are still going strong as one happy family.

Do what makes you guys happy. And congratulations.

Jenn
 
Elope . . .

My DH and I eloped after being together 6 years, to the same small town his parents eloped to. We told no one. Found ourselves a justice of the peace and got married on the hottest day of the year in 1995. It was 108 degrees - in Wisconsin! The JPs house was this old log cabin type dwelling, not a fan or air conditioner to be had. We married in t-shirts and shorts - 15 minutes and we were hitched. Funny, but we then proceeded to go camping. With that heat, there was no desire to "consumate the marriage", if you know what I mean! We called our parents after the fact - they were happy and not disappointed that we snuck off the way we did. Had a nice family cookout in the fall so everyone could celebrate with us. I wouldn't have changed a thing!

Really made for some great memories . . .

Mo
 
I eloped because I didn't want the emotional garbage from both families. I'm in an interracial marriage first of a kind on both sides of the family. Both families dissapproved of the interracial thing as well as the fact that we are 14 years appart. My husband was 39 and I was 25. He's german/swedish and I'm a pacific islander girl. The pro's, . .that was 10 years ago and we're still going strong with 2 extremely beautiful children and the con is that I didn't get my dress and pictures. We were married in San Francisco with a judge who wore hot pink converse and had an earing in her nose. Funny when you look back now both families are very accepting of the both of us. You could say we broke the barrier. We would love to one day renew our vowes, . .for now I'm just waiting to win the lottery so that can happen.
 
We eloped and I don't regret it at all. We lived together for 8 years before we got married. Since this was both our second marriage we wanted to do it totally different than the first. Plus, like you, everytime we tried to plan it with everyone it got too complicated. We planned it all in two weeks and it was fun sneaking around like we were teenagers. We got married at the Chapel of Love at the Mall of America. We have great pictures! We have 6 kids between the two of us and they were all teenagers at the time (some at college). They weren't upset at all when we called them that night. We went out to eat at a really nice place and then stayed at a hotel. We even had a little cake. It worked out really good. My only regret - that we didn't ride the roller coaster with our wedding clothes on at the mall :)

Joanne
 
We wanted a small wedding. My parents would have been happy to support the decision. It turned out large because a few other people planned stuff and we let them. We were relatively young at 23 (me) and 25 (him). After almost 18 years of marriage one of my few regrets is that I did not stand firm. If I had to live live over, I would be more firm about a small and intimate wedding....or elope. (My only other regret about my marriage is not having the maturity in the early years to handle a relationship better - so the wedding is a really big regret for me).

A small party after the event is a good idea if you want to include close friends and family in a small celebration. You can avoid letting it turn into a "reception" or anything formal if the wedding is already over by keeping it simple and doing the plannign yourselves.

CONGRATULATIONS!
 
My husband proposed to me on my lunch hour in the reception area of the government office where I worked, and we were married a few hours later. We already had an unspoken agreement and we both hate a fuss. So when he came in and said, "Hey, want to get married?" I said, "Sure, why not. I'll get my purse," and we were off! That was twenty-three years ago.

It was a fabulous day. We stopped by our houses and put on our nicest clothest, then we went to the jewelers and bought simple rings. On the way to the jp, we realized we didn't have flowers, so we picked up a rose at a greenhouse. We got married in a fifteen minute ceremony and spent the rest of the afternoon telling our loved ones what we had done -- in geographical order, so there couldn't possibly be any hard feelings. We couldn't honeymoon until the weekend because we both had to work, :) although we did spend a week at the lake afterward.

It was absolutely the best wedding anyone could ever have had! We got to laugh and spend time alone together with zero stress. And the weather was perfect -- a sparkling, sunny day (something you can't choose if you plan ahead). There was no jealousy, there were no arguments, and there was no fighting or resentment among relatives. It was completely equal-opportunity too. Everyone we knew was not invited. When anyone complained, we hugged them, laughed, and said "join the crowd." I think our own joy and delight in "getting away with something" without anyone even suspecting sort of colored or friends' and relatives' reactions, because there was no fallout. No one was angry or upset with us beyond a little initial disappointment.

Granted, we don't have a picture from that day, except in our memories, but I can see it as clearly today as I could then, and I don't feel a single pang. This was a second wedding for both of us. It was what I wanted the first time, but I let relatives talk me into the huge church wedding. I look back on that wedding and remember little except worry and misery, but I look back on this one and remember joy and delight. What a difference.

Shari
 
Thanks so much for all your wonderful replies!

Shari, I love your no muss, no fuss story. That's great!

My DS was talking about the wedding and he said "no people at the wedding!" Now, he's a kid on the autism spectrum, as many of you know, so he doesn't love crowds and people getting emotional so I get where he's coming from.

I explained it would likely just be DF, his DSx2, me, my DD, and DS. Plus the minimal number of grownups necessary.

But then he said he wants to officiate! "No, Mom, I'll do the words part." So, problem solved! LOL. It wouldn't be legal but it would be funny.

Thanks again to all of you. I know I'll be returning to look over this thread in the coming months as well as ask for more stories and advice. :D
 

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