Eloping
The "wedding industry" makes billions of dollars off of hardworking people every year. While so many dream of the perfect wedding, with everyone they love around them, a stunning dress, an incredible cake, and the fairytale celebration, the sad truth is that weddings can put people into deep debt. While a wedding ought to be a special and joyous occasion, it is too easy to make it a spectacle and forget what it is really about - the marriage. Is it worth all the money and strain just to have monogrammed cocktail stirrers?
Imagine this: you and your fiance escape to a beautiful location for a weekend - perhaps a cottage on the beach, perhaps a bed and breakfast in an idyllic small town, or perhaps a lively city with a raucous night life. You get married at the courthouse or in a chapel, and the only people you have to worry about are each other. Your schedule? You don't have a schedule. You make your agenda as you go through your day. Perhaps you go straight back to your accommodations to start the honeymoon early. Perhaps you find a nice restaurant to celebrate with a fancy meal and some champagne. Or maybe you would prefer to just go lounge somewhere, to rest and relax and enjoy each other's company.
Plenty of people opt to elope, and these days, it is a very smart option. Sure, it means not having the traditional wedding with all the trimmings, but it does mean keeping your bank account - and your sanity - intact. And the great news is that with all the money you save, you can put it into a new home for you and your spouse. The new home is one of the greatest parts of a new marriage, and you deserve the very best. After all, your wedding is for a day, your home is for years, maybe even a lifetime. The incredible feeling of walking over the threshold of a brand-new home with your most loved one is just as good (if not better) than the feeling of seeing them as you walk down the aisle.
If you are really craving the "wedding" feeling, consider eloping and hosting an anniversary party for everyone a year later. It will give you time to save up and it wouldn't have to be nearly as formal as a wedding. Elopement doesn't have to feel like sneaking away or cutting corners if you do it up right, and there are plenty of benefits to it. No feuding families, no last-minute caterer disasters, nothing like that. Just the two of you (and a few loved ones if you decide to include them), a little getaway, and a new home waiting for you at the end of the ceremony.
After all, isn't that what your wedding day is all about? The two of you, coming together, to begin a new home and life together?
