A few links about elopement and marriage that I have left over:
When you consider marriage, do you have a time frame? Not for the ceremony, mind you, duration of the bond itself. At Ask Metafilter. I once read a sci-fi story about set in a dystopian future where people married like this, had a marriage contract for a set number of years with the option to renew when the time was up. I read it as a teenager and in light of the emotional trauma some of my friends were going through as their parents divorced, this theoretical contractual marriage thing seemed like a good idea. It’s unrealistic, of course. The answers the asker has marked as best are good.
Girlhacker reported that David Letterman got married in a courthouse. If it’s good enough for celebrities…
When The Going Gets Tough, Fantasize! at Wedding Thrift, wherein she fantasizes about eloping and links to this article in the NY Daily News that says, “Skipping the reception, and everything that goes with it, is increasingly appealing in today’s tough economic climate.” I have to agree.
my husband and i eloped 8 years ago and i would do it all over again. we eloped to, of all places, scottsdale, arizona on a whim.
BUT…
eloping isn’t for everyone. i know folks who’ve eloped that are crestfallen afterward because they didn’t get the attention (or gifts) that a wedding and reception provides.
it actually took a long time for people to acknowledge we were married because they weren’t actually there.
Gabrielle - This is a good point, and one we knew when we decided to have a just-us wedding. I did talk to a few people who eloped before we made solid plans and heard from people who eloped for real and hurt some family feelings from family members who would have liked to be at a wedding. That is why we told everybody what we were planning.