The wedding industry is a multi-million dollar business that taps into people’s love of being the center of attention. People think that in order to be happy, they have to have the biggest, most expensive, most unique wedding day that will blow all their friends and family out of the water. But your wedding should be about making a commitment to the person you love, not a competition to have the coolest (clearly Pinterest-inspired) center pieces. So why not fast track your big day and just elope?
- It’s way cheaper. Did you know that the average couple spends approximately $30k on their wedding? And that’s just in the suburbs – if your dream is a Manhattan wedding, you can expect to drop closer to $75,000. Take a few minutes and imagine all the other things you could spend that money on.
- You’ll get to call the shots. For some reason, people tend to think they have a say in what you choose for your wedding. If you’re relying on family to help you pay for things, then you’re going to feel obligated to take their opinions into consideration, no matter how ridiculous they are.
- You won’t accidentally become a Bridezilla. It can happen to the best of us. But if you skip all the stress of planning and making everyone happy, you’ll be a lot more likely to keep a level head, and come out the other side a married woman who still has all her friendships intact.
- You’ll be married sooner. Most engagements last an average of 14 months, mostly because you have to book things like the venue and photographer that far ahead. But if you don’t care where you get married, you could do it next week.
- There’s a lot less that could go wrong. All the moving parts that have to come together to make a wedding go off without a hitch are usually best handled by a wedding planner, but that costs money. Realistically, you’ll be lucky if you just have to deal with a couple minor mishaps on your big day, but even that will leave you a lot less time to actually enjoy yourself.
- You can combine your wedding and honeymoon. A destination wedding has the same effect, but if you elope, you’ll be able to skip all the actual planning. It will be more like you spontaneously got married during your honeymoon, and how romantic is that?
- It’ll be about just the two of you. Weddings have a tendency to become about everyone else. At a big wedding you’ll spend so much time thanking everyone for coming and sharing your special day, that you won’t even be able to enjoy your special day with each other.
- Traditions can be forgotten. If you elope there will be no pressure to participate in traditions you hate like the bouquet toss, kissing on demand, or feeding each other cake. Unless those are things you really want, then you can still do them. The point is, it’ll be your choice.
- Your guests will be only the people you actually want there. That means you don’t have to invite your work frenemy. Or your parents’ 80-year-old neighbor. And your pot head cousin won’t be able to bring a dubious plus one he probably enticed with the promise of an open bar and free drugs.
- You’ll have more privacy. Not everyone is comfortable having an audience watch them profess their love for one another, and that’s totally fine. You’re allowed to prefer to keep your feelings for each other between each other. You’re getting married, after all – people know you’re in love.
- You can spend more time actually enjoying every moment. You won’t have a strict schedule to stick to, and a room full of guests waiting for your grand entrance, so you’ll be able to relax and enjoy your time together instead of worrying about how late you are.
