Anyone else eloping next year?

[zilla]

we're booked!
Anyone else in the same boat? How are you planning on keeping family members happy?
We're going to have a photoshoot when we're back, with our 2 babies, and have a garden party for the family and present our important family members with photographs from the shoot. Hopefully this will keep them from being too annoyed that they missed out on the big day!
What's everyone else's reasons, if you're eloping? x

 

[Abz1982]

Possibly, but not till october! My main reason is cost....My sis had a HUGE wedding, so my parents have seen one daughter off - at cost! and my MIL has seen 2 of hers married, so we are not depriving them.

I dont want any family there, but we do need to invite 3 friend - 2 as witness and 1 as childminder! SO I have my 2 oldest friends in the world - from when I was 4... but, OH cant invite his oldest friends as they cant keep a secret and one will have a wife that wants to come and it will snowball, so he has to invite his BEST friend.

We are keeping it schtum as well. We will get everyone to come out for a meal and tell them after. The kids arent even going to know till the day

 

[zilla]

Possibly, but not till october! My main reason is cost....My sis had a HUGE wedding, so my parents have seen one daughter off - at cost! and my MIL has seen 2 of hers married, so we are not depriving them.

I dont want any family there, but we do need to invite 3 friend - 2 as witness and 1 as childminder! SO I have my 2 oldest friends in the world - from when I was 4... but, OH cant invite his oldest friends as they cant keep a secret and one will have a wife that wants to come and it will snowball, so he has to invite his BEST friend.

We are keeping it schtum as well. We will get everyone to come out for a meal and tell them after. The kids arent even going to know till the day

It is so much money isn't it! I literally can't justify it, especially as we won't get any help from anyone towards it anyway. (So if they say we're selfish for eloping, I can argue that they're selfish for expecting us to spend thousands on a day that we don't really want).
We're literally just going away the two of us - our Los will be 2 years old and 4 months old so it's not like they're going to get annoyed about not being invited as they won't remember. Most kids don't get to go to their parents weddings anyway! & we're really lucky that our hotel has very very kindly agreed to provide a couple of people for an hour to be our witnesses

Are you worried about the reaction at the meal?

 

[ckillgannon]

I eloped 10/10 and our reason was because it's just so us. We're unconventional people, a couple of punk rock kids who met at a dive bar seeing a local band. We started trying for a baby shortly after we got together and had so many conversations about how surprised people would be. Our wedding followed that same theme--my mom didn't even know until after and I wasn't the one to tell her!

As for keeping family happy... That wasn't really a concern. My mom's pissed, sure, but she and I are not close, so it doesn't bother me all that much.

I fully recommend eloping to anyone who a) wants to save money, b) hates the wedding industrial complex (as I do), or c) wants to be spontaneous and surprise the hell out of people.

 

[Fezzle]

We're starting to make preliminary plans, after talking about it hypothetically for about a year- most likely getting married in Gibraltar and then hiring a campervan to travel around Spain for the honeymoon. The biggest issue right now is that I need to get my full birth certificate and divorce certificate from places in the US (I'm a UK/US dual citizen and living in the UK for 11 years, but originally American).

We're doing it because we're in our late 30s and just can't be bothered with a bigger wedding, but want it to be a bit more special than going to the local registry office and having a nice meal with our families, especially since my family would be coming a long way. We've just bought a house and we're TTC our first baby, so don't want something that's going to be a lot of hassle.

I've been married before (when I was 22), which was quite a traditional wedding, not me at all- more of 'my parents' party'- so I'm hoping that was enough that they won't feel like they're missing out on this one. Maybe we'll do a reception of some sort later on, but for now we just want the wedding to be 'us'.

 

[EcoMama]

Hi, we're planning on a secret wedding this year.

We've been together for 10 years, have 2 children, a dog & a house. So may as well

Not bothered about inviting anyone. Even struggling to figure out witnesses! Do you really need them?

 

[Fezzle]

I think we're going to have most of the planning done by the hotel in Gibraltar and they provide witnesses! if not, we'll ask other couples at the registry office or grab people off the street!

 

[EcoMama]

Have you been to Gib before?

We've managed to sort the witnesses. Our local registry office can provide some, yey!

 

[Fezzle]

Fantastic!

Nope- OH has never been there either! Our plan is to get married there, but then hire a campervan and travel around Southern Spain for a couple weeks for a honeymoon.