Ours ran $500 total - venue, gown, flowers, cake, invitations, etc. Got the gown at Penney’s trunk sale. The cake was made by a lady who did them out of her house. The venue (fancy word these days) was at a B&B and was the first wedding they had. It was much nicer than my maid of honor’s who’s gown was $2000 which was a fortune back then.
It’s unbelievable how stupid people are to spend so much on weddings. Don’t go into debt. Put that money into a car or a house or pay off loans/credit cards. Blah, such high credit card debt is another soap box.
Didn't need the nice clothes we were going to wear for the JP...they were in our luggage that was loaded on the ship. So, we ended up getting married in T-shirts and shorts.
Our honeymoon was a two-day cruise to the Bahamas and 4 days at Disney World. Most of our time was spent fretting about our 10 month old daughter, who was safe and sound at Grandma's house.
Based on our experience, I strongly recommend that marriage should come at least a couple of years before kids, to build your relationship with your spouse. We had our first two kids within a year of actually getting married. I love them to death, but child rearing can be a strain on relationships.
We'd been together five years before we got married, but we had our periods of separation. She was working on her bachelors degree, and I did 18 months as a Battery Commander, a 24/7/365 job, further complicated by my pursuit of my masters degree.