GUEST POST: Kristin, from "Skinny Jeans + a Chai Latte"

What does every girl dream of as they grow up?  I am sure a vast majority would say their wedding.  When I think back, I really can't recall dreaming of a glamorous, expensive wedding.  Even after dating D for four years, I was not fantasizing about the day we would get married.  I knew I wanted to be with D, but I never had these grandiose ideas of a wedding.  So what happened, and how did I end up married?

In 2009, D and I took the trip of a lifetime to Europe for a month.  Much to my surprise, D proposed to me in Cinque Terre, Italy.

[The day of...me with zero idea]

[So thrilled that I couldn't even remember he really did get down on one knee]

You can read about our whole engagement story and how D picked out (on his own) my most perfect engagement ring (which I still get compliments on!).  While that's the story of our engagement, I didn't take the typical route of immediately planning for a wedding.

I can not recall if I had an elopement idea prior to the engagement.  I had been really anti-wedding for a bit.  I practically despised weddings and everything about them.  The insane, inflated prices.  The obsessions.  The divorce rate in the country.  The traditions.  I could go on.  I was probably a real pain considering how much I complained about weddings.  From there, I took my elopement idea and ran with it.  

While we were still in Europe, I brainstormed where to have our private wedding ceremony.  We tossed around the idea of inviting family.  We knew we wanted to throw a party when we returned.  Eventually we decided on "eloping:" in Aruba.  It was not an official elopement since our family and friends knew about it.  I suppose it was more of a private ceremony.  We combined that with our honeymoon.

Our private ceremony/honeymoon was a relatively cheap occasion.  D's parents graciously gifted us with their timeshare (lodging for the week) and airfare vouchers.  We paid a small fee for the wedding planning and professional pictures.  Then of course we threw a party to celebrate with family and friends upon our return (well two weeks later). 

We probably spent $1000 on this occasion (by pulling out some more gracious favors and with luck of connections).  While my family did not have thousands upon thousands of dollars to spend (nor did I plan to rack up thousands on a credit card), I would not change our elopement and party for a wedding any day.  I have lots of opinions on things that I share mostly freely over at my own blog, and I won't run away Lacey's readers by so candidly sharing them!  I wrote my own posts about my two cents on weddings, but here are a few reasons I'm so grateful/lucky/happy with our vow choices:

• It's not always a day all about YOU.  It involves parents (+ wants/opinions), a wedding party, and money.  It can be all about you and your hubby-to-be if you elope.  While money still didn't allow for the elopement of our dreams, only D and I got to make all the decisions about our day.
• It costs a lot of money.  A lot more than you think.  That "perfect" wedding you've envisioned probably costs $100,000.  Props to you if you're parents give you that budget.  Props to you if your parents can give you anything at all.  Don't forget about all the wedding showers everyone has to attend...plus bridal luncheons, brunches, rehearsal dinner, etc. etc. It made me feel better to not have people pouring lots of money into those "extras" people forget about.  Not to mention, we have no wedding/honeymoon credit cards we're paying off two years later.
• It is way more stressful than you thought.  I only planned a party and that was stressful.  I feel lucky to have escaped at least some of that stress.
• At the end of the day...you're going to be married!  Don't stress about the small stuff or planning everything down to a perfect tee.  While not everything still went perfectly, I adored having that special ceremony where I could completely focus on being married...nothing else.

Everyone is different.  For us, it was much better to not rack up a ton of credit card debt to throw a party.  We were confident in reading our vows to each other in a more private setting.  Some people want to declare their love in front of others...that's ok.  Some people don't mind spending their or their parents' money on a one day event.  To each her own.  Eloping worked for us...and I get it doesn't work for everyone.  I will guarantee, if you choose to do it...you'll be happy!

For the record, it would have been amazing to have ANOTHER honeymoon/vacation after the wedding celebration.  That was pretty stressful and I would have loved to relax and not rush back to work after that!