Quote Originally Posted by Crankin View Post
I am another person who thinks weddings are kind of dumb to begin with, so probably not the best person to give advice here.
My DH and I totally agree. We spent about $8k almost 16 years ago, which was way cheap by mid-90s standards. Half of that was on photographer and honeymoon, which is where our priorities were, but in hindsight we wish we'd taken that same money and been married by a friend outdoors, then had a BBQ reception and a really amazing, long, foreign honeymoon (I mean, aside from Canada, which never feels very foreign from MI) or put a bigger downpayment on a house. The whole dress/church thing was more for our grandparents and family than for us. But they all could have been happy with a casual wedding/reception, too.

Thanks for all the great advice, ladies. You've really given me a lot of food for thought. I need to discuss this more with my DH, since he has known my sister since she was 9 and has a very good handle on the family dynamics, but can still be reasonably objective.