Elope and Save Yourselves Money, Time and Stress
Schulman-Markowe is hardly an impatient teenager. She and her financial analyst fianc�© of three years both chose to wait to wed until after they were finished with school and beginning their career.
Leann and Paul Syzc were in a similar position a half dozen years ago. Both in their thirties at the time, they found it nearly impossible to set a date or even find the requisite time to take care of the myriad plans and details that go into even the simplest formal wedding ceremony. They both work busy, demanding jobs that just didn’t give them the luxury of downtime to discuss more than the fact that they wanted to get married. After nearly two years of trying to schedule a mutual vacation where they could sit down and plan their ideal wedding, Paul turned to Leann one night and said, “Look, we know we want to be together. We know we’re right for one another. Let’s forget about all the trappings and just elope.”
The first three-day weekend to present itself to them, the couple jumped on a plane for Las Vegas and managed to get in a little sight-seeing and time at a few casinos before they arrived at an all-night wedding chapel. Less than a half-hour later, they were Mr. and Mrs. Syzc and both report they have never regretted their decision.
“Hey, we saved time, an incredible amount of money, and all the crazy and frustrating planning. While my mom cried – she always dreamed of helping me have the wedding of her dreams – we found a workaround for that. With the approach of our fifth anniversary last year, we opted to renew our vows and this time, have the wonderful ceremony that our family and friends missed the first time out. But honestly, I would have been fine if we’d renewed the vows back in Vegas,” says Leann, expecting their first child in the summer.
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with an elopement so long as both people have done the real work, growing their relationship, beforehand,” says John Reilly, a justice of the peace in a state that does not require a long waiting period between the license and tests and the wedding itself.
Reilly says he sees far more than very young kids trying to escape from the disapproval of their parents to tie the knot. More and more, he reports his couples are 30 and over, busy people who may not have the time or money or even the family and friends to justify a big-event ceremony. And Reilly admits he has a special fondness for such elopements: he and his bride of 37 years got married that way in Maryland.
“Heck, it was just as romantic and special as a big church shindig,” says Reilly. “After a nice older woman married us in a civil ceremony, we took a few days to drive along the Eastern seaboard, stopping to eat at little out-of-the-way places and celebrate their union. It was just beautiful. Ask my wife. She still gets a glimmer in her eye as she thinks about it.”
Rae McClendon of Yonkers, NY, says she gets that same glimmer reminiscing about her elopement four years ago. Her husband-to-be, a National Guardsman, discovered he was just about to be shipped out overseas, which put a big monkey wrench in their plans for an after-Christmas ceremony at her parents’ home.
“We didn’t know what might happen, but we did know that we wanted that union between us before he left. After talking it over with my folks and his, we opted to elope as quickly as we could. Then we used some of the money we were going to spend on the wedding to have a lovely five-day honeymoon before he had to ship out. I’m so, so glad we did. It also made it much easier for (her husband) because he knew for sure I was there waiting for him to come home from Kuwait,” she writes.
