[angel_rose105]

I eloped last year in June because my parents didn't like my new hubby, and I was too scared to tell them because we'd only been together a few months. I was too scared to tell them afterwards and before I could find the courage, they found out by themselves... It hurt them alot that they missed out on it and I deeply regret not telling them.

[HamSandwich]

Yes, generally eloping is done to hide the marriage (temporarily usually) or to avoid a big crowd. A JOP can either marry a couple in his office or at a ceremony (generally a non-religious one).

My husband and I really wanted to be married privately, however we didn't want to alienate family and so we chose to have a tiny ceremony in my grandparents house. Me being pagan, my husband agnostic and his family being christian, we chose to write our own vows and tailor the ceremony to our liking. Basically, we treated it like a big family dinner with a wedding thrown in- very informal- and the cost was minimal- like less than $1500 total. I think we are both glad we did it that way since it was the last time we really saw his grandmother before she passed away...