I have been with my boyfriend since we were 20. We are now both 27 years old, have lived together for 6 years, and after years of talking about it, decided now is the right time to get married. We have gotten all of our ducks in a row, and it feels very comfortable, and we are so excited!  We each have iffy relationships with our families. His is pretty distant (they don't talk often), but they are such nice people, and I love them very much. I have developed a hatred with half of mine who have behaved extremely badly. We feel sorry that it has come to it, but decided it would be in our best interest if we had our wedding just the two of us, and skip all of the potential bullsh*t that would come while getting married in front of our families. We are going to video tape it, and we don't necessarily want to exclude anyone from this occasion...it's just that it feels like the right thing to do. I have told this to my mom, and she says that since marriage is so special, if we truly feel it would be a bad thing to risk fights and whatever else might occur, then we are making the right decision. We are both having a very hard time deciding how to announce this. He has discussed calling our parents (my parents live in one state, his in another) and saying that we are marrying on such and such a day, and then sending out announcements to inform the rest of our extended family that we have married. In some way, I feel it is rude to say something so important over the phone. I don't want to ruffle any feathers, really. So the other option is to fly to each state and announce that we are getting married. I don't know. I just never thought it would come to this, though I am happy. I really don't want to upset our parents by "announcing" in the wrong way...especially since we have been together so long and we have both become like part of each others families. Do they really need more than a phone call for this to be tactful? I know that people elope and then tell their families, but I do feel like they are entitled to know before we do. Either way, we still have to tell them. Do you do it in person or on the phone? Like I said, we live in Florida, my parents live in NY, and his parents live in VA, but when it comes to something like this, maybe distance doesn't matter?Any advice is SO appreciated!