My boyfriend and I are getting married. We have talked marriage before, as we have been together for six years, and we're finding out how difficult hammering out the details can be. We come from two complicated families. Our parents are divorced, both caused mostly by infidelity. He has an okay relationship with family, and hardly ever sees his grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. They are all scattered all over the place, with divorces and re-marriages for both of his sets of grandparents, etc. My family is big, and I have been close with my mom's side, though I have not seen them in a few years. I am not close with my dad (we do not speak), and while I generally like some members of my dad's side of the family (the nice, normal ones) we are not terribly close. He loves his parents, but they also do not see each other and since his parents both work crazy hours, they don't really speak me. We live in a different state than all of our relatives, which is not uncommon...but this is what got us originally thinking about eloping. We know our families will be happy for us, and we know they'd want to attend, but we feel like having the big, elaborate party would do much more harm than good. We can get married and celebrate without having to put people who can't stand each other in a room together. Now, both of us were thinking that if we eloped (which is where we are headed) we'd want to keep a bit of normalcy in place. He stills wants to wear a suit, and I'll wear a dress. We also wanted to have a videographer tape our vows and a photographer take our pictures for us. When I discussed it with my mom, she said it sounded like a good idea in theory, but is there really a point if we are eloping? I don't know if people usually do this, or if it is a bit weird. I know people tend to have all of that with a real wedding, and we are trying to have a wedding without the big party, which is different. I don't know if wearing a nice wedding gown to a park or a beach with just two other people there is worth it. I know what we want, and I know in the end we should do what we want, but I can't decide on what to do. A part of me feels like we are entitled to a nice wedding with video and cameras so our families can watch us marry. A part of me feels like we are going to go through all the trouble for a non-wedding. Can you help us shed some light on the situation? Did you elope? What would you do differently? Even if you haven't eloped, I know you have an opinion and I'd really like to hear some.