My FI and I find ourselves in a bit of a difficult situation.
My FI is in the army and has already served one tour in Iraq. The possibility of his unit deploying in early 2011 had creeping up on us a few months before we got engaged this past December. Before we got engaged, we discussed what we would do if he did have to deploy, and we decided that we would want to get married first. We didn’t make any decisions about whether this would be a simple legal marriage or a full-scale wedding. If he did not deploy, we agreed to wait until I graduate college (2013) to get married, for simplicity’s sake.
Well, now it’s looking almost certain that his unit will be deploying to Afghanistan in early 2011. We talked about it, and since we have reasonable amount of time to plan a wedding without being too rushed, we want to get married in December 2010.
The problem is how to explain this to my parents. When we got engaged, they said that they would prefer for us to wait until after I graduate to get married. (I did explain to them that if my FI was ever going to deploy before then, we would want to get married.) We’re not worried about money. I respect my parents a lot and just want their approval, but I’m worried they will think we’re getting ahead of ourselves. They will probably be fine with a simple legal marriage, but I’m not sure about how they’ll handle the idea of a wedding. My FI’s parents are very supportive of our plans though.
Any advice on what to do? Wedding? No wedding? What to tell my parents?
TL;DR - FI likely deploying in early 2011. We want to get married before then. Worried about my parent's approval because I'm still in college.