My fiance and I got engaged a few months ago but have been together for years. We have talked about getting married for awhile now and have been really excited about it. However, our parents both think we are a little young to be getting married so soon, and--since we were both content with being patient--we decided to wait for a end-of-the-year 2011 wedding.
More recently though I heard rumors floating around that, once confirmed, changed our original plan. Since my fiance and I joined the military one of our biggest concerns has been being able to be stationed together in the future. I was told by a few military couples I know (and now have had confirmed by my unit) that unless we had been married for a year by the time I got out of my training we would have a much lower chance of getting stationed together. Since my extremely long job training ends about February 2011 that would require that we be married no later than by February 2010. Suddenly our perfect plan and date turned out to be way too late. To avoid disappointing our families (who would both be quite less than content with a small ceremony as opposed to the extravagant ones they desire) and do our own thing the way we want...we decided to elope this month to get the legal business out of the way and go through with the ceremony our families desire in November 2011. The catch is we're not telling a sole (except his best man who's filming our secret ceremony), and we plan to go through with the 2011 ceremony as if we are just getting married then. Even though we will have been married already by the time the ceremony rolls around, we want our families to be pleased and believe they're apart of the ceremony so they're not offended. And he and I can have our own little ceremony just between us (which we would honestly much prefer anyways)...and no one has to know.
Think we're ridiculous?
I'd love to hear some advice and opinions of other groom- and bride-to-bes. I won't lie; I'm a little anxious about hurting my family members' feelings if they were to ever find out, but I would love some encouragement.
Please let me know what you think. I'd love any thoughts on our plan!