“MISS MORTON Didn’t Elope” was a headline in The New York Times of May 24, 1914. One supposes Miss Morton could have made the article even more newsworthy if the elopement had, in fact, taken place.

“Once upon a time eloping was scandalous,” said Rebecca Mead, the author of “One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding” (Penguin Group, 2007), but, she pointed out, that era was before the average South Carolina wedding cost close to $30,000. “There are a lot of people wanting to get married who don’t want to put down the equivalent of a down payment on a house.”

In a time of tightening budgets, some wedding professionals have seen an increase in elopements as couples consider it a practical alternative.

It’s an age-old option. Romeo and Juliet did it. And, though it didn’t turn out so well for them, it worked for the poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning. They, too, were circumventing parental disapproval, but nowadays the primary motivations are convenience and cost.

“A wedding doesn’t have to be a life-absorbing planning process, and it doesn’t have to take up a year and a half of your lives,” said Karla Neville, 27, who decided to elope with Gabe Evans in July while they were on vacation in Portland, Ore.

They had initially intended to have a more traditional event, but found themselves resenting the money and effort required. “We promised each other when we got engaged we wouldn’t let the process of planning a wedding stress us out,” said Mr. Evans, 42, who is an art director and graphic designer in New York. Instead of marrying at a sit-down dinner for 70 people in New York, they wed on a mountaintop overlooking the Columbia River Gorge with only a minister and a photographer present, both of whom they found online.

“I liked the fact that it was just about Gabe and I,” said Ms. Neville, an events assistant at Pernod Ricard, the wine and spirits company. “We were able to say heartfelt things to each other without thinking of hundreds of eyes on us.”

Elopement can be a more intimate and romantic experience than a traditional wedding, according to Lynn Beahan, an author, with Scott Shaw, of “Let’s Elope” (Bantam, 2001), a compendium of elopement information. “It’s you declaring your love to somebody else just in front of that one other person,” said Ms. Beahan, who eloped in Vermont in 2001. “As a married couple you don’t spend the rest of your life making big decisions in front of an audience.”

In fact, having a large audience for a wedding is a relatively modern idea. Church weddings, for example, were not even an option for most people until the 16th century.

“Formal church weddings were generally reserved for aristocrats,” said John Witte, the director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. He said that for those of lower rank many couples “simply declared themselves to be married” with or without a public component.

Ms. Beahan said that “until the late 19th century, most weddings were held at the bride’s home. ” And as late as the 1930s, it was common to have only a ceremony without a reception, according to Ms. Mead’s book.

That being said, Leslie Mesnick-Uretsky, 35, and her husband, Jonathan Uretsky, 34, had been saving for their wedding until they realized that “unless we excluded people, it would be very large,” she said. Neither option appealed to them.

“The 50-person wedding would have been something very nice to do, but it’s difficult to do without offending people,” said Ms. Mesnick-Uretsky, who works in New York as an environmental impact consultant.

The couple were married in January at the Municipal Building in New York — with their immediate families present. Ms. Beahan’s book refers to this as a “hybrid elopement,” and it’s increasingly popular, allowing couples to choose simplicity over extravagance without creating rifts in their relationships with their parents.

“I spent only $190 on my beautiful J. Crew wedding dress, which was less than any of the bridesmaid dresses I bought over the years,” Ms. Mesnick-Uretsky said. The couple, with some assistance from the bride’s father, also treated their families to a weekend at the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, N.Y. Yet their wedding, including a two-week honeymoon in Japan, still cost less than $10,000.

When Ted Flinter and Karine Morency eloped in May after living together for almost seven years, they did not include or even tell their parents. “We didn’t tell anyone,” said Mr. Flinter, 39 and an owner of a security company in Abu Dhabi. “We got engaged on a Thursday and went to Vegas four days later.”

Once there, however, “Karine did call her sister about five seconds before Elvis was about to marry us,” Mr. Flinter said. His soon-to-be bride asked her sister to be the maid of honor and “put the cellphone on the podium so she could listen in.”

Mr. Flinter said that including gambling losses the wedding cost $1,350. “We could have afforded a beautiful wedding,” he said, but “we dreaded the wedding registry and the seating charts.”

Not everyone is as financially fortunate. “People are saying, ‘I lost my job, and I don’t have the funds for a big wedding,’ ” said Mary Beaty, a New York chaplain of the Humanist Society, who said she is performing twice as many elopement ceremonies as before. Chris Andrews, the owner of California Wedding Packages in Napa, Calif., concurred, saying, “The elopement business is booming.”

Ms. Beaty said she has seen the trend “for the past six months if not a year.”

“Many young people,” she added, “are conscious about not wasting money and concerned about the expense for friends and family.”

Yet large traditional weddings are not about to disappear.

Ms. Mead, the author, said that Brides magazine was founded during the Great Depression. It was inspired by an article in Fortune, she said, “Which noted that even at times of economic depression people could be relied upon to spend money on weddings.”

Young couples are choosing between buying a house and having a wedding as they tighten their belts, according to a top South Carolina wedding planner.

Anthony Millar - one half of wedding planners Ant and Dick - says people are getting very nervous about having weddings in the current economic climate. But he insists it is more than possible to hold a memorable wedding while saving thousands.

“Not a lot of people can afford to buy a house at the minute and they’re worried about the cost of a wedding,” he said.

“I think in all honesty - although I’m not an economist - that there’s a lot of over-panic on what the situation is. I think the wedding suppliers in South Carolina are much more reasonably priced compared to the rest of the US.

“I think there’s a bit of the panic button going on at the minute, but it doesn’t need to be like that - people can do it themselves and make it gorgeous.”

Ant and Dick are resident wedding planners at Wedding TV which is covering the Wedding Extravaganza at the Odyssey Arena this weekend. They will be on hand at the show to offer advice to brides-to-be, performing makeovers and hosting the bridal catwalk.

The pair can also offer advice on credit crunch weddings and how to have your perfect day without breaking the bank.

“There’s cutting costs, there’s cutting costs and then there’s seriously cutting costs, “ Ant says.

If you’re hellbent on having a huge celebration at a venue, wedding fairs are ideal for picking up deals, he says.

“If you book there and then, you can attract major discounts. And haggle - you have to treat them like Turkish stall holders,” he says.

“There’s also the option of doing it at home. We all know somebody with a big house or a big garden. It’s all about roping in the people around you. A friend can take photographs, a friend can do the cake, a friend can do the stationery.

“The services you would normally hire - most of them can be done by anyone. You could do your own catering - it doesn’t have to be a five course meal. It can be a beautiful buffet.”

As for the dress, many brides are now saving hundreds by going for vintage instead of new - after all, you only wear it for one day.

“If you go online to eBay or Oxfam, you’ll find designer dresses for pennies because a lot of people want rid of them - for whatever reason,”Ant says.

“As for the flowers, rather than having a huge big bouquet, a nice single flower like a lily or a gerbera can be very effective. You can create a really stunning piece by doing very little.”

The groom’s attire can be picked up in a high street shop such as Primark, which are doing nice suits for around $80, he says.

“Stick on a couple of nice accessories and it looks like you’ve paid a couple of hundred quid,” he says.

“And if you’re buying your drinks in the supermarket, go for what’s on offer. How people judge a good wedding is not the food or the flowers but how drunk they get.”

Eco-friendly couples will also find that by counting the pennies they are also helping to save the planet, he points out.

“If you’re having your wedding at home, you’re automatically cutting down on the services that would have to be driven in, so you are cutting down your carbon emissions. A reclaimed dress is eco-friendly because you are recycling,” Ant says.

Have you ever noticed how much a person’s personality can change when they are in love? I have noticed this with female friends and co-workers through the years. Women tend to become more giddy and preoccupied. When there are wedding plans in the air women seemed to think or talk about nothing else. A co-worker of mine that is quite a bit younger is getting married. There were four of us sitting at a table eating lunch when she begins talking about an idea that had just occurred to her for her wedding reception. The conversation that had been going on had nothing to do with what she blurted out. It was oblivious that the only thing that was occupying her mind was her wedding plans.

My sister and her fianceé are also planning their wedding. I never would have thought that my sister would become as involved as she is. The other day she came over to our house and asked me if I had any ideas for unique wedding invitations. She and her fianceé have been asked to several weddings over the past few months. She said that most of the invitations are very similar. She wanted unique wedding invitations that people would notice. I told him that wedding invitations, like most cards, are discarded by the recipients. People may notice the unique wedding invitations when they open the card, but they will quickly forget them soon after the wedding. I suggested that they put their money and time into some part of the ceremony that is going to have a longer lasting effect than the wedding invitations.

Some girls dream of their wedding day from a very young age, and some don’t give it much thought until the time is near. Whatever the case, each wants to find the perfect place to get married. Though there are many places in any community for this, each bride will have a different idea of what will work for them and their groom. This is often a matter of personal preference, though the size of the wedding will often have something to do with narrowing down the choices as well.

One way to find the perfect place to get married is to hire a wedding planner. A good one will already know all of the options that are open to you, and may even think of some new ones when they hear of what you might like. They can take what you tell them to find the place to get married that will work best with your tastes. Not only that, they can also take care of all of the details about securing the place for you and they can even take care of the contract details to be sure that you get a good price and the time and date that you want.

If you don’t wish to hire a wedding planner, you can do a quick search for a location for your wedding ceremony. You can start by looking up weddings in your local yellow pages, and also online. You may find many places this way, but you may not find what you want. You will find that you have many more options for a place to get married if you are having a smaller wedding and it is something that you wish to do outdoors. Think about places that are special to you and your intended, and then see if they would allow you to get married there. You may be surprised to find many places will allow it.

Before you embark on your search for your perfect place to get married, make a list of what you want, what you need, and what you will not allow. That makes it much easier to narrow down the spots that might work for you. Also have a general idea of how many you will be inviting and think about the size of your wedding party. You may think that you have ten good options, which can be overwhelming, but once you narrow things down by the above specifications, you will find your limited options will make it much easier to decide on the perfect spot for a wedding.

Okay, it’s time for the moment of truth. The economy is bad. Economist can raddled off why they think it is, and what contributing, but the truth of the matter is most of us are tighten our budget and weddings can be very costly affairs. If you are in the military you can cut your wedding cost drastically by having everyone were the uniforms, even the bride. The bride wearing her uniform was very popular during WWII. This can easily trim hundreds if not thousands off your wedding budget.

If you having a military wedding, leave the boutonnieres in the flower shop. It is against regulation to place anything on the uniform that isn’t issued by the military. Replace the boutonniere with your guys’ awards and metals. It’s a great chance for your guys to show off all their awards.

Okay so your having a military wedding. All the guys are going to wear their uniforms. Very match-y match-y…very classy. But wait! Hold on! Some of your groomsmen are not in the service, or are in a different branch. What do you do? Before you have a Bridezilla melt down, look at your local tux shop. “Issue” your non-conformist groom’s tuxes in the same color as the uniforms. It will look tasteful, and blend very well. Fear not brides!

Okay, it goes without saying that there are a lot of bad things going on in the world today. That being said a lot of our service men our overseas. If your significant other isn’t home to help you plan a wedding there are lots of ways to get his input. Consider narrowing down favors, venues, and other wedding choices to a few options and emailing the pictures to him. You have to accept the fact that you will be doing the majority of the leg work. But to be honest, even ladies who married civilians did most of the leg work planning their wedding. Bridesmaid dresses and choosing napkins just don’t float most men’s boat.

Having a military wedding or Fourth of July wedding? Consider sweet sugar cookies in red, white and blue, or star-topped votives. Tins filled with red, white, and blue candies are always popular. If you are on a tight budget consider something simple. Small American Flags can be purchased in bulk and white ribbon with a thank you note attached, turns them into sweet cheep wedding favors.

Is your groom getting on your nerves? It’s okay, it happens to the best of us. Maybe his idea of fun isn’t assembling 300 wedding programs. May he gets a little snippy when you brought up your bridesmaids shoes for the 19th time today. Fights, Tiffs, and just plan disagreements happen. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you, and doesn’t mean you should call off the wedding. If you think you’ve got a serious problem (he cheated on you with your sister, you fight 24/7, you’ve got issues that have turned up court TV shows, etc.), go into counseling and try to work it out before walking down the aisle. But if you’ve got the normal bumps along the way that every relationship has…don’t be a Drama Bride. If he leaves his wet towels on the floor, doesn’t put his shoes back in the shoe tree, or watches football all Saturday. Get used to it. You’ve got a life time of minor annoyances ahead of you.
On the other side of the coin, don’t walk down the aisle if you have a serious problem with him. If he hits you, is demeaning, or abusive, get out of this relationship while you can. Don’t feel pressured to get married to someone who doesn’t treat you well enough. You are worth more than that, and you can do better. Maybe you are mentally done with the relationship for some other reason? Is he a deadbeat that hasn’t had a steady job in 5 years? Does he want you to stay home and pop out babies for the next 20 years? Leaving him may be hard, but it is much easier (and cheaper) to back up your stuff and move in with a girlfriend…than to wait tell you have 4 kids and a household of stuff you “got together.”
My advice for both situations, have premarital counseling. Not only can you write it off on your taxes, but you talk about a lot of things, and resolve a lot of issues before they become full blow problems. Your church may require premarital counseling, which at first can seem like just some red tape.. “You mean I have to take a break from the ‘Important’ things in my life to talk to some priest about my relationship,” you may say. Take it from a bride who’s been there, do it. He needs to know about your underlying issues, and you need to know about his. Does he have abandonment issues from his parents’ divorce? Do you expect him to raise your children just like your father? Do you want 10 kids? Does he want to live on a house boat on the coast of California, while you want to work at a high powered Ad agency in NYC? Trust me ladies it’s well worth the time to work on your relationship.
So I leave you with a song. If you haven’t had one moment in your relationship where you can relate to this song…you haven’t been together long enough to get married. Wait another week or to…it will hit you.