Court house wedding ..

Did you have a court house wedding? tell me about it
costs involved, did you have ppl there, how did family feel about it etc

We have been engaged for a long time have a 6 month old , we cant not afford a wedding atm nor do we have the time ( plus having a lot of in law problems atm and the thought of them at our wedding atm makes me want to vomit lol)

So we want to be married asap, its important to us..we dont care how its done , all we want is for me DF DD to be there to get married and for next year this time to have a reception or even say our vows again with family there when we have more cash time and we like the inlaws :)

How do we go about it? Do we need a witness?

I really dont know how our family will react to this ,prob bad but in the end its about us we dont care we want to do this for us ..yes we will be doing something next year for everyone but atm we need to do this for us , we would have both parents there now but as we re not on terms with the in laws we feel having my side there would be a bit slack and if they found out they would crack it once again sigh

tell me your stories and thoughts:)

The first time I married DH - we married secretly, at short notice, at the registry office. Basically you have to lodge some paperwork about a month beforehand, then you turn up on the day with your 2 witnesses (it can be anyone, they just have to know you and who you are) and it's all over in about 20 mins. That was in the NT but I would imagine it would be similar in most other states. We had 2 friends and the family didn't find out until several days later when we were good and ready to tell people.

ETA - there was some *****ing and a bit of a ruckus when we told them (esp about how young we were), but 18 years on we're still happily married whereas all of our critics have had several divorces amongst them, so I guess the proof is in the pudding. So my advice is take your time and really think about how you're going to break the news OR just don't tell them at all, and let them think your reception/vows etc later on is the real deal.

We had another wedding 2 years later, on exactly the same day, with the dress, the friends & family, the reception etc.

Yep I did...but I'll BBL to reply, just on my way out :)

I considered it as I really didn't care about a wedding, DH was happy if I was happy. But in the end I changed my mind and we just got married at a restaurant!
Good luck with your decision!

Im not sure what state you are in hun but google it, you have to lodge paperwork a month before but i think if you pay extra it can be done faster. We consider it at aswell, i think it cost around $280.. Yes you do need 2 witness's one fore each of you. Good luck

and dont forget the witnessess have to be over 18yrs of age :)

I'm not married nor are DP and i engaged but we have been together 6yrs and on occassion have said we could just go to the registry... i mentioned it to my dad once and i thought he was going to cry.. i'm his only daughter and he wants to be the to 'give me away' i guess.

I think you have yo do what makes you happy, if you feel it's something you want to do then go for it. Pick a friend each (or a family member special to you) and go and do it.
Then out of nowhere announce that your Mr & Mrs ...... set a date for next year and say you would love to provide a party for family and friends to celebrate.. maybe you could make it on your 1 yr anniversary!

Yup, DH and I were married at the Registry Office. The one in Perth is a big room, gorgeously decorated, with room for 22 guests. We had to lodge paperwork 30 days beforehand and pay around $300 I think. On the day, I still did the whole 'hide from the groom' thing, I asked if I could sit in a private room while everyone else was in the waiting room. Then once everyone had filed in, the celebrant came and got me, and Dad walked me down the very short aisle. We needed to have 2 witnesses who were over 18 and knew us both, and the 5 of us sat at a long wooden table for the signing, and then stood up for the vows. When you put in your paperwork you'll be given 4 or 5 options for vows, and the celebrant will ask beforehand which ones you want to use.

All in all it took about half hour, including pictures. You do have limited picture time, as obviously they try to fit as many couples in per day as possible. So we took only a few photos there, and then headed to a local park for our 'professional' photos, which were really just taken by everyone on their digital cameras.

I have photo's of our wedding and photos from the park if you wanted to have a look, PM me and we can be FB friends, and you can see the pics :)

PS - About everyone elses reactions. At the time most people were horrified. I'm not sure how much was to do with the way we got married and how much was to do with just the fact that we were getting married at all, given we had only known each other 8 months. Even my parents say now though that it was the best wedding they've been to, it was about the marriage, not the day :)

My BIL and SIL did this about 18 mths ago, they were expecting a baby and wanted to get it done before she was due.

We don't have a problem with the court house wedding, but my ILs being their emotionally manipulative selves, we weren't told and found out by accident from MIL months after the fact. We went and got them a gift straight away and popped in to give it to them. I think MIL attended, so DP was very hurt that his brother didn't tell him, when they'd happily attended our DD's birthday only a few weeks beforehand. :(

So I guess not keeping it a secret after the fact and being open with family afterwards is my only suggestion. While DP and his only brother have had issues over the years, not being told about his marriage (and not being invited along) has caused deep hurt and has possibly forever consigned their relationship to being nothing more than civil/shallow. Especially since some close friends of SIL and MIL did attend.

Yup we got married at the registry building in Melbourne. We're not religious and just wanted a really low key ceremony but still memorable (we had a ****tail party of the reception so most of the money we saved went into that instead). The registry in Melbourne is the old treasury building so it's actually a really nice place to get married, lots of dark wood and leather. We had 55 guests (they have a choice of a large room or a small which only holds 8). What I liked about a registry wedding was that we were pretty much given free reign to do what we liked. I think most who choose a registry wedding keep it pretty low key but you do have the option of wearing a big white dress and hiring a string quartet if that's what you want. We paid $280 which covered the room and the celebrant then the rest was up to us.

We were given a choice of a long or short ceremony (if I remember correctly the long is about 15-20mins and short around 5mins). They give you a basic outline and you can either use that or do your own (as long as all the right civil mumbo jumbo is included so it's legal). We made us our own and you send it off for a celebrant to approve a few weeks before the big day. We kept it pretty traditional just without the religious connotations, we said vows, dad walked me down the aisle etc.

Hey babe, congratulations!!

DH and I got married when we were students and got married in a registry office (It was back home though so this might not be all that relevant here but I wanted to share).
We'd always said that if we got married we'd have a small thing and either just be us or a very small amount of family.

We had to book at least 2 weeks in advance, it cost us 200 GBP and it was the most beautiful wedding ever. Hehe, but I guess I'm biased LOL. We had my sister and DH's brother as witnesses but we could have pulled people off the street if we'd needed to.

We had the wedding booked for 6 weeks before we told anyone as we were going to just do it and then tell people but we got the guilts and told everyone 2 weeks before - just said "what are you all doing in 2 weeks on X date coz we're getting hitched". No-one was surprised though, as DH and I are known to just do stuff last minute LOL

Good luck, can't wait to hear all about it!!
Sue x

How exciting! :D
DH and I got married at the local courthouse in 2007 - we'd intended to marry when we could afford it but my Catholic upbringing kicked in when I was pg with DD1 and I felt the urge to 'get legal' before bub arrived, so we decided to have a courthouse wedding while pregnant and do the big party thing later on.
You can download the relevant forms ('Intent to Marry' or something like that) from the BDM website, it cost us $175 to lodge the paperwork and the ceremony itself cost a few dollars more (all up, under $300). When we lodged the paperwork at the courthouse, they told us it was a minimum 5-week wait ('cooling-off' period, if you will) and we were able to book a date that day (when we lodged the papers).
We invited just immediate family (my parents, DH's parents, my nanna and our brothers) and rocked up on the day, the ceremony was all over with in about fifteen minutes and DH's dad and my dad acted as our formal witnesses.
After the ceremony, we went around town to different scenic spots and took heaps of photos, then had dinner at a local restaurant and DH and I stayed in a motel that night with a spa so we could treat ourselves :) We bought a cake, but didn't worry about flowers or any of that stuff, all up including rings and a nice dress it cost us about $1000 :)

We really enjoyed it, it was a very intimate, low-key wedding and we could just be ourselves. Made it legal and now we're looking at doing a 'proper' wedding with the big white dress and huge cake and reception with all our friends present on our 5th wedding anniversary :)

Good luck with it, I think registry/courthouse ceremonies can be great if it's what's going to suit you and your beloved, I definitely wouldn't change my lovely little wedding! :D Best of luck to you both!

we know someone who works there so did it for free,so we got married after hours there and then had a party the next day

We eloped to Broome and got married on a beach. It wasn't at a Registry Office but was for all the reasons you listed. It was only myself and DH.

We had the celebrant and a photographer, and one other witness (the photographer was witness #2). We had to do the "Notice of Intention to Marry" a month beforehand and provide the Celebrant with our Birth Certificates. That's all.

You can take friends/family as witnesses, but some places will provide witnesses for you - I'm sure the Registry Office would do it. Our celebrant charged $25 to provide one witness.

As for family reactions - 99% was positive. My Mum was a bit hurt that I had kept a secret from her but overall she was happy. I think it's hard to be upset about a positive event - and besides, what do they want you to do, turn back time? My Dad was thrilled - "cheapest wedding ever!" was his first reaction. And FWIW, two years on, no one cares. It's important for the couple, but no one else really cares, do they? I don't sit around reminiscing about other weddings I've attended. In fact, I find "normal" weddings a bit over the top, and am happier not to attend tbh :p IMO, if the couple are happy, that's what's important.

GL!