When me and my wife finally decided to get married we thought about the same thing. I just wanted to run to vegas and do it and be done but the wife didn't. We agreed on just going to the courts and doing it there but after talking we price checked a justice of the peace and found one last minute (like 4 days before the date we wanted) and she didn't charge much. We both knew it would be important to my parents to be involved so we had it at my parents house. My mom did the decorations and cooked dinner to help us out. We were going to buy a cheap cake but one of my dad's clients is a bakery and he got the cake (nothing fancy) from them for cheap.

She doesn't talk to her family so we didn't invite them and it was just my family (the ones we like anyways, lol) and a few of our close friends (like 3 people.) it was something small and it was something we agreed on. We spent maybe 100$ because we provided the wine and the justice. My parents felt "involved" and didn't spend a lot of money either.

What we did agree on from the beginning was that we wanted to have a small wedding reception because we wanted to spend a lot on our honeymoon because come on now, that's where the real fun is and the memories are made. Honestly, we probably spent too much on our 12 day trip cross country (we drove from east texas to chicago) but its something we'll always remember (well... she'll remember because when I had my stroke in May I don't remember much of it at all ).

Oh! my advice is take lots of pictures so you can remember the day. What we did was we got our fav pics from the honeymoon and the pics my friends and family took of the wedding and got them professionally printed (you know there's tones of web pages that do that kind of stuff) and decorated our new house with the pictures. It helped a lot with memories after my stroke and it makes us happy to relive the moments.

But after all that long winded talk about us (probably more then you cared to hear) I agree with the others, do what you want and what will make you happy. If getting eloped through the courts is what makes you happy then do it. If you want to spend your money on the honeymoon then do it. It's memories between you two. It's your day. They're your memories. It's the start of your new life together and you should start it the way you want not the way other's want you to.