That was an interesting and fun little article. I'm not sure where my husband and I fit into this. We sort of fall under all five catagories. We eloped several weeks before our scheduled wedding. Yet, we did have a wedding with over 100 guests, mainly members of the congregation at my church where we had our wedding. Everyone loves a wedding I guess. We invited mainly our family and a few close friends, but were joined by my church congregation. I designed my own wedding dress. My mother did the sewing, and she also did half of the flowers because I wanted irises in my bouquet. Irises were out of season by then here in Japan, so we used silk flowers along with real ones. We got married in Japan, so my side flew over. We did hire a florist and caterer. I had a tiered cake which is unheard of in Japan. So that took part my getting supplies to have one and finding a chef willing to do it. The majority of our budget was spent on the photographer, more than 2/3 of our budget but totally worth it. We have all the negatives, plus a disc, over 500 candids, and one very nice professional album. We also bought disposable cameras and had our guests take photos. We had a reception at the church. We also did a second wedding party, two weeks later, to invite all of our friends who couldn't fit into the church on the wedding day. The planning took about six months, over two continents. But we decided rather suddenly a couple weeks prior to the wedding to elope, so that we could make the long trip to the embassy to change my name before the actual wedding, rather than waiting a couple months after the wedding to change my name. As a result, it turned out so much cheaper than your average Japanese wedding, but probably about normal for one in the States. We sort of fit with most of the strengths and weaknesses listed in the article. Not sure what that means, but it was fun to read.
