Like a full blown wedding ? They wouldn ' t be satisfied by just coming to the courthouse ? This will sound harsh . But it ' s your wedding , and it sounds like your money . I ' m sure if you explained that this is how you ' d rather do things to save yourself some money and stress , I ' m almost positive they would understand . And if they don ' t , then they ' re basically demanding you pay a ton of money for them to not feel bad , and that ' s kinda messed up . Again , your wedding . Presumably you will only have one . Do it the way you wanna do it , and the people who genuinely love you will be happy . There are a lot of concessions I made in my wedding for family that I still regret , and it wasn ' t even my money tied up in it .