When we got married 11 years ago, it was rather spontaneous. We flew with two close friends to San Francisco, rented a car, drove to Napa Valley, and checked into a very nice B&B for three nights. That evening we met with the Officiant at a coffee shop in Napa to go over final details of the ceremony. Next morning we four drove out to a beautiful winery up on a mountaintop, met up with my brother and his wife who'd driven over from Reno, and my spouse's sister and two nieces who had driven from the Fairfield area.
We all enjoyed a great wine tasting, then took a leisurely walk up through the grape fields to a shady Eucalyptus grove at the top of the mountain. We had a brief wedding ceremony, and then enjoyed a lovely catered lunch at picnic tables nearby. We spent the rest of that day and the next touring other wineries around Napa. We four flew home two days later. Then we held a no-gifts-please Reception for about 50 friends and family at home two weeks later. We gave everyone good bottles of wine with our names and wedding date on the label as thank you gifts for attending. All in, I think the entire event cost us less than $5K, including airfare, the rental car, food, drinks, the gifted wine, the Reception, and B&B accommodations for the four of us. It was simple, perfectly wonderful, and the ten of us at the wedding shared a really special thing.
I would definitely do it again. Pretty sure my spouse would, too.
Dave
