When I first got engaged, I dreamed of the perfect rustic barn wedding. All eight of my Pinterest wedding boards can attest to this. What I didn't realize was that the average cost of weddings in America is $35,329. I could pay off my student loans with that much money. We could put an awesome down payment on a house. I could travel the world. And you know what, that is what we are deciding to do.

After many late night conversations, we started discussing what marriage is to us. Marriage is about the lifetime of love that we will have together, not a party we pay for to show off our choice to marry — a wedding. We want to start off our marriage with an adventure. We are choosing the adventure of world travel. We will be traveling to Ireland after our elopement.

There is no right way to get married. There are thousands of articles to help you plan the "perfect" wedding, but marriage is not perfect. Marriage is long nights, tough fights, and falling in love with your partner all over again. Marriage is working together to achieve your hopes and dreams.

To me, that is not spending $35,000 on a wedding. I want to spend $35,000 on our future together. Our honeymoon will be $5,000. That leaves $30,000 to be spent on the rest of our dreams, whatever they may be.

One question we keep getting is, "How can you do this to your family?" Our wedding and marriage are about our relationship, not throwing a party for our family. We do love our family and always will, but this is the time that we get to focus on us. Our relationship. Our love. Our future together.

I am so excited to start my marriage with an elopement, and I encourage anyone in "wedding planning woes" to consider it. It has been the best choice for our marriage, and it may be the best choice for yours too.