Under $1500, not counting prescription pharmaceuticals. All in a restaurant, spouse's wedding dress was passed on from a friend, I rented a tux (no way I was getting married in a military uniform).
It all started when I had a conversation with my then-steady girlfriend of five+ years. We'd already been separated by several time zones for three years. I was in Charleston, SC, and she was in Lajes, Azores. In 1986 this conversation was roughly 10 cents per word.
Me: "The assignment officer says he doesn't have enough submariners to let me waste three years at graduate school in Monterey."
Her: "Well, I have orders to Monterey. Where does he want to send you?"
Me: "Instructor duty at Nuclear Power School in Orlando."
Her: "Hmmm... if we were married, would he have to send you to Monterey?"
You can see where that went. We had eight weeks before I had to be back in Scotland for my final boomer patrol. I had to pass the dreaded day-long Engineer's Exam at Naval Reactors in Washington, DC before that. I went into 18-hour/day study mode and managed to convince my boss that he wouldn't look like a total idiot by sending me to the exam. It was gonna be a heck of an August wedding.
Spouse's mother, to whom I will be forever in debt, was able to rent out an Annapolis restaurant for 40. Invitations (remember engravers?) were done up in less than a week for a wedding only six weeks away, leading to persistent pregnancy rumors. (Remember when you weren't supposed to be pregnant until AFTER the ceremony?) A friend agreed to do the music. We found the area's only available photographer who screwed up so badly that 20 years later my MIL can't even look at the (heavily retouched) album without getting angry.
I took the exam on Monday. I found out on Tuesday morning that I'd passed. That afternoon we got started on the license/blood tests ("Expedite, please, here's more money!") and the rings ("Yeah, sure, we'll take that one, whatever, it looks nice & shiny"). Spouse showed up Tuesday night for a hedonistic reunion and an expensive celebratory dinner. (I let a friend pick the wine. Turned out he was a $70/bottle oenophile.) Wednesday was cleanup on all the Tuesday projects. Thursday was a quick rehearsal and the "rehearsal" dinner ("Hi, Mom, Dad, glad you guys could make it!"). Friday was more cleanup stuff. By Saturday my MIL-to-be was probably shotgunning Valium while trying to deal with all the relatives packed into her home.
The ceremony went flawlessly, although I still suspect that the minister was slightly inebriated. The guests stood at a U-shaped table arrangement behind their place settings, so we were married in the middle and everyone took seats for the eats. (This was done for spouse's grandparents, all four of whom were in their high 90s.) We had a great party. Heck, we had an even better weekend.
Sunday we faxed our marriage certificate to our assignment officers. Sunday evening I flew to Holy Loch for my final patrol, where I spent three months trying to explain to a disbelieving crew how I'd spent my last liberty weekend. Spouse & I were in Monterey before Christmas; I was the only submariner there for nearly a year. I still thank my MIL at least annually for putting the whole thing together.
But it looks like the marriage is going to work out OK!
![:-\](https://www.early-retirement.org/sk/forums/images/smilies/undecided.gif "Undecided :-\")
