<prompt> Human: My fiancé and I are getting married and we have just begun the planning process. I have recently found out that weddings in my area Los Angeles are VERY expensive. I knew they were a big expense, I just dramatically underestimated. My dad has offered to give my fiancé and I 15,000 for however we would like to use it basically for a down payment on a house or a wedding. If we choose to use this for a wedding, we will need to supplement this with about 9,000 of our own to pay for the wedding.Heres the deal. 24,000 could easily get us into a house with a first-time home-buyers mortgage down payment. We would likely have to pay PMI until we own more of the home, but we would still have something to call our own. I know what the right answer is here. I know it makes no sense to have a wedding when we could have a piece of real estate of our own and be starting our lives in our own home. But a part of me just wants a wedding so badly I would be willing to wait longer to save for a house just to have it. I just dont know if down the road I would be more disappointed about not having a wedding or about not having a house.  <response>: Have a small ceremony with family only. Cost should be a few hundred dollars. Rent out a restaurant, park, venue, something that isnt wedding-oriented, and have your reception there the same day or some other day. Use that as your time to celebrate with friends and family together. You should be able to put together a great reception for only a few thousand. The key is to use services which are not in the wedding industry, as they charge a huge premium. 