<prompt> Human: Hello, this is my first post on rPersonalFinance! Ill start by saying this. The realist in me knows that I should take the money and elope and this is rpersonalfinance so of course youre all going to tell me the same, haha. However, the idealist little girl in me has been thinking about what my wedding day would be like for a long time. I have a very closebig family and we like to do things big. Im not a very traditional person at all...but when it comes to my wedding, Ive always imagined having a large celebration, surrounded by all of my family and friends...and basically going all out. I know that this amount of money could give our marriage a wonderful financial foundation and I know that the marriage is more important than the wedding day. Im just worried that Ill regret not having a more traditional wedding and that I would be missing out on memories or something...my fiancé is amazing and is being very supportive of whatever I want to do, since the money would be a gift from my parents and because of the whole bride thing.ANYWAY, we are really reflecting on this...we want to be wise AND true to ourselves. Some ideas that weve had have included things like having an intimate ceremony at a beautiful location in the mountains, then going on our honeymoon which wed pay for, and then having a big and much cheaper party when we return. Our only debt is 16k that he has left on his car, and around 35k that I have left to pay in student loans.Neither of us have had our hands on this kind of cash before, so we want to have a plan of what we would do with it before we make this decision.Assistant: Just to be clear. If you do a big wedding they will pay for it? Or you can just keep the cash they would spend on the wedding? Would they let you keep the remainder of the cash if you stayed under budget? 20k wedding 5k cash? How much in gifts and cash would you expect from your familyfriends as wedding gifts? Human: We could do whatever we want with the 25k. We can spend it on the wedding or just keep it. I havent specifically asked if theyd let us keep the remainder of the cash if we did the whole shebang and stayed under that amount, but Im almost positive that they would let us. My dad and I were going over a cost summary with a venue today and we were already at 20k for 150 guests that only included venue rental for ceremony reception, table and chair rental, seated dinners, open bar, valet, labor, and taxes. My dad said that wed probably have 15k more in expenses after that and he wouldnt be surprised if the wedding ended up costing him 35k. So basically, my dad made me an offer that would save him money haha.  <response>: My vote is keep the cash and have small wedding. Have a dope ass 20 year anniversary when your rich from great life choices. 