After four years of dating, my boyfriend and I are finally ready to tie the knot. He took me to a fancy restaurant last weekend, got down on one knee before the dessert came out, and asked me to marry him. Although this was not entirely unexpected, he still managed to make the occasion very sweet and romantic, so I couldn't ask for anything more.

We've both agreed that we don't want to spend all our money on a big, fancy wedding, so we've decided to look for inexpensive elopement packages instead. Our parents aren't too happy that we would rather elope than have a formal church ceremony and catered reception, but this is something that we're not going to budge on.