The funny thing is, he’s Catholic, so the quickie Vegas wedding is out for him, personally (wedding banns for starters). My wife and I took a lot of his advice (boombox for the music, though, no iPods yet). My wife and her sisters made the cake, a fruitcake. I was not-thrilled with the idea of fruitcake, but it turns out THAT is the traditional wedding cake. BTW, fruitcake does not have to be made nasty. The one made for our wedding was palatable.
Because of extreme distance, we got a waiver for the prep course, and were allowed individual private exams by our respective priests... much better.
As a general rule of thumb, there is an inverse relationship between the expense of the reception and the longevity of the marriage (in a civil sense, all validly contractyed marriages betwen Christians are indissoluble until death).
True. And marriage-prep of some kind is usually a Diocesan requirement.
However, after that, the only real logistic issue for a Catholic wedding is that it has to be in a Catholic Church and include witnesses. If you've got a priest or deacon, the couple getting married, and the secretary and the custodian in a corner of the sanctuary, it's legit.
Actually I think the nastiest fruit cake I have ever tasted would beat almost any wedding cake I have tasted.
I am not a fan of cake for starters and I absolutely hate confectioners cakes (white cake is the worst).