You know when you're in your twenties, and everyone's getting married? That's how it was for me anyway. For quite a few years there I went to multiple weddings a year - even planned my own big wedding for about six months. In film school, at age 29 & 30, I somehow managed to attend two weddings, and I missed two, too, in the span of two years.

And then I moved to L.A., and my life changed, and weddings became a rarity - Well, more than that, marriage became a rarity. Until now. It appears that I'm in the middle of a new wedding rush.

There was my friends' wedding I blogged about a few weeks ago, and then my friend Amy went and got hitched last week to Bradley, a long-haul trucker she met through eHarmony:

So... Bradley and I are handfasted. We, um, took it one teensy step further, and we went to Knox County City Hall today, and, um, sorta got married.

We kept this very quiet and small and practical. It was just me and Bradley, Patrick, and my new in-laws Paula and John. We went to the courthouse, got our marriage license, and got married by a Justice of the Peace. I'm married! Can you believe it??

And just last weekend, a friend told me she's engaged to a guy she got together with a month and a half after I met my boyfriend.  Wow!

I am a firm believer in marriage, and I'll take that one step further - I'm a big believer in weddings. I think that marriage is about a lot of things, but commitment and community are a big part of what builds and nurtures a marriage. Looking at the pictures from these recent ceremonies, I'm reminded that it's not just the vows of the couple that hold meaning, but the words and the embraces of the community they surround themselves with when they make those commitments to each other.

At the same time, it's really, really difficult these days to have a wedding without the hoopla.

Now look, you want the hoopla and you've got $10K - $20K to spend on it, that's your business.

But from where I sit, if you can throw one hell of a party for $5K, you sure as heck oughta be able to throw a meaningful, beautiful wedding for that, or even less. All that expensive stuff - what's the point of it? I remember back when I was planning my big wedding, all the things you just "had" to have. In retrospect though, I'm thinking not so much.

My friend's wedding a few weeks ago was on a boat, and I'm sure that wasn't cheap, but there weren't flowers, there wasn't a videographer, her (amazing) dress was off rack and not even a "wedding" dress, and it was one of the classiest weddings I've ever been to.  Their love and the love of their family and the strength of their vows just shone right through.

And when I go to Amy's handfasting in a year, I'm betting the emphasis will be on the fun and the love and everything that's so more important than all those super-expensive extras the wedding industry says you "have" to have.

I went to a wedding a few years ago that was in a living room, and it was wonderful. The BBQ after was well attended and superfun.

Sally from Tip of the Iceberg just shared a story of a small wedding:

While eating lunch on Friday I got a phone call from my best friend, Bettina.

"Kyle got his orders.  He leaves on Monday. The wedding is at 2:30."

This was not unexpected. He's known for weeks that it was possible he would have to go to Iraq. You see - he's a Marine. But they were prepared for this eventuality so when he got the call on Friday morning, Kyle called the courthouse to arrange for the judge to marry them. He'd asked Dani's parents weeks ago for permission to marry their daughter, then they got their license and rings and waited to find out if they would be able to have a "normal" wedding. Both Dani and Kyle are college students at Iowa Lakes. Kyle is in the officer training program there and we had hoped that he could postpone his deployment until he had
finished his courses. It was not to be.

You just know that that was an emotional day.

Maybe in the end, what I talking about isn't really size per se as much as it is a rejection of what the mega wedding industry is selling. It's gotten out of hand when you're spending money you can't afford just as you're beginning your life together, and I sense that more and more couples are rejecting the ginormousness of quite so much hoopla.

To close, one of my new favorite blogs is Offbeat Bride. I love a bride with red roses, but red wedding dresses - delish! It's a great blog with "encouragement, tips, and tricks from and for brides who dare to walk off the beaten aisle."

Got a story of an intimate and/or off-beat wedding? Link it up in the comments!

Contributing editor Liz Rizzo also blogs at Everyday Goddess.