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With the average wedding in America now topping more than $30,000, oftentimes costing much more, many couples are looking for ways to say "I do" without drowning in debt.
This Valentine's Day in Shawnee, one event is creating big moments in just a few minutes.
“On Valentine's Day this year, we are doing an event called 'I do in a few' and what that entails is, you pay $214 and you're able to come in, get married in about five minutes, have time for a couple photos, and then you're married," Anna Hickock, who runs the Little Shawnee Chapel said.
Christy Olinger and Bryan Rush have been together for over a decade. They've shared a lot of moments, but one is still missing.
"We've been together for so long, 12 years now that you know, we're just more excited than anything else," Olinger said.
With wedding prices climbing to record highs, more couples are skipping the stress and turning to creative, nontraditional ceremonies.
"Weddings themselves can be so incredibly expensive and hard to do a beautiful ceremony in a beautiful space without thousands and thousands of dollars," Hickock said. “What we really aim to do at Little Shawnee Chapel is to make beautiful weddings more accessible.”
"It just started to get cost prohibitive, and it wasn't going to be special," Olinger said of the cost of a traditional wedding.
They're far from the only couple looking into this. Pinterest's wedding trends report last year shows searches for "city hall elopement" went up 190%, and "civil ceremony photography" went up 637%.
"But we wanted something special, something that highlighted our love together, our relationship, that wasn't just a quick ceremony at the courthouse," Rush said.
In about two weeks, they'll tie the knot at Little Shawnee Chapel as part of the "I Do in a Few" Valentine's Day event. Each couple gets a 5-minute ceremony for $214 - a nod to the date, February 14.
The chapel still has openings available.
Couples just need their marriage license and 2 witnesses.
You can find out more by following this link to The Little Shawnee Chapel.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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