My family and I both would have preferred a very simple ceremony, or at least something that was more heartfelt and natural for us, like an outdoor ceremony on our land (have a lot of very pretty land in the country.) My husband's family wanted something big and showy. We went with the latter. It turned out pretty good in most respects, I can't complain much, but when considering the cost I still would have rather done something simple. And after all we went through, probably some of the funnest moments for us came when we went to city hall to do the civil ceremony---it was just us and my sister, and we had a good fun time and then met the fam for lunch afterwards.