My fiance and I are planning a City Hall wedding for Sept/early October and will be having a reception/party next summer. Eloping was "sort of" my first choice, let me explain... I've always wanted the party, but find the public ceremony super uncomfortable. My fiance and I are also both atheists and come from very different religious backgrounds. We got about 15 minutes into our first discussion about how to do a fusion Hindu-Catholic ceremony when we realized that ALL of that would be for our families and it was very not-us. We started talking about getting married at City Hall, just the two of us, and we both got really excited and realized this was the way to go. We plan to send an announcement/save the date "We Got Married!... Now Let's Party!" (or something like that) with photos from our City Hall wedding.

We are also NYers and don't want to spend a boatload of money on our wedding--we'd rather buy a house. We've set a budget of 15K for the party, and it's totally doable if you cut some corners. Here are my tips on what's worked so far if you decide to go this route:
-Find a venue that lets you bring in outside vendors. We found a beautiful location in Queens (where we live) for our reception for an affordable price. We're doing a BBQ buffet with an outside vendor instead of a plated 3-course meal. Cannolis from our favorite bakery in lieu of a cake. We're doing a DJ and a dance floor and an open bar. I *do* have an aunt who is a florist, so I'm extremely lucky in that regard. It's a lot of work, but with a bit of ingenuity, you can keep the costs down and still have a lovely reception + the private ceremony and no day-of drama from your families. It's not SUPER cheap. 15K is still a lot of money. But you live in NY, so you're probably as used to paying through the nose every day