Every time I go to a wedding or read a thread like this, I congratulate myself for getting married in Jamaica. We didn’t elope exactly, we had a few (4) close family members there, but it was wonderful and easy and cheap. A couple of people from my husband’s family were a little pissed that we didn’t do the big wedding thing (something I never even considered) but they got over it quickly. If you think your family will disown you for eloping, they probably won’t, really. We spent 3 weeks in Jamaica; with the wedding and everything it was $2000. And I actually enjoyed myself! I highly recomend it.
And write checks.
Something will go wrong during the ceremony or reception. The bride and bride’s mother will believe it ruins the event, the day, the year and life itself. The groom will be dimly aware that the bride is not happy. The guests will recall it as a charming anecdote.
If the bride and groom are under 25 and/or have been married before, most of the guests will be betting on how long the marriage will last.
My father-in-law would have; I suspect this isn’t surprising based on the above anecdotes. Not that I’d have cared, nor would my husband, but both of us would miss his mother. The “I’ll disown you” talk started when dear friends of ours eloped to St. Thomas and took he and I along as best man and maid of honor. Meanwhile, my mother’s response was that she half-expected that we’d return married as well. 
She would have been kind of hurt if we eloped, I think, and I cared about that.
I still heartily recommend eloping to everyone I encounter, as that St. Thomas experience was so laid back and wonderful, but no one’s taken up the suggestion yet.
I realize this is a bit late for Mouse_Maven, but my wife and I had a very non-standard wedding, which I think alleviated a lot of these issues. And I found it truly amazing what a scam the wedding “industry” is; triple the price of everything, because…y’know…it’s your special day! (Which can be translated as: you’re gonna pay for it.)
Since we’re both atheists, we had a JOP of a nearby town perform the ceremony. Naturally then, a church was out of the question; we rented a B&B for a weekend and asked our immediate family and friends to stay. We also paid for most of it ourselves; my mother really wanted a few of her friends from the old neighborhood there and was willing to pay the extra. Which was fine, as it didn’t really affect the planning.
It ended up being about 60 people, (semi)formal ceremony Saturday morning, then essentially a picnic for the rest of the Saturday into Sunday (big tent, keg in the back, bocce ball on the front lawn). Since it was so out of the ordinary, there were very few issues with “how things should be”.
Warmed the cockles of my heart when a teen-age cousin told us after the reception that he had no idea weddings could actually be fun.