Cheapest country in Europe to Elope

I would say, in general, the further South and East you go, as well as more rural, prices tend to soften. Airfare, your major cost, does not change much, unless Turkish Air is running one of their specials, so you are really looking at where lodging is the cheapest, to a lesser degree meals, but you can eat cheaply anywhere.

Smaller towns in the regions of Southern Italy (Campania, Puglia, Basilicata and Calabria) might offer something; Greece can be Cheap, Portugal is an exception to the general rule above (West and a bit North) but is known for low costs, then you have the areas of Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, and Bulgaria that have been cheaper. For warmth for water sports, you are probably looking at May, many areas would be OK for hiking and other outdoor activities in April. If you get into June, then Airfare starts to jump up in cost.

Maybe a way to start is to just pick a few likely spots and start looking for lodging. The cost will tell you if it is a candidate. You can also find restaurants with posted menus to gauge meal costs.

When we got married in France forty years ago I don't remember paying anything. However the
banns of mariage had to be posted for two weeks before the mariage in front of the town hall. This is true many places in Europe.

Someone gathered info on this forum recently about symbolic cerimonies when the couple is already married in the States. Those were not legally binding but involved paying for a lot of the accessories such as flowers, meals, officiant, etc.

There's no Nevada equivalent as far as I know.

I'll disagree with Paul. Airfare varies enough that it can really matter, assuming that your trip will not be pretty long. It's common for me to look at Google Flights for my origin and see some places (typically including Dublin and London) $400+ cheaper, per person, than spots like Rome. Just go to the page I've linked, enter your preferred originating airport and "Europe" as the destination and choose some dates. That should give you an idea of how much your destination airport will matter.

At the moment, there are still some really good fares for the spring, at least from my area, and many places are within $200 of London, but I know that September fares from less competitive origins are rather high at the moment.

As far as hotel cost goes, if price is an issue, you probably need to avoid staying in Paris, London, Venice, Switzerland, or Scandinavia. People have mentioned that Amsterdam hotels are costly, but I haven't checked that myself.

I know from responses to other inquiries that there are some nice opportunities for outdoor activities in Slovenia, and costs there are fairly low. I can personally vouch for the charms of the capital city of Ljubljana. It might be substantially more expensive to get to, though.

Are you expecting whoever does the blessing to be fluent enough in English? Or maybe you speak at least one European language?

Would like them to be able to speak english or have a translator. Also i had got a quote from a planner in italy and they quote me 350 for my hair and about the same for my make up. That is just way too much to me.

Since it will be symbolic only, and for the two of you only, why don't you write your own vows and say them to each other privately in a pretty place -- without €350 hair and makeup and wedding planner? Or make it a true "elopement" by grabbing a bargain airfare to someplace and then seeing what you can do there, symbolic of the fact that no matter how much planning you do, life just happens.
Good luck to you!

Some countries as a whole are more expensive than others eg Switzerland, Italy, Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden. Some cities are expensive such as London, Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid and Venice.

Some countries are cheaper eg Portugal, Greece (with the exception of Santorini and Mykanos), Turkey, Croatia (with the exception of Dubrovnik and Hvar town), Poland, Hungary, coastal Spain (but not Marbella), Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

Croatia would fit the bill and has a mix of historical towns such as Dubrovnik and Split combined with a great coastline and islands. There is kayaking in Omis and boat trips from Makarska.

You don't say when you are proposing to travel, as some places can get unpleasantly hot in the summer.

I think we can safely say that the most expensive in Europe is Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark), Iceland, Finland and Switzerland. The cheapest are former communist countries (former East Germany now has practically same prices as Germany because of course it is united now). But even among former communist countries are differences. I will try to put them in the order from the most expensive to the cheapest: Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania. Baltic countries would be in the upper half, the rest of former Yugoslavia and Soviet Union in the lower part. Cheaper than the rest of western Europe are Portugal, Spain and Greece.
Then of course different areas of the same country also differs in prices. The areas with more foreign tourists tend to be more expensive than the rest of the country. For example Prague and Cesky Krumlov are more expensive than the rest of the country. The same is valid for Budapest and the rest of Hungary, etc.
In summer is warm enough in all Europe with the exception of northern parts of Scandinavia and Iceland.

"...Prague and Cesky Krumlov are more expensive than the rest of the country." The prices in Brno were pretty good. Admission to the Napoleon Exhibition at the Slavkov chateau (formerly Schloss Austerlitz) after the exchange rate between the Euro and Czech Krone was 3 Euro !! The breath and length of that Exhibition was worth even 13 Euro.

In response to the comment about airfare, certainly I would agree that it may differ from your region. If you are on the East Coast of the US, then flights to London and maybe even Paris can be a bargain, maybe much less than to Rome or Athens. From the Midwest, less so, from the West coast, even less so. You should certainly compare, but keep in mind, if you get to London, you still need to pay to move on to your destination, so add up all the costs.

Odessa.......

Poland and Spain are the cheapest countries I've visited to date. I'd suggest Spain because there are lots of romantic places and generally better weather. It's like Southern Italy only IMO better.

In Europe, most marraiges (at least in Italy, Germany, France, Austria, etc.) are done as a civil ceremony by a "Justice of the Peace" (not sure who officiates, judges? mayor? clerk?). A fraction of those marriages are then solemnized in a church after the initial wedding - the vast majority being Catholics who want to be married in the church. The Catholic church has a bunch of rules for when their priests can officiate a wedding, even if it isn't held in the church.

I was as surprised to learn that finding a religious official (for an small informal wedding) isn't easy or convenient in Europe as my French girlfriend was to find out it's not hard at all in the US.