This may not help you, as the situation was unique for us, but my girlfriend at the time (wife, now) and I had been dating for a few years. I had an apartment, but she lived with her parents - otherwise, they wouldn't pay for her college. I was finishing my first year of teaching, and we realized that if we got married before June 30th, she could apply for a school loan under my income (Since I had only been working for a few months for that fiscal year, it appeared on paper as though we were very poor.)
The only real problem was, we came to this conclusion around June 22nd - giving us only a week. Since she had a crappy, hand-me-down import that was on its last leg, we decided that we would try to get married if we could get her a newer or better car (since she would still have to commute to school, and her parents wouldn't help her out with the old car if she were not living at home).
A day later, we got a great deal on a Saturn. The next day, we got an engagement ring and I proposed. We were planning on just getting a civil wedding at City Hall, but her mom insisted on trying to get into a Chapel. We found the "Chapel in the Wildwoods", a cute little church in the local foothills. Small, cute and quaint.
My wife sent in the loan paperwork on June 27th, claiming we were "already married" (had to make the postmark date), and we got married the next day. A month later, we held the reception.
All in all, I'm actually glad we did it this way. There wasn't enough time for anything to go wrong.
