In less than 30 minutes and for under $100 (excluding rings), a Belton couple was hitched late last month.

They said “I do” quietly, with a handful of witnesses in the room. Instead of standing beneath a flower-strewn arch at a glamorous venue or against a rich mosaic at a church, J.T. and Breanna Todd were in the old courtroom on Harrisonville’s historic square.

The small ceremony, though, detracted nothing from the moment.

“The dream big wedding with all the bells and whistles is beautiful, but at the end of the day it’s love, that’s why your getting married and money can’t buy love,” Breanna Todd said.

Gary Mallory, the chaplain who performed the marriage for $25, said he’s performed some 400 similar marriages since 2009.

“I think people nowadays are not so enamored by all the pomp and circumstance of it,” Mallory said. “They just want to be together.”

That is true for J.T. and Breanna Todd.

“We tend to get lost in all the details, like what color prom dresses 2016 or picking the perfect flower. We forget just exactly what we are doing and why,” Breanna Todd said.

Money, or how much of it is spent to tie the knot, may have some bearing on whether or not a couple later divorces, according to a 2014 study.

The study, which compiled survey responses from 3,000 married or divorced people, found women involved in a wedding costing more than $20,000 were 3.5 times as likely to later divorce than those whose weddings cost a moderate amount, between $5,000 and $10,000.

The study also found men involved in weddings that cost $1,000 or less were significantly less likely to later be divorced than those involved in a moderate-costing wedding.

Researchers also found a Goldilock’s zone for engagement ring spending: a ring not too expensive or too cheap makes a divorce less likely, according to the findings. Spending between $2,000 and $4,000 or less than $500 on a ring yielded a higher likelihood of divorce among the survey respondents than spending between $500 and $2,000.

Mallory, 77, said he was married about 50 years ago. The wedding, which took place in a church, was a white-dress affair.

Since then he’s seen a lot of changes to the institution of marriage, changes he supports.

“People are becoming more independent and don’t feel so bound by tradition as they used to,” Mallory said. “Tradition is fine for those who want to do it, but if you don’t, why should you be saddled with it?”

Today, Mallory said state law still requires an official marriage by an ordained chaplain or minister, but he said that requirement may one day become optional.

He thinks people may soon have a choice to simply purchase a marriage license, ink a few signatures and be on their way, as newlyweds.

Ben and Bailey Sevy, newlyweds who were featured in a February story about the declining marriage rate among millennials, opted for a larger wedding, surrounded by family and friends.

They were married in March at Heritage Hall in Liberty. Though many were in attendance, the couple chose to spend moderately on their wedding. Excluding rings, they spent about $7,500.

According to projections by Thumbtack, an online service for consumers and professionals, Missouri is the least expensive state for such wedding items as food, flowers and makeup artists in 2016.

In an email, Bailey Sevy wrote that catering and venue costs were the most expensive at her wedding. She said they saved on other items, like decorations, by crafting them themselves.

For her, though, the cost of the wedding was a mere side note to the memories she and her new husband made that day.

“At the end of the day, it was just about him and me starting a new chapter in life, and being able to share that special moment with the ones we love.”

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