How to have a budget wedding? So hard!

Is there any way to save the budget for a wedding?

I see a lot of posts on here about wedding costs where $20-$25k is considered very cheap and I'm just shocked finding out how much weddings actually cost. Does anyone think it would be at all possible to have a wedding that only cost around $5k, maybbeee $10k?? I'm just having an insanely hard time coming to terms with spending that kind of money, thousands of dollars on a wedding is absurd to me, I get it's a special day, but I mean it is just a DAY. Does it have to be so expensive? How small would a wedding have to be to remain under $5-10k? I wouldn't mind eloping but I've always imagined I'd have a wedding, and I know our families would be VERY disappointed & upset with us if we announced we were just going to elope instead. Is a wedding that cheap even realistic, or am I dreaming? 🥴

Ps, I located in a low cost of living area (midwest/rural)

Thank you guys in advance