Kelly Clarkson's wedding is no more; she'll elope with family

Kelly Clarkson’s wedding is no more; she’ll elope with family

By Nardine Saad

Aug. 22, 2013 12 AM PT

Kelly Clarkson has buckled under the pressure of planning an extravagant wedding: She and fiance Brandon Blackstock have decided to elope instead.

“We are so busy that we finally just came to terms the other night and were like, ‘So, we change our minds and we want to elope.’ We just got so overwhelmed by it -- all the decisions,” the “American Idol” winner told People on Wednesday.

Clarkson, 31, and Blackstock, manager to “The Voice” and country star Blake Shelton, have been dating since late 2011, and announced their engagement in December on Twitter. The “Catch My Breath” singer posted a pic of her striking yellow canary diamond sparkler soon after, which even made a cameo in her wedding-themed music video for her single “Tie It Up.”

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The couple planned to have their wedding in the fall, a huge “earthy” outdoor affair at their home in Nashville that Shelton would officiate. But the whole event was getting rather complicated, and it certainly didn’t help that many of her engagement photos were being shared all over the place.

“We sent out a save-the-date to everyone and then it got crazy and all the details were leaking,” said Clarkson, who recently added some major grown-up duties to her to-do to her list by partnering with State Farm Insurance to teach kids about safe driving. She’s also already step-mothering Blackstock’s two children, ages 12 and 6, too.

“Then honestly the planning -- I have a Christmas record coming out,” she said. “I’m doing a bunch of stuff with State Farm right now. We have two kids who just started school. We’re going to all these football games and soccer games and volleyball games and [Brandon]’s got one of the biggest artists [Blake Shelton] in country music. He’s flying everywhere.”

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Calling into Ryan Seacrest’s morning radio show Tuesday, Clarkson said she was “so over” their big plans.

“It’s two months away. It’s end of October. I’m so over it. It’s so overwhelming. We’re just doing a lot: touring and the wedding and the Christmas album, so I’m over the wedding part.”

So how did the couple un-invite all their guests who got that original save the date card?

They “sent out an engagement photo to everyone and said, ‘Thank you so much for understanding, but it’s just going to be me and Brandon and his two kids and the minister,’” the singer told People.

“Our whole life is a celebration,” Clarkson said. “That’s what we kept laughing about. We don’t need another day where we throw a big party. Our lives are so in the spotlight all the time. Everything is such a spectacle, we were like, ‘We would rather have an intimate moment that’s special.’ ”

Though the couple doesn’t plan to have a big celebration after they say “I do,” some of their friends might throw them a big bash anyway.

“Our friend is throwing us [a party] because we’re about to wrap up construction at our house. He’s throwing us a huge stock the bar party, so all of the people who were going to be at our wedding will be there.”

We’ll just have to keep watching “Tie It Up” to fantasize about what could have been...