COLUMBUS, Miss. (AP) -- Barack Obama is known as a senator, author, orator and Democratic presidential candidate.
But how about as a wedding planner, financial adviser and would-be eloper?
Campaigning in Mississippi on Monday, the Illinois senator offered the advice while chatting with patrons of The Little Dooey restaurant.
He came across Air Force 1st Lt. Camber Governiski and her friend, Chelsey Crawford, who said she is engaged to be married in March 2009.
"Good, you'll have plenty of time to plan it," Obama said as they posed for photos.
He went on to note that weddings can be expensive, starting with the bridal gown. Crawford agreed, saying she and her fiance plan a modest wedding so they can start saving money.
Obama heartily endorsed the idea.
"My wife and I, we wanted to elope," he said, "because we were thinking, 'you know, we'd save all this money.' Because we're in Chicago and that's where her people are from, so it was going to be a huge family affair."
But he said his "mother-in-law nixed it."
"Twelve thousand dollars!" he said. "If I had invested that money back then, who knows where I'd have been. I could have retired."
Crawford and Governiski giggled appreciatively.
On the way out, Obama remembered to flatter voters the day before the state's presidential primary.
"Tell your fiance I congratulate him for his good decision-making," he said.
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Compiled by Charles Babington
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