The date was August 29, 1988 when Todd Palin and Sarah Louise Heath decided to forgo the big wedding, and instead eloped to the tiny courthouse in Palmer, Alaska.  Todd said, “We had a bad fishing year that year, so we didn’t have any money.  So we decided to spend thirty-five bucks and go down to the courthouse.” Sarah and Todd had dated since high school, and reportedly used two residents of a nearby nursing home as witnesses to their nuptials.  Palin said that her earrings were a gift from her husband’s Yup’ik Eskimo mother, and the $35 wedding ring from Hawaii she bought herself. “Because with my ring, I always thought, it’s not what it’s made of, it’s what it represents.”