Marriage COA help

Hi, I need a bit of advice with a COA.

I'm a British citizen since birth, my fiancee is a Malaysian. She is here on an extended work permit, 5 year, with about 2 years remaining. She originally came here on a student visa in 2004, but got the WP visa a few years ago after completing her accountancy course.

We applied for COA in mid October, hoping that it would be a simple case and get the approval before Christmas.

The reason we'd like it so urgently is due to spiritual reasons - we need to get married on 15th Jan! This is the only auspicious date for next year.

So, my questions are:

- Are we likely to get the COA before Christmas? (so we can give notification to registrar)

- I understand the COA scheme is to be abolished. Does anyone have any insider info if this will happen before the end of the year? This would be ideal since we wouldn't need the COA

- Are there any other options, apart from flying to Las Vegas and getting married by Elvis?!

Thanks in advance
Darren