So it’s been a bit of a stressful past few months what with weddings not happening and there being A LOT of frustration over whether or not they’ll be going ahead soon! With everything that’s been going on for this past year, weddings have had to change to adapt to new rules. Social distancing, no sharing tables or food, no first dances, dramatically reducing who’s there on your big day. I can’t even imagine what couples have had to go through to make the start of their new married lives actually legal to have!
So have you considered having an Intimate Wedding? (They’re not as bad as you may think!)
Let’s start off with what Intimate Weddings are and what they actually include.
Micro Weddings
A Micro Wedding is an intimate occasion/ wedding, typically with no more than 30 guests. It’s still pretty much like your average wedding based on what happens throughout the day, but it’s just with a much smaller guest list. Micro weddings still have a large enough guest list to be held in a wedding venue and you get your monies worth as most of the venue can still be used by you and your guests.
Minimony
It’s pretty much as described: a Minimony is a mini ceremony where just your nearest and dearest are in attendance. A Minimony is considered to be a commitment ceremony between you both, and includes up to 10 people. Weddings of this size are better off being held in gardens, wooded locations, rooftop bars/ restaurants, etc. This is mainly because hiring out an entire wedding venue will be far too big for the amount of people that will be in attendance. Smaller locations make the day more intimate.
Elopements
Ahh, the one that people either love or hate! Elopements are either for couples who are planning a wedding in under 24 hours, or are planning their wedding/ marriage, and want to keep it under wraps as they don’t want all of the fuss! (This would so be me!) Elopements can be fantastic for couples that just want it to be them (well, not including your officiant & witnesses) and they can be done fantastically! This is a great wedding to have and for you both to be able to put your own personal touches on everything. The ceremony, the clothes you wear, where you go after (down the pub maybe? A bar crawl? Sunset champagne picnic on the beach?) The world is literally your oyster!!
So now that we’ve gone over the basics of having a smaller wedding, it’s time to talk about what the pros and cons are for downsizing on your big day!
Pros:
- You can hold your wedding/ ceremony at a more non-traditional venue. If you’re trying to stick to a budget perhaps, you can go down the route of a smaller venue that isn’t just for weddings.
- On the topic of budget, downsizing is a great way to save some pennies if that’s what you need to do. Or maybe you want to save money on some things so that you can spend more on something else for that day, like your honeymoon. (Or an amazing photographer for capture your day!)
- Smaller weddings are much more relaxed. There’s less people to get in contact with and get RSVP’s from before the day. There’s less food & drink to supply as there’ll be less guests. Plus you won’t have a hugely long shot list of all the people you need to have photos with on the day.
- Having a smaller wedding means that it’ll be much easier for you to personalise. You can do the little things that you might not be able to afford with a bigger wedding, like a dessert bar or personalised cocktails for happy hour.
- You’ll be able to spend more time with each of your guests. I’ve covered weddings that range from all sorts of sizes. Ones with only 25 guests to weddings with nearly 250 people! I can tell you right now, I saw the happy couple have much longer chats and interact with their guests a hell of a lot more at the 25 guest wedding than I did at the wedding with 250 people. You feel somewhat obligated to chat to each and every one of your guests on your wedding day. After all, they are all there for you two! So having a smaller amount of guests make this seem like much more of a joy than a chore!
- You won’t be restricted by timings. The group shot list for starters will be much smaller. Less people, less groups, less time trying to capture endless amounts of people! Sitting down for food won’t take as long as the serving of the food and the clean up will be much quicker if there’s less people, which means more time for partying!!
- And finally, an important one for any of you who are a but shy in front of crowds, you will less pressure standing in front of a smaller amount of your guests. There will be less eyes on you, less people listening to everything you’re saying, less people turning round to look at you every time you walk by. If you’re not great at the whole “centre of attention” thing, a smaller wedding will out your nerves on ease A LOT more!
Cons:
- Some of your guests may be hurt from not getting an invite. This I can understand, because everyone wants to be there for the big day. But as friends/ family, they should be understanding of your situation, or be accepting that it’s YOUR wedding and your doing it YOUR way!
- You could regret not doing the big day after all! As beautiful as intimate weddings are, you may in the future regret not holding out a little longer until weddings are back to normal so that all of the people that you would’ve had there, could be there to witness it.
- You’ll have to do a bit of research into finding your own food/ drinks company to cater your event. If you’ve decided to have a small garden party or one somewhere where food and drink cannot be supplied by the venue, you’ll have to look into hiring a company that can provide this service so that you and your guests don’t go hungry!
- You won’t receive as many wedding gifts as you would at a larger wedding. JOKING! 😀
At the end of the day, you both need to have the wedding that you’ll both love and be happy with for years to come. If you’re the sort of couple who love to have everyone they know there and have a huge blow out reception with all 200 of your guests, then it’s best that you hold out and have that big wedding when things are back to normal. But if you both just want to get married, to have a relaxed day and you’re not bothered who’s there to see it, then an Intimate Wedding is the perfect way to go for you both!
Drop a comment below if you have any tips or advice of your own on Intimate Weddings!
xx
