Micro Wedding Planning: 6 Tips for an Intimate Celebration
Weddings don’t need to be big, lavish, and expensive to be memorable. Micro weddings offer a cost-effective, simpler alternative to the traditional approach. And they can be just as special and beautiful as the most extravagant weddings.
As with any type of wedding, though, planning a micro wedding can be complicated. There are many factors to consider, decisions to make, and deals to agree on. But in this post, we’ll share six tips to help you plan your dream micro wedding.
What is a Micro Wedding?
A micro wedding is a wedding on a smaller scale: an intimate celebration of a couple’s love and commitment with the people who matter to them most. Instead of filling a venue with dozens or even hundreds of guests, you streamline it to no more than 20 - 50 guests (or even fewer).
Micro weddings move at a faster pace: exchanging your wedding vows tends to be quicker than usual, with a laid-back reception. The idea is to focus more on what the day truly means to a couple instead of investing in the fanfare that weddings typically involve.
One of the main benefits of micro weddings is that they’re generally more cost-effective than traditional weddings. As the estimated cost of a wedding in Canada is between $22,000 and $30,000 on average, couples are increasingly looking for a more affordable solution.
Another benefit is that you can enjoy more financial flexibility and freedom. You don’t need to allocate tens of thousands of dollars to the one day itself. Instead, you can dedicate more of your budget to your honeymoon, your wedding rings, or buying a home.
6 Tips for Planning a Micro Wedding
Be Selective with Your Guest List
One of the most important parts of planning a micro wedding is finalizing your guest list. It’s also one of the most challenging. Deciding who gets to celebrate your big day with you, and who doesn’t, is tough for big ceremonies, let alone micro weddings.
The aim is to keep the number of attendees to only your closest family members and friends. You may feel bad about not inviting a few colleagues or old friends you haven’t seen in a while. But stay true to your vision: work out who you really want to be present when you exchange wedding rings.
Keeping your guest list small may be difficult if your intended venue has given you a minimum number you need to meet. In that case, it might be worth exploring other options, as inviting extra guests will make the day more expensive than it needs to be.
Choose a Venue You Love Instead of Focusing on the Wow Factor
For some people, choosing a wedding venue is more about making a statement and splashing pictures of it across social media than finding somewhere that genuinely appeals to them. They may like the prestige of getting hitched at a certain luxury hotel or the same venue that their favorite celebrity chose.
That may be viable for those with a huge budget, but you must be more selective when planning a micro wedding. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
• Consider the type of locations that you love to visit as a couple: Maybe there’s a local lake, park, or boutique hotel you go to often. They may all be good locations for your wedding ceremony. An external space, such as a park or lake, should offer plenty of opportunities to capture beautiful pictures you’ll cherish. Focus on a location that makes you both feel happy and relaxed.
• You don’t need to have the ceremony and reception in the same place: For a micro wedding with a small number of guests, you can tie the knot in one location and move to another for the rest of the day if necessary. If you get married in a public park, for example, you could visit your favorite restaurant on the other side of town for a family meal later. That may be easier and more cost-effective than organizing a dinner in the park.
• Explore affordable package deals: Venues may offer packages for micro weddings, especially if they’re small, independent businesses. They might be willing to provide catering and evening entertainment for a reasonable cost if it’s only for a small group. Approach venues that appeal to you to discuss their options (if any).
Once you find a venue that fits the style and atmosphere you want for your micro wedding, you may find planning the rest of the day becomes a little easier.
Pick a Photographer Who Understands the Micro Approach
One key factor to consider when choosing wedding photographers is how well they suit the micro approach. Some will be more comfortable photographing huge events in massive venues with a large number of guests. They may be better at staging large-scale group photographs than capturing more intimate images in a smaller venue.
Your photographer should understand what a micro wedding is and how you want your pictures to look. You may not want to go for obviously staged pictures or traditional compositions: perhaps you want everything to be authentic and captured in the moment. Artistic close-ups of your wedding rings and experimental compositions may not be appropriate.
That’s why it’s so important to interact with a few photographers and get a feel for their capabilities. Avoid any that seem to view a micro wedding as an “easy gig” or appear condescending of the idea.
If you want to keep your expenses as low as possible for your micro wedding, you could even ask a close friend or relative to handle the photographs. But they should at least understand how to use a camera, rather than just their smartphone, and take the role seriously.
Decide What Matters Most to You as a Couple
Have you attended weddings as a couple that you didn’t enjoy for any reason? Perhaps they were too big, with too many guests, and you rarely had a chance to speak to the newlyweds or even see their wedding rings?
Maybe there was too much emphasis on formality and tradition, with no room for the couple’s personalities?
Whatever the reasons, consider those when planning your micro wedding. Explore what feels like the most exciting, honest, and personal way to celebrate your union. That might mean:
• A Halloween wedding with spooky decorations and a gothic venue
• An informal ceremony on a beach followed by an evening of bowling and pizza
• Exchanging your vows and wedding rings at your favorite national park with a family dinner under the stars
• A family-only ceremony in a boutique hotel with food trucks and an acoustic band for the evening celebrations
Take your time and discuss ideas that excite you. If a concept fits within your budget, is possible, and safe, put it on your shortlist.
Explore Local Destination Wedding Options
Destination weddings don’t need to involve traveling thousands of miles to get married on a Cuban beach or at a luxury resort. They can take you just a few miles out of your current town or city for the day instead.
A local destination micro wedding enables you to exchange your vows in a national park or other site that you both love. It should be convenient enough for your guests to drive there without needing to stay over (unless they want to).
If you decide on a local destination wedding, though, make sure it fits comfortably in your budget. Otherwise, you may need to adjust other elements of the ceremony and reception to find room for it.
Involve Non-Attendees in Another Way
If you’re concerned about the people you leave off your guest list, you could still celebrate your wedding with them before or after the day itself.
That can give them a chance to express how happy they are for you, whether that’s over dinner, while visiting a local attraction, or simply doing an activity you all love together. That should demonstrate that you love them and want them to be part of your life, even if they can’t make it to your wedding.
Conclusion
It’s easy to get overwhelmed when planning a wedding. You want your wedding day to be a wonderful experience that you and your guests remember fondly for years to come. Fortunately, micro weddings are smaller in scale and easier to control in some ways. But there are still big decisions to make.
Who will be on your guest list? Which wedding rings work best for you as a couple and fit within your budget? And what’s the right place to spend one of the most important days of your shared life?
Answering these questions will take time, energy, and maybe some compromise. But it will pay off when you create a micro wedding you both love.
We hope our guide to planning a micro wedding helps make the process easier for you. At Madani Rings, we can help you find the ideal wedding rings for you and your partner. We have an extensive collection of rings and bands for men and women, crafted from the finest materials.
