What is a Microwedding?
Microwedding is a relatively new term in the wedding industry that not many people are aware of. A microwedding is a wedding with 50 or less people. Crazy right?!? This trend isn’t for everyone. Small weddings have always been an option, but not many wedding planners have offered microwedding packages in the past. Clearly if you or your sweetie have big families, a microwedding isn’t going to be practical for you, but if you have small families and a small circle of mutual friends; a microwedding is perfect for you. There can be a lot of pressure to have a big wedding and invite all of your cousins, great aunts, and church congregation, but having all of these extra people that you aren’t close with or only see once a year might take away from the intimacy of your wedding experience. Microweddings can allow you to reclaim that intimacy and have time to spend with the people you hold dearest on your wedding day.
Benefits of a Short Guest List
If you’re a bride-to-be and planning a huge wedding with 200 people and are stressed about trying to find a seat for everyone and providing food for everyone I completely understand. This kind of stress and expectations can really take away some of the joy out of planning your wedding. Not all brides are extrovert, and not all brides can come up with a list of 200 of their closest friends and that is A-Okay! If you are feeling pressured to have a big wedding, I am here right now, giving you permission to keep your guest list as small as you want. This is your wedding, and you should plan it the way you want it.
One of the biggest benefits of having a microwedding, is you are seriously going to cut down on your expenses. The more people you invite, the more chairs, tables, plates, glasses, linens, meals, and favors you will have to not only provide, but pay for! All the money you could be saving can go towards something else like your honeymoon, splurging on a good photographer, or even a down payment on a new house or car! The opportunities that come with having a smaller, more intimate wedding are endless.
Microweddings
Small weddings have always been an option, but in recent years, weddings have been getting bigger and bigger. Guest lists have gotten longer, Venues have gotten more expensive, decorations have gotten more extravagant, and expectations have gotten higher. Weddings with 50 or less people have been reinvented under the new term “Microwedding.” We saw a comeback to these more intimate, smaller weddings in 2020 during the Coronavirus Pandemic. CDC guidelines and venue policies changed; limiting capacity and requiring social distancing. This left a lot of couples with only two choices, cut down their guest lists or cancel their wedding all together. We started to see a lot more microweddings as a result and they are gaining in popularity. Before 2020 if you were planning a small wedding, you were probably doing all the work yourself. Not many wedding planners offered planning packages for these small weddings, because it just wasn’t as profitable or popular. As they become more popular, more planners are starting to offer microweddings packages. I have developed a microwedding planning package for my clients. You can find it on my site HERE.
Minimonies
Minimony is also a new term that we didn’t really hear before 2020. Very similar to elopements, minimonies were a way for couples who didn’t want to cancel their wedding completely, to honor their original wedding date, and continue to get married with up to 10 guests. A lot of bride’s who still wanted to get married and include their families in the ceremony found that Minimonies were the perfect option. These ceremonies can take the form of an actual legally binding wedding ceremony or a non legal binding commitment ceremony to still celebrate on their original wedding dates. Most bride’s who opted for this option in 2020 due to COVID are continuing to plan their sequel wedding later in 2021 where they can get married in an official ceremony in the presence of all their friends and families. Minimonies are still happening with the option to have a sequel wedding at a later date when it is safe to have larger gatherings.
Elopements
Elopements were the original microwedding. I mentioned elopements in my previous post about Wedding Trends from 2020, so I won't go into too much detail here. Historically, Elopements have a negative connotation. When I used to hear the word elope I pictured a couple running off and getting married in secret without the approval of their families. How scandalous!! But today, elopements have become a lot more socially accepted with many couples finding it an attractive and affordable option. Destination elopements are hugely popular for couples who want the adventure and memories rather than a room full of people and costly venues. Destination weddings are the perfect combination of an elopement and honeymoon. If planning a wedding with decorations, catering, cake, a venue, and all the other bells and whistles sound like way more than you are up to and you want to skip the whole planning process, eloping might be the best option for you. In some places, you don’t even have to book an appointment at the courthouse, you just have to show up! This is definitely the fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to get married.
It is important to keep in mind that weddings come in all different shapes and sizes. Some couples love big parties and have the budget for one, while others find the planning process stressful and don’t want all of their relatives and acquaintances to be at their weddings. If you’re a bride planning your wedding, plan the wedding you want! Not the wedding your mom, aunt, or best friend wants. If you want to keep it small and intimate with family only then that's what you need to do. Your wedding is a day to celebrate you and the person you fell in love with and it should be a day that you look back at and only have happy memories, no regrets.
For more information on microweddings: https://www.theknot.com/content/what-is-a-microwedding
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