This year has thrown us all off. Plans canceled, flights canceled, learning how to work from home while being a home-school teacher, chef, and entertainment coordinator. It’s been a heck of a year. But one trend we love that has come from this chaotic year is the micro-wedding. They’ve always been around – a special affair with a small number of your closest friends and family. But now that we’re all practicing social distancing, avoiding large crowds, and trying to gather outside, the micro-wedding has never been more in vogue. Just because the word “micro” is in the title doesn’t mean it has to be anything less than your absolute dream wedding. Fewer people in attendance means fewer people to please, fewer guests to factor into the budget, and more room for personal touches. Here are our favorite ideas and ways to embrace the current situation and have the perfect micro-wedding.
Find a special, nontraditional venue
Limiting the number of guests may make it a bit more difficult to formulate your guest list, but it opens up a world of options for locations and venues. If you need a venue for 100 guests, your list of choices can get limited, but for a micro-wedding with a dozen or so people, suddenly all sorts of places are added to your list. This includes many that would not even be considered traditional wedding venues, which can make for some fun possibilities.
This year is the epitome of non-traditional so many locations that once were entirely out of the question might just be open to hosting a small ceremony and dinner. With many shops, restaurants, and venues closed they may jump at the opportunity for some income.
Perhaps the landing strip of your local, private airport? The fermentation room of your favorite microbrewery? The entire bowling alley to yourself? Think creatively and give them a call. This may be your chance at a truly once-in-a-lifetime venue. Who knows what might be available right now!
Pick a destination
Was your destination wedding canceled? Find a local hotel – all rent separate rooms, and recreate your destination locally. It is easy to find any food options online, whether they be from local restaurants, asking the caterers for a special request, or asking your aunt and uncle to try their hand at a new cuisine. Music playlists from all over the world are super easy to find and make, not to mention a fun break from other more difficult elements of the wedding planning process. Whether you are looking for some Afro-Caribbean funk classics or the latest Mongolian throat-singing there are tons of options found easily online to set the mood of your event. Don’t forget to decorate with the theme in mind as well. A few creative centerpieces, and a themed accessory box at the selfie booth (with wipes for easy cleaning) can really do a ton to get people in the mood. Also consider serving beer, wine, or cocktails popular in your destination just for that final touch.
Check in with your hotel about where you could hold your wedding on premises. Maybe a Japanese garden or out on a dock or even in a large ballroom. Most hotels have several options for a socially distanced wedding with only a handful of guests in attendance.
Zoom it
While we were tossed into a virtual world whether we like it or not, some tech advances have been pretty cool and can be beneficial to having a small wedding. If you have guests who aren’t able to attend or a long list of friends who weren’t able to be included on the in-person guest list, consider live-streaming the wedding for everyone to virtually attend. A virtual guest list is a fun way to keep everyone involved with your special day while keeping it safe and small.
As a way to make this more of an event and less of a meeting, consider sending wedding boxes to all of your “long-distance attendees” with themed items, party favors, perhaps a bottle of champagne (check local laws on this one), snacks, maybe even a game for you all play together via zoom if the group is small enough. If you’re all in the same area or have the same restaurants in your towns, you could consider “catering” a meal by ordering for everyone via a delivery service to still be able to share a meal together.
Create an RV caravan
Outdoor ceremonies can be absolutely magical and are certainly recommended. Why not pick a nearby park? State, local, national, up to you and where you live, but pick one with camping and throw together a fleet of campers for a whole weekend adventure. Instead of an event that lasts a few hours, why not take an entire RV vacation to celebrate your wedding? With a traditional-sized wedding party this would be nearly impossible and probably not allowed by the park. But with a micro-wedding, you can plan for everyone to be able to make it, be safe, and have a great weekend together. Throw daily barbecues, hikes, cocktail hours, afternoon games, brunches, up to you! And with a dozen people, catering is actually something you can do yourself easily enough with standard barbecues, fridges and ovens instead of needing special orders and proper catering. This could easily be the event of the year. Especially this year.
Focus on making it fun and safe
Just because we need to keep a few more precautions in mind with planning doesn’t spell doom for a dream wedding. It just requires a few changes in strategy and a little bit of creativity.
Add a bit of distance between seats, which would be difficult for big wedding groups, but no trouble at all for your micro-wedding.
Consider more single serving options, certainly not the best environmental choice, but there are far more single use biodegradable and alternative products on the market than ever before so you can still do your best while keeping everyone safe. This goes for drinks as well, individual beers, picnic size wines and champagnes, as well as waters and soft drinks are all easily available and a good choice to serve right now.
Consider an outdoor venue since it allows for better airflow, as well as a larger open space to spread out. Since you have a smaller number of guests anyway, this doesn’t need to be gigantic in order to be suitable for space.
Do your best to incorporate those who can’t, or choose not to attend. We all have reasons we may not be able to attend a wedding right now. This doesn’t mean they don’t wish you well, or don’t wish to join you in celebration. One very important element of a wedding is sharing your families and friends together and helping them to get to know each other to create one larger group, just because it is a micro-wedding setting, doesn’t mean you can’t still involve hundreds of people if you choose. Just get creative.
Ready to plan an amazing small wedding?
Smaller can be incredible with options that would be closed off to a larger wedding. We love planning weddings regardless of size! Get in touch with us today and let’s get started planning the wedding of your dreams!