5 tips for planning a micro wedding
A Micro Wedding? Who ever knew there was such a thing.
Well due to Covid-19 and restrictions regarding weddings, micro weddings are becoming a lot more popular.
What is a micro wedding?
A micro wedding is a small, intimate wedding with fewer than 50 guests. It still holds similar elements of a traditional wedding, just on a much smaller scale. Some couples opt for a micro wedding and then plan to have a celebration in the future once it’s safe again to gather with much larger groups and you can wear your dress for a second time! (WIN WIN!)
Benefits of a micro wedding
A micro wedding strips it all back to the important things and what you want from your marriage. It’s about wanting to marry your true love, no matter what. Your guest list does not define your marriage.
Its about the people who you want by your side and the experience you want for you and your guests.
A micro wedding is so much more relaxing and brings a lot less things to worry about.
How to Plan a micro wedding?
1. Pick a venue to suit your micro wedding.
Whether that be a hotel or wedding venue or else somewhere which means something special to you.
There are so many beautiful, intimate venues which cater for smaller wedding numbers.
Hugh McCann’s, Newcastle Co.Down has the most beautiful space for your outdoor ceremony and their function room is stunning, overlooking Slieve Donard.
You could hire a marquee and caterers and have your wedding in your garden or you could hire a self-catering House and get a delivery of food from a restaurant.
Andrew and Laura hired a teepee and had a reception on the grounds of their farm, while Annastasia and Josh hired Tullymurry House, a self catering historic Irish country farm house and had a 3 course dinner delivered while their Dad’s served their guests the meal. What a lovely idea.
2. Invite those family and friends that are closest to you.
Surround yourselves with those who you love the most. Those who you know you couldn’t get married without and the ones who you talk to on a regular basis.
I know myself if I was to get married again, we wouldn’t invite half the guests who we had at our wedding and I know so many married couples would agree. Sometimes we only invite people due to family pressure or we are scared of upsetting someone.
Don’t worry about pleasing or offending anyone, this is your day and you can have who ever you want with you. If that’s just you, your families and your closest friends, I assure you it will be absolutely perfect!
You can always live stream your ceremony for others to see.
Also, less guests means you can spend more of your budget on other things.
3. Make it Personal
You are surrounded by those closest to you who know you inside and out, so make it personal.
Whether that’s writing your own vows or speeches or simply getting food delivered from your favourite restaurant or treats from your favourite bakery.
Brian sang his beautiful bride down the aisle as their guests looked on, there wasn’t a dry eye amongst us all!
Andrew (proprietor of Nature’s Nosh) and Laura provided their guests with their own meat and had a chef come and cook a bbq. They also had a game of Mr and Mrs and all their guests got involved.
Personal favours or gifts for your guests are also very special. Annastasia and Josh had got little wooden peg dolls made resembling each guest.
4. Hire a Photographer
No matter how big or how small your wedding is, it’s a pretty big deal so please, please hire a photographer to capture it all.
You might not need a photographer to cover the whole day, and many of us photographers have packages to cater for smaller weddings.
Having a photographer capture your micro wedding gives you memories and photographs to cherish forever of your amazing day. A photographer can document your day and your story perfectly, giving people who weren’t there a proper feel of the day.
Micro weddings are so much more intimate and create a lot more emotion so you want to capture every little detail.
5. Embrace it all
This may not have been the original wedding you have planned but it won’t be any less magical.
Whatever your wedding ends up looking like, embrace every part of it and remember the reason why you are getting married.
Don’t think about the wedding you had planned or the “should haves” and make the absolute best of what you now have.
Have your ceremony, have those drinks and your food with your loved ones. Enjoy some games and the craic as you will have more time to spend with guests with having a smaller guest list. Have your first dance, whether that’s in a venue with a band or in your garden with Alexa. Have a sparkler exit and enjoy every single moment.
Here’s what some of our couples had to say about their micro-weddings.
Annastasia and Josh
“Would we change anything? Honestly my first answer is a definite no. It was so perfect, so intimate and emotional and so personal and relaxed. We are so glad we went ahead and got married and our day was so perfect for us. It really made all the stress and worrying worth it.
What we decided might not be the right decision for everyone and I get that, but your wedding day and the point of marriage is totally about you and your partner and that’s what you need to think about when your deciding what to do. As soon as I began to walk down the aisle all I saw was Josh and I was just so excited to be his wife. Don’t worry about anyone except you two; and on another note, we will get to have a big party at some stage with everyone who couldn’t come to the wedding so you will get to wear your dress/suit twice!”
Jordan and David
I won't lie and say it wasn't the most stressful week of my life! Everything we had planned being changed again just three days before, all we wanted to do was get married! But we counted ourselves as one of the lucky couples that got their day and it made it so much more important to us. I think sometimes you can lose sight of what a wedding is about. You're more worried about your guests having the perfect day rather than yourself and the groom. Having it all stripped right back actually made it more intimate and special for us. We had 25 of our closest family and friends and it was the most relaxed and chilled out day. We loved every single minute of it and I don't think we could have had a better day even if it had all gone originally to plan!"
Tara and Keith
We had our wedding day on the 23rd October 2020. With all the uncertainty with covid regulations in place, we decided to go ahead on our original date. We just could not simply deal with the stress of the constant changes. We accepted that our wedding would be a small wedding with 25 guests , which was heartbreaking to be honest . However we both realised our day was about us and we had who meant the most to us with us which was a blessing. Honestly hand on heart we have never looked back and do not regret our decision in any way whatsoever .
It was the best day ever , from start to finish . Everything was just perfect. The craic was great we danced all night and everyone enjoyed the day . My advice to any upcoming couples is to go with your heart and do what you feel is best regardless of numbers ‘It’s your day’. You won’t have any regrets!
Focus on the most important thing and that’s getting married to the one you love.
I promise you, it will be absolutely amazing and you won’t regret it.
If you are planning a micro-wedding. Please get in touch! I would love to hear from you!
K x