As a culture that thrives in excess – it’s easy to look at a giant 200 person guest wedding and think that’s what you should aspire to. But as with any adventure we have embarked on – we’ve found that conventional may not always work best. If you’re on the fence and you’re wondering if you’d be ok with a small wedding – rest assured it will be amazing. Planning a small wedding will be the best decision you make for your ceremony. At the end of the day- what matters is being surrounded by the people you love and getting married to the person you love!
1. Small Weddings Are Less Stress To Plan
The number one reason we loved our small wedding was that it was less stressful. Amidst an already stressful time for us – the wedding planning became much less of a burden than it could’ve been. When you’re planning a wedding, even planning a small wedding… it’s easy to start flowing immediately into preparation mode. You’ll start thinking about dresses, colors, flowers, groomsmen, venues, cakes.. and the. list. goes. on. We’re not kidding when we say that there is a ton to do when planning a wedding, big or small. It’s that time when you and your partner really get to celebrate starting a big chapter in your life and the stress of planning can make your engagement time so much more stressful and tedious than it really should be.
It rained on our wedding day. We truly thought we’d have a pretty fall day because that’s usually the way it rolls in Kentucky? But, alas, it was chilly and drizzly.
Being focused on the right things allowed us to forget the rain, ignore the cold, and get through it. We wouldn’t have changed anything about our day- because in the end we got married in an incredible garden. {Not to mention the overcast skies allowed us to get some incredible pictures!}
2. Your Small Wedding Will Be More Intimate
When we really started digging into planning for the wedding.. it was easy to start adding people to our list who just had to be there. Like many couples, we had friends and family reaching back decades- and the list started to become this monster of who was and who wasn’t invited.
Not to mention there are those who get married and people come 100% ‘do it for the gram’. When you invite everyone, your wedding can become a big boozy affair (AKA an expensive mess). People become way too inebriated, vomit, and act ridiculous. It doesn’t take much for 100 of you and your partner’s college friends to become chummy over an open bar.
In the end, it’s easier to not have to worry about cleaning anything up or making sure you get your security deposit back. A few of the people we had invited ended up not being able to come and it made our guest list even smaller. That means that the 35 people we did have were even dearer to us! We were able to actually talk to everyone and have an incredible time!
3. Small Weddings Cost Less To Plan
From table decorations, to linen rentals to wedding favors – weddings become incredibly expensive very quickly! Even when you do some things yourself – most people have a budget they need to stick to. An elegant affair for 50 is much easier to manage on a budget than an elegant affair for 150 on the same budget?
Our wedding cake for example was a gourmet raspberry cake with lime cream cheese frosting. It was amazing! If you’re in Louisville – we highly recommend Sweets by Millie. That cake for 150 people is a mich different beast than a gourmet cake for 50. Not to mention that some people don’t even like cake? We are those people and yet we loved our wedding cake. That’s almost impossible with a huge wedding. They never end up tasting all that good?
Totally went down a wedding cake rabiit hole there, but our point still stands: planning a small wedding is much more manageable. Take a look at this article that shows the biggest wedding expenses that are not worth the cost! (Hint videographers and wedding planners are the top two!)
4. You’ll enjoy your wedding more
We already mentioned how much less it would cost to plan a small wedding? An added benefit to spending less on your wedding is that you’ll enjoy it more. You’ll spend more time savoring the moments than worrying that your five thousand dollar flower arrangements are set just right? You can have peace of mind as a bride that when you walk out – the important pieces are there and nothing else matters.
If you’re a groom, and you haven’t learned this already you will soon enough: the bride being less stressed absolutely matters. There are so many little things that will go wrong on your wedding day. Even with an event planner – things happen! {And that’s why there are so many movies about crazy wedding days.}
5. Small Weddings Are EcoFriendly
There is a lot of waste in the wedding industry. Plain and simple – in all of the lavish weddings thrown every year, over 1 billion tons of garbage a year are thrown into landfills.
Some great ways to recycle your wedding decorations:
- Donate the flowers to be turned into flowers for nursing homes.
- Eco-Friendly wedding favors like succulents!
- Opt for plated meals that produce less waste – A buffet can’t be donated because it’s been touched!
6. Your Venue Options Become Limitless
Thinking of that incredibly pretty garden downtown? Or maybe getting married in Italy on a terrace somewhere? Both of these are much easier to accomplish when your guest list is small. For Ev and I, we chose a smaller venue in a garden here in Louisville that was incredible.
We also were able to snag the venue on a Sunday – and because it wasn’t as busy of a day – we ended up getting the venue for much cheaper.
Venue Tips for small Weddings:
Think outside the box. Just because someone else had their wedding in a hotel doesn’t mean your wedding couldn’t be beautiful during sunset on the waterfront! Looking for some inspiration?
- Get our guide to the gorgeous Neon Museum of Las Vegas for the a fun small wedding destination venue!
- You could also get married in front of a 186-foot waterfall in Toccoa Georgia!
7. Splurge On the Things That Matter
If we had one piece of advice – it would be to save your money when planning a small wedding. The bridal bouquet? I’ll never forget it. My cousin was actually our florist, and she did an incredible job making the thing… but it was HEAVY. #noregrets. Some key things that are worth your money:
- A good photographer to give you the shots you really want to remember.
- A delicious wedding cake. { Ours was a raspberry cake with lime cream cheese frosting. Sounds weird but it was incredible!)
- Splurge on the honeymoon. This is the first time many get to spend really just being in a bubble and relaxing. Take advantage! If you’re getting married in the fall – there are plenty of romantic getaways in the US!
- The bridal bouquet – flowers make everything prettier!
Little details like the bridal bouquet make all the difference!
8. You’ll Spend More Time With Your Guests
This one may sound like a no brainer.. less people to talk to.. more time with each one. We can tell you a firsthand though that we have specific conversations and memories of almost every single person there – 2 years later.
One of my favorite photos from the wedding was this one. Me and all my gal pals – everyone wearing some shade of crimson. When you have a small wedding – you can’t really have a ton of bridesmaids. It would be everyone in the wedding standing up front with you. The way we did it- inviting all of the people we loved – means that everyone was kind of a bridesmaid?
My sister was the only person I had standing up with me and Ev his two brothers. It worked out perfectly! In the end – we had conversations that I’ll actually remember with everyone!
9. Shorter Time-Line For Planning
Planning a small wedding means you have a much smaller timeline. There aren’t a million more things to consider like ‘who can sit with who’. Small weddings means everyone is sitting in one section and there’s not necessarily any dancing but you have a great dinner?
It’s so much easier to find vendors that can accomodate small groups that groups of 200! Almost everywhere we called for differnt things was just fine with accomodating our timeline with no extra fees!
We got married 4 months after getting engaged and it was the best decision for us. Why wait when you already know you want to be together? Not to mention we were both adults and didn’t feel like wasting time.
10. It’s Easier To Snag A Private Moment Alone
Ev planned a special moment alone (+ photographers) for us, and it couldn’t have been more necessary or sweet. Our wedding venue required us to have all of the chairs folded up and put away before we left.. so Ev arranged for us to share our first dance together where the ceremony was.
I think this moment of a little alone time together is so important – and having a small wedding really allowed us to do that. It was almost like taking a moment to really let it sink in, ‘We got married?!’ There were a lot of trials for us just like everyone has before we got married, and taking this moment helped us to truly reconcile how worth our efforts were.
Related Posts
11. Your Wedding Will Be Memorable
One of the things that we enjoyed the most was the way everyone just seemed to talk and get along. There really was nothing to fuss over! We still have people tell us to this day that they loved our wedding because it was so relaxed. That’s the kind of vibe we want to be remembered for in general so it’s amazing that we were able to share that with our friends and family.
In the end, you have to decide what kind of wedding is right for you. Just know that planning a small wedding comes with many benefits that you and your spouse will thank yourselves for later!
Sarah Althouse
I wanted a small wedding but we still had around 100 people. I can definitely see the pluses to smaller though!
Marta
I wish we could go back for a “do-over”. We spent so much money thinking we could meet everyone’s expectations. We are certainly taking notes for when our princess takes her turn.
Tisha
When I got married the first time I wanted everyone to be there, but you’re right you’ll get to spend more time with your guests and not feel rushed and obligated to say hi to EVERYONE. Love the idea of a smaller wedding, if I ever decided to do it again.
Deb B
We had a HUUUUUUUGE wedding and we loved it but there are so many things I see in smaller intimate weddings that ours lacked. These list them perfectly!