27 Jun Intimate Weddings, Big Impact: Celebrating Love in Small Wedding Venues
While brides and grooms were forced to downsize their weddings during the pandemic, there has been an emerging trend towards smaller, more intimate weddings as a result. Even elopements and micro-weddings of less than 20 guests are seeing a surge as couples shun the idea of a big, white wedding and re-prioritise their wedding plans.
With the average UK wedding now costing more than £19,184, and with the cost-of-living crisis an ongoing concern, couples are rethinking their weddings in favour of a more modest, budget-friendly celebration. However, the typically lower cost of a small wedding isn’t the only advantage of scaling down your special day, and there are more benefits to be enjoyed than you might realise.
Here are six reasons why a small and intimate wedding is trending and is here to stay.
Bride, groom and guests at a small wedding reception outside in the backyard.
1. Less stress.
Whilst it doesn’t necessarily hold true that having fewer guests will make the experience stress-free, there is certainly a lot to be said about it. Gone are the days when guests are happy with a church buffet – these days catering for events can turn into a planning nightmare, with a plethora of allergens, intolerances, and the down-right fussy. Aside from the food, the issues surrounding where to house people and how to get them all from A to B can be greatly reduced when you lower your numbers.
Perversely, you can end up offending fewer people should you choose not to invite them with a smaller wedding – invite 150 people and every person you’ve met in the last five years holds out an expectation yet reduce your numbers to 30 and suddenly people have no expectations of being on the list outside of your immediate family members and closest friends.
2. Venue options.
A big wedding requires a big venue. When you plan a smaller wedding, you are afforded a lot more flexibility when it comes to an event space, including less conventional options. Have your wedding and reception in an art gallery, a private garden, a museum, a cosy bed, and breakfast, on a yacht, or at your favourite North Jersey restaurant. Many venues which traditionally host larger weddings also have spaces available for intimate celebrations.
Small beach wedding venue.
3. Smaller budget.
Not everyone wants to have a big-budget wedding day. Whether you simply can’t afford the typical costs of today’s modern wedding or you think a big budget spend is a waste of money, downsizing your day can help you make those essential savings.
Limiting the number of wedding guests minimises the cost of your reception while opening a range of smaller and cheaper wedding venues. Likewise, reducing the amount of décor and flowers required also helps you make big savings – allowing you to spend more on other elements of your life together, like your honeymoon.
4. Relaxed and intimate.
Saving those precious invites for your very nearest and dearest means that the chances are, you’ll be able to spend your Wedding Day with the people who love and cherish you for exactly who you are, rather than spending hours of your time circulating a room full of people you felt obliged to invite, or worse, are meeting for the very first time!
Fewer people often encourage the guests who are invited to join together and mingle rather than splitting into smaller groups and parties, resulting in a more relaxed environment full of positive energy.
5. Spend time with your guests.
So many times, at Weddings, you end up feeling like you’ve barely spoken two words to the Bride and Groom themselves. With so much to fit in, from the ceremony itself to the photographs, the sit-down meal, the speeches, the cake cutting, and right up to the first dance…there are precious few periods where you can really connect with your guests. And this is certainly true of larger Weddings, where it can be an impossible task to fit in exchanging pleasantries with all of your guests, let alone anything more personal.
Bride, groom with guests taking a selfie at the wedding reception.
6. Enjoyment each and every moment.
One of the most common complaints post-weddings is that the whole day went too fast. With so many people to see, hundreds of photos to shoot, and plenty of hosting to do, many couples get limited quality time to spend together and enjoy their day. When you downsize your wedding, you downsize all that fuss and the number of guests attending your special day. This gives you the opportunity to soak up every moment, take in every compliment and congratulation, and create memories to last a lifetime.
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