Small & Special: Celebrating Love with Intimate Weddings
Are you set to get hitched? Although a wedding typically has more than a hundred guests, intimate weddings — otherwise known as “micro weddings” — with guest lists limited to a maximum of 50 people have recently become fashionable.
It’s not hard to see why, either, as these ceremonies can be appreciably easier to organise, in addition to helping you to rein in the big day’s carbon footprint.
If you do ultimately decide to go with a relatively modest and intimate wedding rather than necessarily an extravagant big bash, here are some exciting ideas worth considering for it…
Spend more time on ‘getting ready’ pictures
While it’s typical for the morning before a big wedding to be pretty busy, it can be a very different situation with a small wedding. So, if you will be having such a wedding, you will (at least theoretically) get more time to spend on making sure your ‘getting ready’ photos look just right.
Turn up at the wedding with your partner
It might be more conventional for each partner to arrive at their wedding separately, but an intimate wedding will provide you with plenty of great chances to tear up customary rules. Besides, linking arms in the run-up to a modest wedding would be delightfully romantic.
Be adventurous with your arrival
Obviously, you shouldn’t literally link arms with your partner on your way to the wedding venue if one of you will be driving, say, a classic car at the time.
We’ve mentioned just one idea there for how you could make a stunning entrance, but your imagination might already be brimming with other exciting possibilities.
Book an especially remote wedding venue
Sure, you probably won’t struggle to find many pubs and restaurants with spaces available for compact weddings in the big city. However, going small with your wedding also enables you to be wonderfully unorthodox with your choice of venue.
For example, South Farm would be able to provide you with a barn-style intimate wedding venue in the peaceful Hertfordshire countryside, making for a cosy atmosphere.
Decorate with layers of florals
“Baby, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey,” you might hear on the big day if you choose a certain Seal ballad as your wedding song.
Similarly, the idea of leaving large quantities of roses and other flowers strewn across tables could get your — ahem — seal of approval.
Do you have dogs? Invite them to your wedding!
Yes, perhaps you “canine” believe it, but you can indeed bring dogs to a wedding. Of course, you would need to check that the venue actually permits dogs — but if it does, you would have good incentive to bring them “Rover” to your micro wedding.
For a start, they could recognise many of the guests — and so are more likely to feel a bone than alone.
Mimic an elopement
Eloping might sound like the kind of thing that only happens in Regency-set period dramas. However, you could replicate the mischievous feel of an elopement by — once you have actually married — sneaking off with your new spouse to a secretive location for a picnic.
Your time out together could last about half an hour — long enough for you to enjoy it while still short enough for you to do it all without many of the wedding guests even realising.
Prepare for the all-important confetti shot
No matter how small a wedding you opt for, it still needs to have that crucial moment of you and your partner getting showered with confetti — and the whole thing getting caught on camera.
Unfortunately, since there will be relatively few guests, you might want to be particularly generous with how much confetti you squeeze into their bags or cones. That way, when the throwing does begin, you can still expect a stunning visual impact.
Keep your first dance private
At a large wedding, it is traditional for the couple at the centre of it to have the first dance with a massive throng of guests watching.
Nonetheless, if your intimate wedding won’t include an evening dance (or even if it will), you might prefer to have the first dance with just you and your lover present. For a memorable and polished performance, consider taking Wedding Dance Lessons NYC to perfect your moves and make the moment even more special.
Arrange for some acoustic musicians to perform
Your first thought might have been to have a full live band perform with electronic gear, but would it really suit the quiet vibe of the event as a whole?
Consider instead booking musicians who would play such traditional instruments as the piano and acoustic guitar at the venue — especially if it has a “period property” feel to it.
There you have it – just a few of the senses in which an intimate wedding can feel utterly magical in ways even the most devoted of couples might not expect. Why not, then, consider such an approach to your own upcoming nuptials?
