We have all seen what the pandemic has done to the world and how many things it has changed along the way. With changed plans and modified itineraries, the current wedding planning scenario is also one of the most affected areas by the COVID-19 pandemic that we have witnessed so far. This little virus has changed our world in more ways than we could have ever imagined and changed the landscape of the wedding industry forever. Once one of the most exciting parts of the wedding planning process which was all about gathering your 'nearest and dearest', is surely overwhelming at the moment for all the right reasons. Along with adding face masks and hand sanitizers to the wedding makeup kits, this pandemic has overthrown each and every contingency plan that has been curated by to-be married couples and their respective vendors. 

If you are a couple who is planning to get married in 2021 or whose wedding was postponed in 2020 and now planning for a 2021 wedding, it is natural for you if you are thinking about all the measures that you can take to avoid the big crowd on your wedding day as a healthy measure. While snoozing the wedding plan may have crossed your mind, you will be glad to know that there are other ways to get married on a smaller scale which is a shift from big and traditional weddings to more intimate elopements, micro weddings, and minimonies. There are so many ways to celebrate weddings on a smaller scale that can also be spiced up with creative alternatives. When couples around the world are changing their wedding plans- from couples who throw their hands up in the air and say, “let’s just do this damn thing!” to to-be married couples with postponed wedding dates, having a micro wedding might be the answer waiting for so many couples who either love to keep things simple and compact or have been forced due to the current pandemic.

Hosting a micro wedding is just like any other wedding ceremony and reception but with an approximate guest count of a minimum of 10 to a maximum of 50 people. It is just like having all the fixings of a wedding but on a much smaller scale. Shrinking your wedding event down to a cozy and intimate size is an excellent opportunity to create amazing memories with every single guest that you invite to the big day. A micro wedding is going to have all the details of a normal wedding- invitations, dinner, a white dress, cake, and any other detail important to the two of you, and will feel exactly like how a wedding is supposed to feel like only with a fewer people, with the ones that are closest to you. It is guaranteed that you are going to love your wedding day because having a micro wedding is the perfect opportunity to have fun, relax, and focus entirely on each other as well as your loved ones that are going to surround you.

Here are some of our all-time favorite micro wedding ideas:

Sending handwritten invitations and wedding announcements

There is something so magical about beautifully calligraphed handwritten letters and announcements that take us back to the glorious times of the past of old-school romance and vintage romantic tales. With a fewer number of guests on your wedding list, it is so much easier to send handwritten wedding invitations to your closest people while inviting them to the biggest day of your life with beautiful calligraphy and hand lettering. Rather than printing hundreds of wedding invitations, your customized handwritten wedding invitations will showcase the importance of each and everyone who receives them first hand. The same goes for wedding announcements, where you can consider sending a beautifully handwritten note, especially to the ones who will want to know the big news right after you get engaged and pick a wedding date.

Embracing wedding traditions that you love

It is very easy to lose sight that your micro wedding is your actual wedding day and it isn't just something to do while you can't host a larger gathering. Hence you should always try to embrace all the wedding traditions that you have always dreamt of as part of your big day celebration. For instance, if you always wanted to wear your grandmother's wedding dress- go for it, or if you were planning for a first look while carrying a bridal bouquet designed by your best friend, go for it as well. Including wedding traditions or ideas that hold special meaning to you or considering to be an integral part of who you are is the most important thing when it comes to planning your micro wedding. But if you would like to preserve these wedding traditions for a big wedding reception or ceremony which is going to take place in the future, feel free to do so as well. For instance, if you want to save the wedding tradition like 'going for the first dance', for your large wedding date which is going to come in the future, that's perfectly fine too. You can always plan to include a time capsule from this micro wedding date and ask your loved ones to fill it with small mementos to remember the day, this season, and the start of the marriage.

Choosing a restaurant wedding venue

The world is your oyster when there are very few people on your wedding guest list. And hence, you can opt for a non-traditional wedding venue for yourself which can also be a restaurant wedding venue. There are unique restaurants all around the world that have everything you need in one place, starting from the kind of backdrop to the kind of ambiance that you have always dreamt of getting married in. When you choose a restaurant wedding venue, you can play around the choice by opting and flipping through different kinds of restaurant wedding venues around the wedding city, or town, or village you are getting married in. Why not show the restaurant you and your partner went to for your first date? Or a unique and offbeat restaurant setting that you and your partner love to frequent? However, make sure that you love everything about your chosen restaurant from the style and the menu to the existing décor, as restaurants often have limitations on the wedding menu or restrictions on decorations.

Creative wedding color palette

If you are the creative kind and want to experiment with your artistic side for your micro wedding, then we suggest you do something different for your micro wedding and save your original ideas for future celebrations. When it comes to choosing your wedding color palette you might be tempted to go with the exact same color palette that you have originally chosen for yourself, but there are also so many beautiful blooms and color schemes that can do wonders with your small guest list, rather than to just stick to one with the option. Doing both events will help you and your loved ones to remember and cherish both events uniquely. For instance, if you are going with a more romantic and whimsy color palette for your big celebration, then go for bold and moody color palettes for your intimate wedding day to segregate and remember both days differently.

Choose a heritage home or an Airbnb

Backyard weddings have become very popular among couples who got married amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. You can host your micro wedding in the backyard of your family house or your heritage house and turn it into an intimate wedding venue which wouldn't have been possible for events with a large guest list. Along with the sentiments and emotions that a family home entails, having an intimate affair in a place that is meaningful to the couple can be truly worthy of inspirational wedding photography. If you and your partner stay far away from your original home, you can get married in an Airbnb venue which may be the perfect fit for your needs. In the recent past, we have seen some pretty amazing backyard weddings and intimate Airbnb weddings that can give you the flexibility to move between spaces and make your wedding day really cost-efficient.

Consider a dinner party instead of a wedding reception

When you are considering your wedding menu and drawing the blueprint of portion sizes it is easier to think about your wedding as a dinner party instead of a full-blown wedding reception. This will help you to better use your space— your micro wedding for 30 guests might be taking place in a space originally designed to fit 300. Having an intimate guest list in a large wedding space will also help to adhere to the social distancing guidelines for weddings as the large space will enable your guests to spread out. Long and square reception tables are great if you want your guests to spread out but still feel cozy and keep social distancing guidelines in check. You can reallocate your wedding funds to bring in special touches to the wedding dinner party like pairing the wedding menu with local wines or spreading out a restaurant-style meal that will make your guests feel extra special.

Being thoughtful with the activities

As you are preparing the wedding details and activities, bringing in what's important to you and skipping what isn't is unquestionably crucial for an epic wedding celebration. While you might want to forgo traditional dancing at your small wedding, you might want to replace it with an activity that will be enjoyed by everyone like setting up lawn games— which will be properly spaced out, so that smaller groups can have a little fun. Lawn games, like Giant 4, giant Jenga, and cornhole are fun reception activity ideas for enjoying a cocktail hour or even just casual reception mingling. Hiring a small live band or a small group of musicians can have the formality of special dances without a crowd on stage.

It is all about the thoughtful wedding details

Just because it is a small wedding celebration it doesn't mean that you cannot have a beautiful and impactful wedding décor. In fact, a small or a micro wedding means that you can go all-in on the details. From getting creative with your wedding color palette to making each and every wedding décor item really detailed with customized designs will help you to create a memorable ambiance for the micro wedding. There is no limit to the number of details that you can add to your list of micro wedding décor- from creating an elaborate hyper custom escort display with handwritten touches that can also be doubled as wedding favors to gifting a welcome box with personalized touches there are so many incredible and thoughtful wedding details that have our hearts.

Splurge on food and drinks (with safety guidelines)

Since you are not going to feed a huge crowd you will have more room for a detailed wedding menu that your loved ones are going to remember forever. From serving a seven-course meal with imported wine pairings to laying out an elaborate buffet or bringing in quirky food trucks on the wedding site, the options for splurging on food and drinks as part of the wedding menu are truly immense. You can really personalize every detail of the wedding menu when it comes to hosting a small group. However to keep everyone safe you can prepare a wedding menu peppered with single-serve options. For instance, offering pre-plated appetizers as cocktail snacks or serving mini bottles of sparkling wine or water with paper straws are nice ideas for customizing and splurging on the micro wedding menu.

In many ways, this pandemic has taught couples the beauty of living in the moment together. And hence, planning a micro wedding or minimony can be as simple or as complex as you would like it to be. As the couple planning the wedding, however, you have the power to define what micro means to you. It’s more about a mindset than a precise number of seats at the dinner table. Your micro wedding package is going to have the same elements as a regular wedding package but they will be tailored and customized as per your budget, guest list size, and style. These exclusive wedding ideas include packages, venues, receptions, and cakes that take a smaller guest list into account without sacrificing style. Whether you want to consider a thrilling and original ceremony idea for your own destination micro wedding since it’s much easier to travel with a small group or you want to combine your ceremony, reception, and honeymoon all together while enjoying a beachfront wedding celebration, there are so many creative ways to celebrate and host your micro wedding. The flexibility and intimate experience are exactly why we love micro weddings!