Planning Tools, Ideas, & Advice
.png)
For Wedding Pros
Weddings are becoming smaller and smaller every year, and it’s no wonder. With rising costs and couples desiring a more intimate experience, it makes sense that a smaller celebration would make sense. Choosing to have a small wedding comes with a lot of benefits, including opportunities to make the event totally unique to you. In this blog, we’re covering a whole range of micro wedding ceremony ideas to help you get creative.
To be clear, ceremonies for a small wedding can be an exact copy of a traditional wedding size on a smaller scale. You can have everything you’d find in a larger wedding, or you can choose to do something totally different.
Most blog posts out there are talking about micro wedding ideas more generally and not specifically about your ceremony so we’re covering the elements of a ceremony in depth.
When I was planning my wedding, I knew I wanted something different from the traditional wedding. So much of what I saw out there didn’t reflect who my now-husband and I are. I struggled to find inspiration that aligned with our vision and kept running across the same things everywhere I looked. Our goal is to provide one-of-a-kind ideas and content that can help you bring an amazing celebration to life.
PS—If you haven't already, I highly recommend checking out our blog post on how to plan a micro wedding!
Before we dig into all the cool things you can do to make your micro wedding ceremony uniquely you, we wanted to provide a quick overview of what’s typically included in a wedding ceremony.
These will vary a bit depending on your religion or culture, but generally, a very basic ceremony will include the following:
The beauty of a more intimate wedding celebration is that there are only a few parts of a traditional ceremony that are actually required by law (I am not going to talk about any cultural or religious requirements here). A completed state-issued marriage license, an exchange of vows, verbally agreeing to enter into a marriage contract, and a proclamation that you’re now legally wed. With that in mind, you have permission to throw out any of the other things you typically see in a ceremony if they don’t bring you joy.
So, for whatever you decide to keep, here are some fun ways to make your special day so much fun and a perfect reflection of you.
The sky's the limit when it comes to options for your small wedding ceremony. Especially when you are going super small, it's nearly impossible to find a location that you couldn’t use for your ceremony. We’ve seen everything from river houseboats to lighthouses, remote beaches, and movie theaters. There is something truly special about exchanging your vows in a place that truly feels like home.
We have a list of over 100 location ideas in our Venue Discovery & Tour Planner: get that here.
The wedding processional is where everyone walks down the aisle, which typically marks the beginning of the ceremony. We have a number of unique ceremony ideas for your micro wedding processional.
Here are 5 ways to make this part of the ceremony really special:
I chatted with Jamie of Broadly Entertaining, an officiant, entertainment, and planning service based in Texas, for some great ideas for unique readings if you choose to include those in your ceremony. Here’s what she had to say:
Vows can be anything you like–this is where you can really infuse some creativity into your ceremony. Also, know that it’s totally okay to snag something off the internet that resonates—that’s what we did, and it didn’t make it any less meaningful.
There are many other parts of the ceremony that can be customized to suit your vision. Let your imagination run wild with options to customize the ring exchange, who officiates (as long as it suits local laws), first kiss, and recessional. And don’t shy away from having guests participate a little more actively in the ceremony. My husband once officiated a wedding for a friend, and they did a call and response with one of the couple’s favorite songs, which made the moment so much more memorable.
Elopement + Micro Wedding receptions
I love the idea of hybrid style events where you exchange vows elopement style (no guests or a few guests) and then celebrate either immediately after or down the road with a larger group. You may also choose to have a small wedding and then a larger party later. Or, if you’re jetting off to an international location and aren’t able to bring older family members with you, you might choose to do a civil ceremony close to home and your small wedding abroad.
Check out how L+C executed a perfect hybrid celebration
As you can see, there are so many incredible things you can do to make your micro wedding ceremony special. Injecting special touches throughout is a great way to take advantage of choosing to have a small ceremony.
