There’s no right or wrong way to plan a wedding, but the ultimate goal is always for it to feel like grounded exhilaration. It’s one of the greatest days of your life, but it feels aligned – like you couldn’t have dreamed up a more fitting experience if you tried.
For a lot of couples, achieving that feeling means their wedding day lines up with their values and skips the stressful parts of planning.
In fact, avoiding that stress factor is why so many couples end up forgoing traditional, large weddings and embracing luxury elopements or microweddings.
Getting married this way often means minimizing the guest list, shifting the wedding experience perspective, and focusing on what the couple wants above all else.
Still, planning a wedding of any size or type can feel stressful if you don’t know where to start.
What if I told you that you have a tool sitting in front of you that’s free, easy to use, and can make your small wedding planning a little less overwhelming?
Spoiler alert, you do: And it’s called ChatGPT.
Hear me out: I don’t think ChatGPT is the ultimate wedding-planning tool. But I do think it can help you organize your thoughts, spark creativity, and kick off planning your wedding.
This blog will give you a few ideas for how to tap into some basic ChatGPT skills to start planning your small wedding (while helping you avoid some of the pitfalls, too).
In this article:
- Using ChatGPT to Plan Your Small Wedding: What You Should Know
- How ChatGPT Can Kickstart Your Wedding Planning
- Use ChatGPT to Explore & Expand Your Wedding Vision
- Where ChatGPT Falls Short for Planning Your Small Wedding
- Every Moment of Your Small Wedding Matters – Capture Them All
Pictured above: A microwedding at Chateau de Michellia in Oregon. Florals by Wildflower Portland and rentals by Great Jones.
Using ChatGPT to Plan Your Small Wedding: What You Should Know
Before we dive in, let’s start with the disclaimer of all disclaimers:
ChatGPT could never – and should never – plan your whole wedding. Think about ChatGPT as a tool to lean on to get your thought process going, help you think about things differently, and curate ideas.
Just like you’d use Pinterest to moodboard, you can use ChatGPT to streamline ideas and think outside the box a bit.
The best way to think of ChatGPT is as a 1:1 conversation with Google, except instead of sifting through endless articles while you search, you get direct, personalized responses.
A few more quick must-know things before we jump right in:
- ChatGPT could never replace a wedding planner or other vendors (there, I said it!)
- Responses from ChatGPT should be thought of as considerations, not direct answers
- It’s all about helping you think more creatively, not about outlining a plan in black & white
- ChatGPT is just spitting back info that already exists on the web; it can’t give you the full, most transparent picture
Got it? Let’s dig into how this tool can help with your small wedding planning process.
How ChatGPT Can Kickstart Your Wedding Planning
The best way to use ChatGPT to plan your wedding is to let it help you start.
You can go from zero to a Google Doc full of ideas just by asking ChatGPT some helpful, get-started questions for your consideration. Remember, treat ChatGPT like a direct conversation with Google. If you have no idea where to start, it can help guide you through things like:
- What wedding ceremony ideas you should consider
- What kind of vendors to think about hiring
- What the typical timeline for planning is
- The step-by-step details needed to plan a wedding
- The ins and outs of a small wedding budget
- The types of weddings to think about
- The difference between elopements, microweddings, and traditional weddings
- The pros and cons of different kinds of venues
You can ask questions based on what you already know about your ideal wedding experience, like “I’m planning a wedding with 50 guests. What are the first five things I need to do?”
Planning a microwedding using ChatGPT is really just about brainstorming broad ideas, getting familiar with the possibilities (because they’re endless), and then using all that information to refine the details you care about.
Pictured above: A microwedding reception details with florals by Wildflower Portland.
Use ChatGPT to Explore & Expand Your Wedding Vision
If you already have a general idea of what you’d like your wedding day to look and feel like, you can lean on ChatGPT to help you shape that vision a bit more.
You can go back and forth with it like it’s your brainstorming partner for a variety of considerations, questions, and elements.
Is it worth it to have a florist? ChatGPT can give you the pros and cons. Is your vision of a floral arrangement even possible? It can conjure up an image to help you put a visual to your vision.
Here are just a few possibilities for how ChatGPT could help you shape your dream day:
- Venue Inspiration: Describe the vibe you’re going for, and ChatGPT can suggest ideas for unique locations, whether that’s a moody forest elopement, an intimate backyard wedding, or a mountaintop ceremony.
- Unique Wedding Activities: Want to surprise your guests with an unforgettable experience? Ask ChatGPT for out-of-the-box ideas, like an intimate wine-tasting reception, a post-ceremony stargazing moment, or a DIY flower bar where guests can build their own bouquets.
- Guest List Management & Seating Plans: Need to keep things intimate without offending anyone? ChatGPT can help craft thoughtful ways to communicate your guest list decisions.
- Drafting Wedding Communication: Whether you need to write a polite elopement announcement, a heartfelt thank-you note, or a creative wedding website bio, ChatGPT can generate drafts and help fine-tune your wording.
- Timeline & Planning Assistance: From setting up a realistic wedding day timeline to generating packing lists for a destination elopement, ChatGPT can help keep your plans organized.
Remember, ChatGPT isn’t a replacement for expert vendors (like your planner, microwedding photographer, or florist); it can be a useful tool for getting the ideas flowing, shaping your day, or solving logistical problems you’re struggling with.
Timeline & Itinerary Inspo
Beyond shaping and refining the vision of your day, ChatGPT can also help you structure your wedding day (or weekend) with timeline suggestions and logistical planning. You can ask it helpful questions, like:
- “Help me plan a wedding weekend itinerary for a destination wedding.”
- “What should my day-of timeline look like for a backyard wedding?”
- “How do I space out my ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception?”
You may not end up using the exact timeline it outlines, but it can be a great foundation for where to start so you can build specifics on it.
Analyzing & Breaking Down Your Wedding Budget
While ChatGPT can’t always give you the most authentic, transparent picture of pricing and could end up just spitting out generic wedding averages, it can be a useful tool for helping you allocate your budget based on your priorities.
Whether you’re figuring out how to be flexible with funds, looking for creative cost-saving ideas, or planning a full wedding weekend itinerary, it can help organize your thoughts and break things down more efficiently.
Using ChatGPT to Break Down Your Small Wedding Budget & Cost-Saving Ideas
ChatGPT can help you analyze your budget based on what matters most to you. Instead of relying on the common (and often misleading) “the average wedding costs $32K” statistic, you can ask it for a personalized breakdown, like:
- “I have a $15K budget—how should I allocate it for a small wedding?”
- “I don’t care about fancy food, but I want an amazing photographer—how should I shift my budget?”
- “What are some budget-friendly venue alternatives for an intimate wedding?”
It won’t necessarily spit out the perfect answers, but it can help you rethink and reframe how you’re allocating your budget and what to focus on (it’s also a whiz with numbers if you want help there, too).
If you’re planning a non-traditional wedding, ChatGPT can also help you rethink where to splurge and where to save.
For example, Sina & Kyle spent $0 on their venue by having their ceremony on national forest land, freeing up their budget to splurge on food and photography.
Pictured above: Couple walking the grounds of Chateau de Michellia wedding venue on their microwedding day. Florals by Wildflower Portland.
Where ChatGPT Falls Short for Planning Your Small Wedding
Of course, small wedding planning with ChatGPT has some limitations – particularly when it comes to vendor research and booking.
Remember, ChatGPT is a tool, and one specifically that works using the internet and search engine algorithms – so it can end up spitting out the first page of Google as your vendor recommendations (even though they may not align with your vision).
Vendor Suggestions vs. Finding Your Perfect-Fit Vendor
ChatGPT can certainly suggest general vendor types (photographer, florist, caterer, etc.) and offer tips on what to look for, but it’s not the best resource for specific vendor recommendations.
Why? Well, if you ask, “Who are the best wedding photographers near me?”
It’s going to pull SEO-optimized results or provide generalized suggestions rather than pinpointing a photographer who aligns with your unique style, budget, and vision. You’re likely better off doing your own research in this regard.
This is where ChatGPT can still be helpful, but in a different way. Instead of relying on it for specific vendor names, use it to help inform and revise your strategy for finding a vendor that fits your vision. You can ask it things like:
- “What should I look for when choosing a wedding photographer?”
- “What questions should I ask potential florists?”
- “How do I tell if a wedding planner has enough experience?”
For Finding Aligned Vendors, Use Other Tools
For more accurate and aligned results on your vendor hunt, try tried-and-true tools like Instagram, Pinterest, and Google. This way, you can feel out a vendor and if they’re the right choice to bring your vision to life, rather than just jump in based on their SEO potential.
Pictured above: Couple at Chateau de Michellia wedding venue in Oregon.
Every Moment of Your Small Wedding Matters – Capture Them All
Like I mentioned before, ChatGPT is no magical wedding planner, but this helped you reframe how you can use it to start planning your small wedding and getting organized.
No matter how you end up planning your intimate wedding, luxury elopement, or destination microwedding, I’m here to help you capture each and every moment of it in beautiful detail. When you’re ready to chat through your wedding day photography coverage, I’m here to help.
