What is a Micro Wedding?
What’s the first thing that floods your mind when you hear the word micro wedding?
As a luxury elopement and micro wedding photographer who’s spent the last several years documenting these celebrations, I’ve come to realize that there’s some confusion surrounding microweddings.
What I’ve found is that many couples don’t have a true understanding of what a small wedding can be like.
This blog is all about sharing my honest thoughts on microweddings. And why they’re must-considers for couples who value connection, quality time with their loved ones, and a curated experience.
In this article:
- What is a Micro Wedding?
- The Purpose Behind a Small Wedding
- How a Micro Wedding Should Feel
- The Core of a Small Wedding: A Meaningful Guest List
- Capturing the Moments of Your Intimate Wedding
Pictured: An April microwedding on private property in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon. Event design & florals by The Slow Cult, rentals from Arden Event Collective and Lily & Cane, and catering by Miere Catering.
What Every Couple Should Know About Micro Weddings
What is a Micro Wedding?
A micro wedding is an intimate wedding where you intentionally gather your closest people–loved ones, family, friends–together for a day that aligns with your vision of love, acceptance, and support.
A small wedding is blissful in a balanced way–it feels grounding and exhilarating all at once.
It’s not about the location, even though many intimate weddings are in stunning venues or destination spots. It’s not about the epicness of the adventure, even though these kinds of weddings often prioritize exploration and new places.
I truly believe deciding to have a micro wedding means choosing yourselves and your people. It’s about a curated list of guests, experiences, and details that make you feel alive and celebrated.
The Purpose Behind a Small Wedding
At the core of it all, a micro wedding is about one thing: the people.
When I say people, I don’t just mean people on a guest list. I mean you and your partner and every person who made your list because you couldn’t stand the idea of being married without them by your side.
Here’s what I believe a micro-wedding should be all about:
- The connection you have with your partner: What I love about weddings is that they give couples this amazing opportunity to reflect–on themselves, on their relationship, on what their partnership stands for. Micro weddings, by nature, allow you to set things aside that don’t serve you. A smaller group and a smaller venue means focusing on the intention behind your day and your connection, and that can come to life in the details, vendors, and experience you choose to include.
- Who you both are as people: Small weddings give you a beautiful chance to scale back on things that might not matter to you. Maybe it’s not about a big, beautiful hall and 200 guests–because maybe that’s not who you both are. It can be about the immersive details, the curated experiences, and the opportunity to connect with each other and your people.
- Why the people you invite matter to you: Micro wedding guest lists range in size (usually between 20-60), but ultimately, they’re much smaller than traditional weddings. That’s because every person invited should mean something to you. Small weddings are about cutting through the noise that many bigger weddings have, like long lists of people you don’t know well who are invited as formalities. They aren’t just about the what; they’re about the why behind choosing your guest list. Every person who’s part of this beautiful day should support you, align with you, and bring you nothing but happiness.
Pictured: An autumn micro wedding on the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon. Florals by Revel Petals.
How a Micro Wedding Should Feel
A micro-wedding that’s about you, your partner, your guests, and your connection should feel like an effortless balance of overwhelming joy and grounded peace. You should feel deeply connected with your people, with your vision of your wedding, and with the feelings you want to carry with you for the rest of your life after you’ve experienced it.
Small weddings are, in most cases, very curated experiences. Not just in the guest list, but in the vendors, the details, and the moments you want to remember. Whitney and Levi’s small wedding and Oregon elopement hybrid were exactly this.
Close your eyes and try to imagine a moment in your life where happiness washed over you–happiness that was exciting and perfect all at once. That’s what it should feel like.
Pictured: A spring micro wedding in Moab Utah at sunset.
The Core of a Small Wedding: A Meaningful Guest List
I mentioned before that a micro wedding, at its very foundation, is about the people involved. That means you and your partner, above all–but it also means the guests that are part of your celebration.
Here’s what’s truly so special about this type of wedding: it doesn’t mean forgoing the traditions or the details you might love, and it doesn’t mean skipping out on including your core people.
A small wedding is a balance of intention and curated detail, a beautiful blend of what you want and who you want with you.
An wedding like this is inherently smaller, meaning those invited are the people you can’t imagine your wedding without.
In so many ways, you can avoid the formalities the need to invite so-and-so because so-and-so is coming. (You know what I mean, right?)
With a micro-wedding, every name on your list is meant to be standing there with you, soaking in the magic.
Here are a few things I think are so important to know and consider about your small wedding guest list:
- You can spend quality time with each person: Imagine intentional moments with all of your guests at once instead of shuffling through a crowd, trying to catch-up with everyone, anxiously making your way toward a dinner you might not have time to eat before your first dance. A smaller guest list means more time spent with all those you included. In addition to more intimate venues and money and resources invested in quality experiences with that core group of people.
- Shifting the number of guests can alter your budget: Weddings of any kind tend to have a core cost. Some elements that will stay the same no matter how many guests you include. You might buy the same dress or suit whether you’re eloping or having a larger wedding, for example. But when you alter the number of guests, the costs associated with them change. More people at your wedding changes the cost of everything else–food, alcohol, the venue where you can host your day. When you have a smaller event, you can fulfill of lot other things you might want for your wedding within your budget. The more autonomy you have over your budget, the more rules you can break.
- The guest dynamic changes in a beautiful way: With fewer guests included, your wedding becomes less about taking care of guests and more about including them in your experience.
- A larger group is there to watch you: For some, a larger wedding with hundreds of guests can feel performative, like they’re there to watch and witness a spectacle. With a smaller wedding many couples feel like their core group is there to experience everything with them. Couples can embrace their uniqueness, be themselves, let their hair down, and float through their day without worrying about the performance of it all.
Capturing the Moments of Your Intimate Wedding
If you find yourself repeating the words intentional and intimate often–a microwedding might be the right fit for your wedding.
Whether you’re chasing a destination micro wedding where you, your partner, and your closest people can spend days basking in the experience. Or a curated day rich in unique-to-you details you can embrace with all your loved ones, I can help you capture every second.
When you’re ready to learn more about micro-wedding packages and how a photographer like me works with special couples like you, I’m here for you.
