Intimate weddings have grown in popularity over the past ten years and we’re here to show you exactly what goes into creating the perfect private and personal celebration for your closest family and friends. Weddings can get very costly very quickly, but this is not always the reason for wanting an intimate wedding. Intimate weddings allow the couple to do without some of the more unnecessary traditions and focus on what matters to them.
The Day
The beauty of an intimate wedding is that the party can start long before you walk down the aisle. If you’re having a smaller wedding, the entire celebration can go on for an entire weekend if you want. It could start with a welcome brunch on Friday afternoon and a pre-wedding cocktail party on Friday night. The wedding itself could take place on Saturday and your Sunday could be filled with fun post-wedding activities like wine tastings or tours of the local area. With a smaller wedding, you have so many options!
The Invitations
We’ve all seen those beautiful wedding invitations on Instagram. They come with an elegant ribbon and often include added items like a map and a programme. For a more intimate and smaller wedding, the couple will likely be able to afford to send one of these information packs to each of their guests. Most intimate weddings sit around 20-40 people, which opens all sorts of doors in terms of the cost and logistics of the day itself!
The Venue
The number of guests that you plan on having at your wedding can have a major effect on which venues can host your special day. With intimate weddings, this is not the case. Most venues will be able to accommodate weddings of smaller sizes and trendier venues like restaurants or bars are also possible when your wedding guest list sits under 50 people. As the bridal couple, you could also hire enough rooms for your entire wedding guest list to stay close to your venue and make the wedding a weekend-long celebration! Professional wedding planner Anna from Kiss from Fleur suggests: «Choose a location for your celebration where you feel like home or you have some connection to. A location which is your favorite holiday spot or has some other meaning for you. A place which connects to your soul.»
The Decorations
Decorating your chosen venue, even for an intimate wedding, can make all the difference. «We love beautifully decorated understated set-ups with one or two main focal points. We therefore advise all our couples to put aside a portion of their budget for an installation such as a deconstructed arch, floral meadows, a mantelpiece decorator or a traditional free-standing centrepieces set up. Not only does it attract a lot of attention during a ceremony but can also be repurposed after your ceremony and adapted for another part of your day, such as a reception. Smaller venues also allow for suspending installations so be imaginative. The sky is the limit!» – florists from the London-based floral studio," Blooming Haus say.
The Food
Fewer guests means lower food costs and this will free you up to stretch your culinary legs a little bit. Fewer guests also mean fewer dietary restrictions, which will allow your chefs to serve more creative dishes. You can also design fun extras like personalised cocktails, or wine bottle favours engraved with guests’ names! With smaller weddings, you can also experiment with different dining configurations, like having a bohemian picnic instead of a sit-down meal. The choice is yours!
The Dress
Opting for an intimate wedding means brides can enjoy the freedom to wear whatever they want without the judgement of guests outside their close friends and family. Intimate weddings are often more relaxed and slightly more bohemian in their styling, but this does not necessarily have to be the case. We suggest trying something simple: a silk dress or an oversized jacket will look stylish and will suit a small event perfectly. To spice up the look you can buy massive accessories, earrings or on-trend heels.
The Photography
Intimate weddings mean fewer people and that can also mean that the bride and groom can have more personal moments with all of their guests. For an intimate wedding, you will need a photographer who understands the importance of these moments and knows how to capture them in a sensitive and candid manner. Some photographers are better suited to bigger weddings, and some are just as comfortable in a room of 12 as they are in a room of 1,200.
