Small Wedding Tips

As I have pointed out on many occasions, if you want to reduce the time, energy and cost of planning a wedding then downsizing is the best option. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that planning the day is automatically easy. There are still plenty of obstacles to overcome, so I want to share with you a few helpful small wedding tips to make things as easy as possible for you.

Top 4 Small Wedding Tips

1 – Create a Budget

Having a small wedding is just like having a big wedding as far as planning a budget is concerned. While having a smaller wedding is going to automatically reduce costs, that doesn’t mean there is no possibility for overspending! Your small wedding can be as simple or as lavish as your heart desires and it is easy to get carried away. You might think to yourself, ‘I saved money by reducing the guest list so now I can afford that designer wedding dress’. That could very well be true, but if you start using this justification for everything you can soon end up with a hefty price tag on your big day – all the little extras soon mount up! That’s why the first of my small wedding tips is to create a budget!

Think carefully about what you want to spend on your wedding and try to be realistic about what you can afford. Your chosen budget is going to influence many of your decisions, so it should be one of the first things you work on after getting engaged. As a general rule of thumb, I say that an all-inclusive elopement averages around $2,500. This gives you a good starting point. However, if you are on a tighter budget, you can pull off a small wedding for much less!

2 – Decide on Essential Features for Your Small Wedding

Once you have a budget in mind, you will want to start looking at vendors. This is where wedding planning can start to get overwhelming. There are so many options out there to choose from! That is why the next one of my small wedding tips is to decide on the must-have features of your day. Having a small wedding does not mean having to sacrifice your dream wedding. It just means doing it on a smaller scale! Think about your must-have features and this will help to eliminate vendors who can’t meet these needs. Some examples to consider are:

• Do you want an outdoor or indoor ceremony?
• Will you stay overnight at your venue?
• Do you want to bring a pet with you?
• Can the vendor provide a cake?
• Is photography an option?

3 – Look for All-Inclusive Small Wedding or Elopement Packages

One of the easiest ways to plan a small wedding is with an all-inclusive package. Once you have a budget and a list of your requirements you can begin to create a short list of vendors and packages. It can be a great way to save time and money since everything is already taken care.

4 – Small Wedding Tips– Stick to Your Guns

Perhaps the most important one of my small wedding tips is this – stick to your guns! There is often a great deal of societal and family pressure to have a big, traditional wedding. Many couples have told me that their parents or grandparents are often upset when told that the wedding is going to be an intimate one. Don’t allow yourself to be swayed. You have decided on a small wedding and you need to stick with it. Otherwise, you will end up spending more money and getting stressed to make someone else happy! This is your day – not anyone else’s!

My small wedding tips are the result of years working in the elopement and small weddings industry. They are based on personal experience, stories from couples I have helped get married and our many vendors. If you would like additional small wedding tips, or a small wedding budget spreadsheet, then you are going to want to check out my latest book BIG Weddings SUCK! available now on Amazon!

By Dave Westfall, the Alternative Wedding Planner