Author name: Marcia Grover

The perfect setting, a warm cozy atmosphere, and the most important people in your life gathered together to celebrate your wedding without any hassles or problems. Sound like a dream scenario? Rather than stick with a large traditional-style wedding, more and more couples are opting to scale down in favor of intimate weddings that feature smaller venues, fewer guests, and best of all, more focus on the bride and groom and less on the pageantry. What exactly is an Intimate Wedding? They go by many names; including small wedding, micro wedding and private elopements, but regardless of the name in question, they all share some commonalities that make them extremely desirable for couples seeking an alternative to the stress and complexity that typically comes with many classic kinds of wedding ceremonies. An intimate wedding ceremony is often a more personal celebration, featuring only a handful of important guests and less focus on decorations and a hundred other distractions. With much less to plan and worry about, these wedding ceremonies seem casual, lighthearted, and fun compared to the potential stuffiness and formal nature of traditional ceremonies. What’s also important to note is that the smaller wedding size allows for more flexibility with venue and overall location. Many couples choose to have a destination elopement in a somewhat exotic location for this very reason. It would be a pain to have to coordinate a full-scale wedding on the other side of the country, but if you’re only talking about a dozen guests and a few simple services, it’s a brand new scenario. Couples love the idea of intimate style ceremonies because rather than get caught up in all of the planning and family politics that can accompany a traditional wedding, these ceremonies flip the script and put the focus back on the couple. These ceremonies often come across as lively, intimate, and romantic because there’s more room for the couples to be themselves and less pressure put on them by family and the gravity of the ceremony. What are the advantages to a Smaller Ceremony? If you are deliberating as to what kind of ceremony to have, and you aren’t looking forward to trying to cater to dozens of people on your special day, an intimate wedding might be just what you want. However, this isn’t the only reason why these smaller ceremonies are becoming so popular. Consider the following points: Much more affordable. The scaled-down size means far fewer costs all around the board. Less on catering, less on decorations, smaller venue. Most of the time, these kinds of ceremonies are only a fraction of the cost of a traditional wedding, which is great for couples who want to start off their marriage with a smart investment, such as a down payment on a new house, or paying off student loans. These days, being frivolous with money for any reason isn’t exactly a smart idea, so this kind of ceremony makes sense. More freedom to make your ceremony unique. Due to the smaller guest list and less pressure to conform to the expectations of a traditional wedding, you can truly own your wedding ceremony by holding it wherever and however you want and then concentrating on your new life with your spouse. In New Orleans for instance, it’s popular to have wedding ceremonies in the beautiful gardens, parks, and aesthetic alleyways that the city features. From luxurious hotel balconies to picturesque park settings, you can easily plan for a ceremony in these kinds of spots because you don’t have to worry about cramming 60 people there. Focus on each other before the “honeymoon.” Rather than make your wedding this formal event that feels stressful and stuffy, you can hold a small, lighthearted ceremony and begin having fun right away. You don’t necessarily have to fly away to a honeymoon location if you hold your wedding in the same location that you want to “escape” to. That’s the great part about destination elopements that more couples are discovering. Why wait for the romance and fun to begin when you can incorporate your wedding and elopement into the same place? Much less stressful in general. It’s a fact that large weddings can be extremely taxing to plan and carry out. There are counseling services that specifically cater to couples about to get married. Between conflicting family personalities, the staggering cost, and trying to arrange a dozen different services so that they all come through for you on that one special day all at the right time, without any hiccups, is certainly cause for some stress. Rather than bother with this kind of aggravation, more couples are beginning to see the value in a smaller, scaled down event that removes a lot of the hassle. With far fewer people to worry about, less services to arrange, and fewer things to think about in general, intimate weddings become fun instead of frustrating. As you can see, there’s many reasons why you would want to have an intimate style ceremony. Whether you are trying to save a little money or if you would simply prefer to only invite your closest friends and family to your wedding, this is the best way of going about doing it. Are there any drawbacks to a Smaller Wedding? You could say that there are potential drawbacks depending on your preferences and the limitation of your venue. For instance, maybe you always had your heart set on a beautiful wedding in New Orleans, but you realize it wouldn’t be practical to invite your entire extended family due to the logistics involved, and because you want to get married in a small, cozy courtyard or alley. For the most part though, there aren’t any real drawbacks to having a small or intimate wedding. Part of the reason for this is because they are so customizable. Since you have so much more freedom to do what you want with the ceremony, there isn’t much room for disappointment. Plus, whatever events or festivities you can’t cram into