Tips for Planning an Intimate Wedding

We don’t often have the chance to photograph small, intimate weddings, but they are becoming more popular and we always jump at the chance to document these less traditional nuptials. We’re sharing some of our favorite photos and some advice for planning your own small wedding.

1. Unique Venues

Your guest list dictates the size of venue you need to host your wedding, but when you are planning an elopement or micro-wedding, many more possibilities are opened up to you. Whether you choose to say I do at your county courthouse or reserve a private room at your favorite restaurant, with a guest list of 50 or less, you can get really creative with where you choose to celebrate. A popular choice for couples in the Washington, DC area is the DC War Memorial. (Keep in mind you will need a permit to host your wedding here!)

2. Get Creative with Portraits

Having fewer guests at your wedding can mean a little less logistical planning, so take some extra time as newlyweds to get creative with your photographer and take some really fun portraits. Now is a good time to mention that we highly recommend hiring a photographer even if you are planning to elope or are planning to celebrate with just your immediate family- no matter your plans, you are going to want to have photos after the wedding to look back at and reminisce.

3. Spend more time with your guests

At a wedding with 200 guests or more, it’s almost impossible for the newlyweds to make it around the room and say hello to each and every guest, which is a shame! You obviously want to celebrate with everyone that you invited to your big day, and by having a more intimate celebration, you can be sure to thank each family member and friend for coming to celebrate with you and make lasting memories with all your guests.

You can also get your guests more involved in the wedding, whether that means having a close friend officiate, play a song, or all your friends taking a line of a poem or reading during the ceremony.

Bonus: You may be able to get a group photo with all the attendees at your wedding, which would otherwise be hard to coordinate.

If your wedding is small enough, you may all be able to dine at one table, adding to the intimate feel of your celebration and increasing the amount of time you can spend with your guests.

4. Focus on the details

You can really personalize all the details when planning a small wedding, adding touches that would be hard to replicate for 200 guests, like hand-painted place cards or a special handwritten note.

5. You can still incorporate traditions

Even if you chose to plan a small wedding, you can still have all the traditions that may be important to you like personalized vows, a first dance, toasts, and cake-cutting, even if it’s just the two of you!