Planning a Destination Microwedding: 3 Details to Decide First
He popped the question and you said “yes,” and now comes the fun part for some or the challenging part for others: wedding planning. For now, you’ve reached a consensus about not wanting the wedding to cost a fortune, but you also don’t want to throw a bare-bones bash for a ton of people to enjoy, either. Whether you are interested in a micro wedding with a few people or would prefer to elope, it is always wise to look at the location first. For example, if you are interested in weddings in Gatlinburg TN or a similar location, it is important to prepare in advance, as it can ultimately be a money and time-saver in the end.
As a couple, you agree that your dream wedding includes your nearest and dearest friends and family at a destination far from home, so you have decided to have a small gathering. But now what? Here are some tips to plan a destination microwedding.
1. Defining Your Perfect Microwedding
Get ready to answer this question any time you bring up the concept with someone who hasn’t recently gotten married. For the unenlightened, a microwedding is a small wedding with anywhere between five and 50 guests. It’s a cross between an elopement and a traditional wedding, with many fans of this new wedding trend touting that it features the best facets of both worlds.
Moreover, a microwedding allows you to enjoy the intimacy and low-stress nature of planning an elopement in Las Vegas but with the benefit of sharing the special day with a select group of family and friends. You get to choose the elements of a traditional wedding that are important to you as a couple and skip any that don’t meet that threshold. Plus, you’re able to host the event for a fraction of the cost of a traditional wedding.
While microweddings don’t necessarily mean hosting them in a destination city, this is typically the case. Oftentimes, this allows the bride and groom to host their wedding in an extra-special location, and it can also be an easy way to help justify the small guest list and avoid hurt feelings among friends and extended family.
2. Choosing a Location and Crafting a Guest List
With a traditional wedding, you typically want to decide on your guest list before finding a venue. But with a destination microwedding, you have more flexibility to do what works best for your needs. Some couples prefer to determine the guest list first and have the needs of the party size and individual guests help dictate the location options.
For instance, if you have elderly grandparents attending or your mom is terrified to fly anywhere, you may need to limit your options to a venue within driving distance. Other couples have a special destination in mind as soon as the proposal is accepted. When the destination city is international or otherwise particularly expensive or hard to get to, these parameters usually help you narrow down your guest list.
Once you’ve selected a destination for your microwedding, pick out a number of accommodation options from which to choose for your guests. Ideally, it’s nice to have a variety of options, like a resort, a more budget-friendly option nearby and a variety of short-term home or condo rentals available in the area.
3. Selecting a Venue and Setting a Date
The order in which you perform these steps can also be alternated depending on your specific needs. For some couples, getting married on a specific date is a top priority. For others, though, it’s more important to have the wedding in a specific venue, with the date being decided based on availability.
Regardless of which you select first, you have much more flexibility than those planning a traditional wedding, which can help make the whole planning process less of a headache. For instance, guests are already traveling to the destination for a few days or more, so you don’t need to restrict your celebration to landing on a weekend like a typical wedding to accommodate work and school schedules. And with a small guest list, your ceremony and reception venue options are wide open as well.
Once you have all these basic details nailed down, be sure to order save-the-date cards and send them to your guests as soon as possible. Ordering custom save-the-date cards online is usually the most efficient and cost-effective route. And, providing your guests with as much notice as possible will help ensure everyone can make it to your big day.
Kick Back and Enjoy the Planning Process
The beauty of planning a microwedding is that it’s much less time-consuming and less stressful to arrange compared to a traditional wedding. By choosing to host a destination microwedding, you also get to enjoy a bit of a vacation, in addition to one of the most memorable days of your life, so take the time to enjoy every step of the process. From developing the guest list and deciding on a destination city to selecting a date and finding the perfect venue, enjoy all the decisions and planning between saying “yes” and “I do.”
