One of the best ways to ensure that your wedding feels more like a celebration than a production is to keep it small. An intimate wedding with a tight-knit group of friends and family allows brides and grooms to truly enjoy their wedding weekend without the stress that comes with entertaining hundreds of guests. In addition, an intimate wedding gives couples unlimited opportunities to express their personal tastes, explore unique and unusual venues, and to handpick every detail of their day. For many couples, the freedom that comes with planning a small, personalized wedding is its biggest appeal. Before you plan your wedding, consider our tips for planning the ultimate intimate wedding.
1. Make it a Destination Wedding
One of the best ways to ensure that your wedding is a small, intimate affair is by planning it far from home. Your guest list will immediately shrink to your closest friends and family who are willing to travel. Plus, a destination wedding offers couples, their families, and their friends the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel together and spend an exotic weekend (or longer) away!
2. Choose an Intimate Venue
Forget large hotel ballrooms, huge tented patios, and tired, overused event halls for hundreds of people. With an intimate wedding and small guest list, your venue options are limitless. Consider more creative places to get married like unique restaurants, historic sites, bed and breakfasts, and museums and art galleries for memorable, and appropriately sized, intimate wedding venues.
3. Create Cozy Seating Arrangements
Once you’ve decided on a venue, think about how you will arrange it for your intimate wedding. Creative ceremony set ups and family-style reception seating can help create a casual and intimate feel that encourages your guests to interact with you and with each other all night long.
4. Limit the Guest List
This may seem like a no-brainer, but keeping your guest list small is an important part of planning an intimate wedding. While telling your friends they might be invited date-less, and cutting extended family members from the list is tough, paring down your guest list will be worth it. Come wedding day, you will feel all the more special when you look around and realize you are surrounded by the most important people in your life.
5. Keep Your Bridal Party Small
Coordinating with large bridal parties can often be a point of stress and difficulty during the wedding planning process. By keeping your bridal party small, you will be able to celebrate your engagement and upcoming marriage with ease. Much like reducing your guest list opens up new and exciting possibilities for your wedding, choosing a small bridal party will also give you the freedom to plan unique, intimate gatherings and events leading up to your big day.
6. Pay Attention to the Details
Don’t make the mistake of assuming a small wedding is a simple wedding. In fact, it can often be harder to pull off a successful intimate wedding than a 350 person event. This is because you cannot disguise shortcuts and unattended details behind large crowds and grand gestures. At an intimate wedding, your guests will notice every detail of your ceremony and reception. So, be sure you pay careful attention to every aspect of you wedding day.
7. Spoil Your Guests
One of the best parts of an intimate wedding is that it allows couples to truly recognize and thank their guests for attending. Instead of spreading your resources across hundreds of guests, an intimate wedding allows you to concentrate them on a smaller group of people. This means you can plan a more elaborate rehearsal dinner, invite guests to stay at a luxurious inn, provide unique transportation options, load up welcome boxes and gift baskets, and add lots of little, personalized details to your reception that will really make your guests feel special.
8. Splurge on the “Extras”
A small guest list doesn’t necessarily mean a small budget. What it means is that couples can use the money they’ve saved by keeping their guest list small on lavish “extras.” Some couples might splurge on top-notch venues or vendors like a great band or phenomenal photographer. Others might opt for a designer wedding gown, extravagant floral arrangements, or an awesome honeymoon. Whatever your budget, and whatever your tastes, an intimate wedding will give you the option to splurge however you like.
9. Serve Top Notch Food and Drinks
Another great way to spoil your guests or to splurge on “extras” at an intimate wedding is by serving out-of-this-world food and refreshments. With a small wedding, you can splurge on high-end champagne, craft beer, and top-shelf liquor selections. Or, you can wow guests with an untraditional, fresh, and memorable meal, dessert, or late night treat!
10. Share the Spotlight
More than likely, the vast majority of your guests at an intimate wedding will know each other. The friends and family you invite will have shared memories of you and your fiance to retell with one another. At a close-knit event like an intimate wedding, your guests will have the opportunity to make speeches, tell stories, and be an active part of the celebration. When planning your intimate wedding, be sure to make room to share the spotlight with everyone who wants to make a speech or two.
Plan an Intimate Wedding at The Sayre Mansion!
Whether you dream of a Lehigh Valley destination wedding or you are from the area, The Sayre Mansion is the perfect place for an intimate Pennsylvania wedding. Our bed and breakfast sits on two acres of picturesque grounds adorned with century-old trees, which provide you with an unparalleled setting for your ceremony and reception. In addition, our dedicated staff and trusted vendor partners will assist you with every detail of planning your wedding at The Sayre Mansion. What’s more, your family, friends, and bridal party can all stay in our beautifully restored rooms on the grounds, for a truly unique wedding experience! Plan a visit to The Sayre Mansion, so that you can discover for yourself all that our bed and breakfast has to offer!
Photo credits: Thinkstock / andriikobryn, pojoslaw, PauletteRaePhotography, kieferpix