Not only has the Covid pandemic changed weddings in 2020 but it is likely to affect weddings for some time to come. That’s not to say that some larger weddings won’t be able to take place later this year because I’m really hopeful they will. What I am trying to tell you is that you shouldn’t feel down if you have to change your wedding plans slightly to accommodate to the ever changing rules on weddings. Because let me tell you, Micro weddings are AWESOME!

Let’s face it, the world of weddings has changed over the past year. Large weddings have not been possible and even smaller weddings haven’t been able to go ahead when we’ve been in lockdown ( which sometimes feels like forever! )

I was lucky enough to have photographed 10 micro weddings in 2020 and every single one of them was so freaking amazing, they all made me cry! Every single one! There was emotion, laughter, glamour, sparkle, intimacy, celebration, music and most of all, love! So much love!

I want to dispel any negative notions about having to downsize a wedding to a micro wedding and show you that, not only can it be amazing, but it can also make it better! Here are my 10 reasons to have a Micro Wedding in 2021!

1 Your nearest and dearest will get to see you get married

I know I’m not alone when I say that this last twelve months have made me see who and what is important in my life and that is my closest family and friends. For me, I could definitely fit all my dearest people into a micro wedding! I have photographed ten micro weddings over the past year and let me tell you, the love in the room was incredible! The gathering of family and close friends means so much more now since we have been locked away for all this time. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room at every single wedding I’ve photographed since March 2020.

Not to sound morbid or anything but a lot of us also have close family that are older and the longer we postpone our weddings, the less likley it is that everyone will be around to see us take those vows, walk us down the aisle, or celebrate a marriage of two families.

2 Cost – Spend more on your honeymoon than your wedding!

There is no denying, weddings can get expensive! When you start planning a wedding, it can be so confusing. A whole world of event planning you didn’t really know existed until you start a pinterest account and then discover that you absolutely must have that donut wall and the floral arch for your ceremony, insane centre pieces for your 10 tables of 10 and not to mention the teepee filled with fairy lights and flowers! That’s before you even start to think about food and drink and a dress and a suit and bridesmaids! Oh the list goes on!

I’m here to tell you that you don’t need any of it – not really! You can totally minimise a wedding without it feeling like a compromise! You can pick and choose little extras to spend on, but the bottom line is – less guests, less cost!

Spend that extra £5k you saved on a lavish honeymoon to Santorini or the Maldives! I promise you, you will enjoy that way more!

3 Invite who you really want

Writing the guest list is the most challenging part to planning any wedding! It starts off small, and then before you know it, you’ve got a table of people that your parents went to school with, 7 plus ones you’ve never met, and we’ve all have that weird Uncle we were trying to avoid inviting! It is so tricky to try and make everyone happy. Maybe the best thing to come out of the pandemic? The fact that you can avoid trying to find excuses for not inviting all these extra guests that mount up.

Last Summer, I was regularly shooting weddings with 30 guests and they were awesome! You can still have your close family, your bridesmaids and groomsmen and your close friends too but you can avoid inviting all the extra people because you feel obliged to.

4 More time with your favourite people

Weddings of 100 people plus can be amazing, but they can also be exhausting for the couple getting married! That is a lot of people to make sure you say hello to and getting around all your guests whilst still enjoying your day with your closest people can be exhausting to say the least. By the time it gets to dancing, most couples need a nap!

With micro weddings, this is so much easier! You can spend more time having fun and enjoying your day, your canopes, your champagne and less time making sure you’ve had a chat with 100 different people in the space of 6 hours!

5 Less restriction on your wedding day

With big weddings at big venues, sometimes you have to stick to a schedule. This can be for all sorts of reasons, but it’s usually dictated by the venue to make sure they have the time to cater the food for such a large number of people. This, although understandable, can be a little stressful on the day and can make you feel like you are rushing with each aspect of your wedding.

With micro weddings, they are so much more relaxed. Even if things do run late, catering for 30 people is SO much easier than over 100 so time isn’t as restrictive. If you want to extend your drinks reception for an extra half hour, go for it! If you don’t want to do your first dance at bang on 7.30 – do it at 8 instead! It really is more in your control.

6 You can still have everything you want

You can still have the wedding you want with epic flowers, tons of confetti and your first dance! You can have it all! There is no reason why you can’t even now put in more things like this with a smaller ( and more affordable ) guestlist. Why not add in sparklers to end the evening? Or an acoustic musician for the drinks reception? Or maybe that badass neon sign as a backdrop to your ceremony? Be that extra bride if that’s what you want!! You can have your wedding exactly how you want it to be – even with a Micro Wedding!

7 Bigger is not better

Like I’ve mentioned before, bigger weddings with over 100 guests are not necessarily better weddings. In many ways, they can be more stressful, daunting and overwhelming. Most couples who have had a micro wedding have told me how comfortable they have been on their wedding day, how laid back everything was and more intimate the wedding felt. Because of this, micro weddings can feel so much more special. With recent rumours this week saying there may not be large scale events and weddings for many years, there is another reason to go ahead and get married this year with a smaller wedding, it can still be everything you’ve ever dreamed of and more!

8 The more you postpone, the more expensive your wedding will be

This may seem an obvious one but I still feel it’s important to point out. If you postpone your wedding to 2022 or even 2023, your venue and your wedding suppliers will cost more than they do this year.

To explain further, the wedding industry has taken a huge hit over the past twelve months – an industry made up predominantly of very small and independent businesses. Many of these businesses have had little or no help from the government to stay afloat. All these businesses still have their outgoing costs to keep running but making no income. It’s been really hard.

The wedding industry is also a very future focused industry, meaning that most weddings due to go ahead in 2020 were booked in 2018. If these postpone to 2022, the costs of booking each of these suppliers is going to have an increase on the price that was originally booked. Venues definitely put their prices up each year but I think all wedding businesses will be doing this for 2022 onwards.

9 Marry now, party later!

This was big in 2020 – the idea of actually getting legally married with a beautiful micro wedding ceremony with your nearest and dearest, then having a massive party when massive parties can go ahead! This you can do in so many wonderful ways too – you can elope just the two of you, to a mountain or a city! You can have an intimate blessing basically anywhere, outside, in a field, on top of a building, or at a venue. You can have a registry office ceremony, which in my eyes is massively underrated! There are so many options if you want to just be married to each other and how bloody romantic is that?!

10 It means you don’t have to postpone again!!

If this isn’t the most important reason to have a micro wedding in 2021, then I don’t know what is! I can’t say it enough, Micro weddings are awesome, romantic, intimate, chic and beautiful in every possible way!