Micro wedding planning: a guide for 50 guests or fewer

A micro wedding is a full wedding for a small crowd: a ceremony, a meal and the people who matter most, usually 50 guests or fewer. It isn't an elopement and it isn't a cut-down version of a big wedding. You still have a venue, vendors, a guest list and a day with a shape to it. There's just less of each, so every choice goes further.

This guide covers what changes when the list is short: the budget, the guest list, the venue, the timeline and a checklist you can run in six months or less.

What counts as a micro wedding?

There's no official number, but most people mean these:

• Micro wedding: about 10 to 50 guests, with a ceremony and a reception, often in one place.
• Intimate or small wedding: up to about 75, planned much like a larger one.
• Elopement: just the two of you, or a few witnesses, and very little to organise. Our guide to how to plan an elopement covers that.

What makes a micro wedding is that everyone fits around one long table or a handful of round ones, and you can speak to every guest during the day.

Why couples choose one

• The money goes further per guest. The same budget that buys a buffet for 150 buys a long dinner with good wine for 40.
• More venues say yes. Restaurants, private dining rooms, galleries, gardens, a family home or a rented house, none of which could seat 150.
• Less to plan. Fewer invitations, fewer RSVPs to chase and a seating chart that takes an evening, not a month.
• More time with the guests. You can talk to every table, not just wave at them.

The trade-off is the guest list: a short list means saying no to people you'd like there. That's the decision to make first.

1. Set the budget

A micro wedding isn't automatically cheap. The per-guest costs (food, drink, rentals, stationery) shrink with the list, but the fixed costs don't: a photographer, the outfits, the rings, hair and makeup and the officiant cost much the same for 30 guests as for 130. So a small wedding's cost per guest is usually higher, even when its total is lower.

Work it out in this order:

1. The total. What the two of you can put in, plus what family has offered as an amount. Our guide to setting a wedding budget walks through finding the real number.
2. The fixed costs. List the things you'll pay for whatever the headcount, and price them.
3. What's left per guest. Take the fixed costs and a buffer off the total, then divide by the guests you expect. That's the figure to compare a restaurant's per-head menu against.

The free budget calculator splits a total into categories and shows the cost per guest as you go. With a short list, expect food and drink to take a bigger share than the usual guides suggest, and decor and favors a smaller one: a dinner for 40 doesn't need a ballroom's worth of flowers.

Where a small wedding can spend more:

• The meal. A plated dinner or a tasting menu instead of a buffet.
• The photographer's time. Fewer guests means more of the day is portraits and candid moments.
• The guests themselves. A welcome drink the night before, a brunch the morning after, or covering a few guests' rooms.

2. Write the guest list

With 50 places or fewer, the list is the wedding, and the usual rules of thumb get stricter. A method that works:

• Start with a number, not names. Agree the total first, from the budget and the venue.
• Each of you writes your list separately. Then add them up. If it's over, you both cut by the same share.
• Use one rule for each group. For example: family you'd see at a holiday, friends you've seen this year, no plus-ones unless the couple lives together, no children except the immediate family's. A rule is easier to explain than a decision about one person.
• Count households, not people. One invitation covers a couple or a family. It's also how the invitations, the RSVPs and the seating chart work.

Our guide to the wedding guest list has more on who to invite and how to say no kindly. The free guest count calculator checks a headcount against the budget and the room, and estimates how many people will actually come.

Expect a higher yes rate than a large wedding's. When every guest is close family or a close friend, plan on 90 percent or more attending, so don't invite beyond what the room holds and count on declines to make space.

If anyone asks, a simple line helps: "We're keeping it very small, just immediate family and a few close friends." Some couples follow a small wedding with a relaxed party later for everyone else.

3. Choose the venue

A short list opens up places a large wedding can't use:

• A restaurant's private room, with the food, staff, tables and bar already there. Often the simplest choice.
• A rented house or cabin, where the ceremony, dinner and stay are in one place.
• A garden, park or gallery, with a caterer and rentals brought in. Check what a permit costs and whether there's a rain plan.
• A family home, which is free to use but adds the work of rentals, parking and cleaning up.

Ask every venue the same questions, especially about a minimum spend: many restaurants and venues set a minimum for a private room, and with a small group you may need to spend up to it. Our guide to questions to ask a wedding venue has the list, and the free venue scorecard compares venues side by side.

4. Plan the day's timeline

A micro wedding's day is shorter and looser, and often happens in one place. A typical shape for a 4 PM ceremony:

Time	What happens
1:00 PM	Getting ready, photographer arrives
3:00 PM	Portraits of the two of you
3:45 PM	Guests arrive
4:00 PM	Ceremony, about 20 minutes
4:30 PM	Family photos and drinks
5:30 PM	Dinner, with toasts between courses
8:00 PM	Cake, a first dance if you want one, and the evening
10:00 PM	Send-off

With a small group you can drop what doesn't suit you: a receiving line isn't needed when you'll speak to everyone at dinner, and toasts between courses keep the meal moving. Our guide to the wedding day timeline explains how to build one from the ceremony time, and the free timeline maker drafts the day and prints it for the photographer and the venue.

5. A micro wedding checklist

Six months is plenty for a micro wedding, and three can work. This is the order:

Six months before

• Agree the budget, the guest count and the date.
• Book the venue, then the photographer.
• Write the guest list and collect addresses.

Four months before

• Book the officiant, and the caterer if the venue doesn't provide one.
• Choose outfits and order the rings.
• Send save-the-dates, especially if anyone is travelling.

Two months before

• Send the invitations, with a reply-by date about four weeks before the wedding.
• Book hair and makeup, flowers and any rentals.
• Check the marriage license rules where you're marrying. Our guide to wedding legal paperwork covers the steps.

One month before

• Chase the last RSVPs and give the venue the final headcount.
• Make the seating plan, if you're using one.
• Write the day's timeline and send it to every vendor.

The week of the wedding

• Get the marriage license, if you haven't already.
• Pack for the day, and prepare tips and final payments in envelopes.
• Hand the timeline and the vendors' numbers to whoever is helping on the day.

The free wedding checklist has the full list dated back from your wedding day. On a short timeline, skip what doesn't apply to a small wedding rather than squeezing it in.

Ideas that suit a small wedding

• One long table for everyone, with you in the middle.
• A family-style meal, with dishes passed around the table.
• Handwritten place cards or a short note at each seat.
• Readings or a few words from guests during the ceremony, which is easier when everyone can hear.
• A weekend instead of a day: a welcome dinner, the wedding and a brunch, when most guests are travelling.

Plan a micro wedding in Linenfold

A micro wedding fits comfortably in Linenfold's free plan, which holds up to 75 guest households. The guest list, the budget, the checklist, the Wedding Day timeline, the seating plan, the RSVP page and both of your packing lists are free. Complete adds what a bigger plan needs, like the payment log, more vendors, and sending save-the-dates and invitations by email; see the pricing page for each plan.

Start with the free budget calculator, then create a free account to keep the budget, guest list and checklist in one place.