Top 5 Reasons to Have a Micro Wedding

After the initial glow and excitement of getting engaged starts ebb, you realize it’s time to start actually planning your wedding.  From wedding venues to planners to photographers, there is a lot to consider when planning your big day and the budget is the FIRST place you want to start.   Once you know how much to allocate for your celebration, you can determine all the rest of the pieces. 

According to TheKnot.com, the average wedding in Arizona costs nearly $29,400.  The largest part of most wedding budgets is the venue, followed closely by food (depending on the number of guests) you have.  Photographers, entertainment or DJs, flowers, and more only add to this growing wedding budget.  If you’re like most couples in Arizona today, you’re probably trying to balance throwing a wedding, going on a honeymoon, and buying a house.  Maybe you’ve considered just skipping the wedding entirely, but we think that micro-weddings are the perfect answer to out-of-control wedding budgets for a myriad of reasons!

1.        Cutting your Guest Count makes a World of Difference

Micro weddings are defined by having fewer attendees which means most people cut their guest lists.  It makes total sense why these options have become some of the most popular options in the wedding world since the quickest way to reduce the cost is to decrease the guest count!  With lower headcounts, you can save tons of money on catering since food is typically charged per person.  You also need fewer rentals like chairs, tables, linens, etc for fewer guests.  You also need to spend far less on your bar tab with a smaller guest count!  If you’re thinking strictly in terms of budget, micro weddings should be a top consideration for your wedding planning.

2.       Getting Your Priorities Straight

Smaller weddings also mean you can prioritize your funds in a more meaningful way.  You can splurge on the experience for the small group in attendance.   Instead of settling for basic meal options because they are more affordable and can feed 100+ guests, you can have more luxurious wedding menus.  You can also prioritize your time much better too! If you have to mingle with hundreds of wedding guests, you don’t have as much time to spend with your new spouse.  Those precious moments during the ceremony and reception are ones you can’t get back.  You definitely want to enjoy all the special pieces you put together for your big day.  A smaller wedding truly helps with that.

3.       Fewer Travelling Guests

With air-travel- especially international travel- being a volatile topic, it makes the prospect of travelling for weddings more chaotic and expensive.  When you cut the guest count from hundreds to handfuls, you usually have more local attendees and fewer out of town guests.  It also reduces the need to worry about friends and family travelling from all over the world and gathering in big crowds if you’re still reticent about COVID exposure and procedures. 

4.       Creative and Unique Options

When you have a smaller wedding, you can spend more on the customized pieces that make the wedding unique to you and your fiancé.  Whether it’s special centerpieces, elaborate backdrops, special food options, you can go big because you aren’t filling a ballroom or decorating for hundreds of people.  Take for example the Meander Gatherings metro van.  This unique backdrop adds a stunning level of country to chic to your event and our Higley location adds other country settings for stunning pictures you rarely find in Arizona.

 5.       Done-for-you Micro Wedding Packages

A growing number of wedding professionals are also seeing the benefit to packaging their services for smaller events.  Photographers might offer smaller timeframes for pop-up weddings or elopements.  Officiants typically do something similar and can usually travel to different areas for these types of events.  Wedding planners for pop-up weddings and options like the Meander Gatherings metro van make it easy to pick the package right for you.  Usually these pop-up and micro wedding packages offer customization and enabling you to make it special but also uniquely yours!

If you’ve read this far, you likely identify with some of these reasons and you’re probably ready to hear more about specific packages.  Our team would be happy to chat with you about our Meander Gatherings options and how to make the most out of your micro-wedding.  Whether you’re looking to stay in the Gilbert area for your wedding or if you’d like us to bring the metro van to another beautiful Arizona backdrop for a pop-up wedding, we’d love to see how we can help alleviate stress, reduce costs and make your wedding magical.