Your wedding day is a day you dream of all of your life. With the ever-growing expectation placed on brides, grooms and their families to deliver a memorable celebration, however, planning your wedding can quickly become stressful. The larger your guest list, the more food, chairs, favors and decorations needed. When you get caught up in the details of planning your special day, sometimes the “special” gets lost, and you may find it hard to focus on what the wedding is really about: you found a partner to spend the rest of your life with. While there is nothing wrong with the desire to have a large wedding, there are many benefits to having a small, intimate event.
Smaller Wedding, Smaller Budget
Even if you can afford a $50,000 wedding, that may not be how you want to spend your resources. You may prefer to keep that money in your savings account or put it toward a down payment on your dream home. While your wedding day is certainly a special day that you deserve to celebrate, the budget can quickly add up! The fewer guests you have at your wedding, the less you will be required to spend on décor, food and drinks.
Fewer Guests, Less Stress
You have already made the commitment to spend the rest of your life with the man or woman you have fallen in love with. While you are ready to wed, you may not be crazy about the idea of a room full of people, many of whom you may not know very well. When you have a large audience, including distant relatives and old family friends you rarely talk to, it can take away from the intimacy and add stress to your special day. When your wedding is large, you also feel more pressure to invite people out of obligation rather than the true desire for them to share in your precious memories.
More Meaningful, Less Show
When your wedding is small, it can feel more intimate for both you and your guests. With a small wedding, you can focus less of your attention on the type of china, size of cake or type of flower in the decorations and more on the connection between you and the one you love.
Opens the Door for a Destination Wedding
While a destination wedding can certainly be expensive, there are many resorts, hotels and even cruise lines that offer affordable destination wedding packages. With a destination wedding, you won’t have to travel to your honeymoon; you’re already there!
A small wedding can include your bridal party and immediate family, or 50 or fewer of your closest friends and family. While it can be difficult to narrow your invite list, remember that this is your special day; it should be planned in a way that will be most meaningful for you and your husband- or wife-to-be. Keep in mind that if your wedding is small and intimate, you can still have an engagement or wedding reception at a later date with a larger group of your friends and family. Whatever you choose to do for your wedding, be sure the day feels as special as possible to mark the beginning of your new life!
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Fred Swanson writes on wedding themes, marriage, relationships, celebrity divorces and other topics as well; for more information on wedding gowns, dresses and other items visit Terry Costa.
Image credit goes to churcy.