Micro elopement style weddings are becoming a lot more popular. Let’s face it, you save yourself a lot of money, logistics and potential family politics the smaller you go. It also means you can get super creative with where you go!
We knew we wanted a small wedding, but I think neither of us had thought it would lead to a small elopement wedding on a mountaintop in New Zealand!
Micro elopement wedding planning tips:
- Make sure to make your wedding celebration 100% what you and your partner want! It can be hard to disappoint people in your life who may not understand what you want to do for your wedding or why, but let’s face it – they don’t need to get it! It’s YOUR day and make sure that you will enjoy it and treasure it forever.
- Work out your format. We decided on a small elopement style wedding outdoors with just the 2 of us followed by a 2 week honeymoon. We then had a small party for our closest friends and family when we came back to share photos and videos from our big day and honeymoon. As many of our friends and family live overseas, we also had a blog where we shared the lead up to the wedding, the wedding day and highlights from the honeymoon. We had so many people ‘come along’ this was and their comments and appreciation of sharing our adventure was amazing!
- Think about the location. We started by narrowing down the format and then researched locations that would match our outdoor ceremony ambitions. We wanted to do our honeymoon in New Zealand, so we mainly looked at companies and locations near Queenstown that would fit the bill.
For the party when we got back we aimed for a smaller venue that would comfortably fit about 30 people and would allow us to bring our own cake and drinks etc. - Lock in your budget. Even a small wedding can be expensive, so make sure to start with a realistic ballpark budget and then start getting your quotes. Once you know what things cost you can start culling things and focusing in on the things that are most important to you. My dress and shoes for example cost less than $200 all up, but I was happy to splurge on some other things (like having hair and makeup professionally done). Because it’s YOUR day, you really can choose whatever you want!
- Get clear on your timing. We knew roughly the time of year we wanted to go to New Zealand (end of summer season) so I just checked with a few local companies what they had available during that time. We ended up getting married on a Thursday, which was easier to secure (as weekends tend to book up faster). The more specific you are with your date and location, the earlier you’ll need to book (sometimes up to a year in advance).
If you had a micro or elopement style wedding, please comment below!