Small weddings typically have guest lists of between 20 and 50 people, which allows for your nearest and dearest to be in attendance while also keeping numbers small enough that you should be able to actually spend some time with all of your guests.
They're a particularly nice option if you have very tight-knit families and a mix of different friend groups.
A small wedding might be perfect for you if you'd like to include the majority of your friends and family, and a lot of the typical wedding traditions, in your special day, but want to avoid the stress that comes with trying to coordinate extensive amounts of people to come together for one huge event.
Hosting a small wedding has a lot of the benefits of a micro wedding, with the added bonus of allowing you to include more of your loved ones in this big life milestone.
Just as with micro weddings, there's a lot of flexibility when it comes to small weddings - they can be as laidback or as fancy as you'd like them to be.
You could plan for 25 guests to attend a quick ceremony followed by dinner at a restaurant, or you could plan essentially a traditional wedding with all of the expected elements (full ceremony, cocktail hour, catered reception with entertainment, etc.) but scale it down to just 50 guests.
Either way, small weddings allow you to have a more personal and less stressful wedding experience, providing plenty of opportunities for you and your partner to connect with each other and with your guests.
Although medium weddings with guest lists between 75 and 100 are still the most popular wedding size in Australia, smaller weddings are gaining popularity. They've been on an upwards trend since the pandemic, as people put less stock in the big production aspects of larger weddings, have less free time to plan large scale events, and look to focus more on quality over quantity, putting more effort into creating a meaningful, emotional experience with close friends and family rather than staging a spectacle for their wedding day.
Hosting a smaller wedding also gives you the capability to invest in finer details, upgrades or customisations that create a higher quality, more personalised experience that just isn't possible with larger guest lists.
That may mean choosing a venue that isn't suited to larger groups but is perfect for a more intimate ceremony; having a more gourmet menu, as you're catering for less guests; getting bespoke wedding attire; or hiring unique reception entertainment that you couldn't if you had more guests.
A lot of vendors now offer packages for elopements, micro weddings and small weddings with inclusions and pricing that depend on the number of guests invited. It can be a good idea to look into these different packages and help use them as a guide for the scale of wedding that you'd like to host.
They can also help you figure out which events and traditions you'd like to include in your day - for example, how many hours will the photographer need to stay to capture all of the moments you'd like them to? Do you want a package that includes entertainment for a cocktail hour? Will you want styling for a sit down meal at a reception?
Seeing what's typically offered and the recommended timeframes that these vendors have for different sized weddings can really help you organise and plan your own day.
Alternatively, small weddings can be held at State Marriage Registries. The possibilities for ceremonies and the particulars for these will vary state by state, so make sure to check your local registries office website, but often they'll offer a package that's a relatively fuss free, cheaper option.
In Victoria, for example, you can have a 30 minute long, personalised wedding ceremony with a provided celebrant, the couple, a professional photographer and between 8 and 55 guests, depending on the room you choose.
This can be a fantastic choice if you want to avoid the fanfare and complexities of a larger wedding all together.
intimacy & connection
Having a small party size allows time for you to connect as a couple and to experience every part of the day together, while also spending meaningful time with each of your guests. It creates an environment where you can truly enjoy the company of your loved ones and bond without the stress of hosting a huge event and trying to manage a large crowd.
This sense of intimacy and closeness can amplify the emotions of the day and reinforce not only your love as a couple, but the love you both have with your closest family and friends.
lower cost
Small weddings are generally much cheaper than traditional weddings with large guest lists. You can avoid having to pay for a more spacious venue, and catering and drinks for so many extra guests, which are undoubtedly some of the most expensive parts of any wedding.
Small weddings allow you to strip your celebration back to the core things that are most important to you as a couple, allowing you to invest in finer details or upgrades that create a higher quality, more personalised experience - or to things outside the actual wedding day, such as your honeymoon, buying a home, or other experiences that you'd prefer to splash out on.
less stress
A smaller guest list also require a lot less coordinating between different people - from vendors to extended family to your bridal party. Keeping it small can make wedding planning much less stressful and easier to manage, and can stop you from getting too overwhelmed with all of the details and logistics required for larger weddings.
Having a smaller guest list can also mean that the timeframe for planning can be shorter than what's required for bigger events, as it's easier to coordinate smaller groups of people.
freedom & flexibility
Small weddings allow more flexibility than traditional weddings, and give you the freedom to make decisions without worrying about pleasing a wide array of people. It's easier to coordinate smaller guest lists, and keeping the invites low can allow you to have your wedding at some unique locations that just aren't suited for large groups.
With a small wedding, you're not locked in to the traditional wedding day schedule - you can skip the extra fuss of traditions that don't hold personal meaning for you, and avoid societal and familial/cultural expectations. Or, alternatively, you can include every single tradition and all of the stereotypical wedding day activities imaginable, because having a smaller guest list allows you more time throughout the day and is more budget-friendly.
Either way, having a small wedding lets you focus on having a wedding day that's exactly as you want it to be.
potential hurt feelings
In some ways, being excluded from an elopement or micro wedding may be easier for some people than being excluded from a small wedding; there's a difference between not being in the top 10 and not even making the top 50, you know?
There may be people in your extended family and wider friend groups who were expecting to be part of your wedding day and will be hurt when they hear that you've decided to have a small wedding and they didn't make the guest list. This can lead to tension in your relationships, as people re-evaluate how close you are to them.
Depending on your personal circumstances, you may be able to mitigate this somewhat if you explain the reasoning behind your decision to have a small wedding to them before you get married, so they're not finding out second-hand from others.
You could also try to find ways to include them in other, more casual, wedding-adjacent celebrations, such as by having a larger engagement party with more guests.
limited celebration
Having a small wedding means that you’re skipping the big traditional wedding celebration, which might be slightly disappointing when society has an expectation of weddings being a huge party. And even if you're deadset on wanting an intimate small wedding and don't enjoy being in the limelight with large groups, there may still be a sense that you're missing out on the joyous atmosphere that can come from celebrating a milestone event with a larger group of loved ones.
The limited guest list can make small weddings more subdued affairs, rather than the raucous parties that larger weddings can be, but that does depend on the personalities you invite - and if you're interested in a small wedding, you may be looking for a more relaxed, calmer celebration rather than a late-night rager, anyway.
A small wedding is a perfect choice for couples who value intimacy and flexibility for their big day.
You can choose to include aspects of a traditional wedding day, such as a full ceremony, cocktail hour, catered reception with entertainment, etc. or you can keep things super simple and have a legal ceremony before sharing a meal with your nearest and dearest.
A small wedding provides more flexibility in guest numbers while still allowing you to pick and choose which aspects of a wedding day are important to you as a couple, and how you want to share them with your closest loved ones, making it a wonderful choice for a modern wedding.
Once you get above 50 guests and into medium wedding size territory, the logistics of planning the event get a little more complicated. You can read the next article in this series for more info about the pros and cons of having a medium wedding.
