With the new social distancing regulations in place, it is the perfect time to plan an Intimate Wedding. Whilst there has been a growing trend for smaller, more intimate weddings, I predict 2021 is going to see a massive rise in this style of wedding.

advice on how to plan your intimate wedding

What is an Intimate Wedding?

An intimate wedding is classed as a small wedding with up to 30 guests. Other than that the rest is completely up to you and the same principles apply as if you were holding a larger wedding.

intimate church wedding

Why have an Intimate Wedding?

One of the key reasons at the moment is that you can practice Social distancing due to COVID in a more controlled way. Therefore, making it possible to have your wedding and get married full stop! Another reason is that you can have a lower cost wedding but a higher quality wedding. Quality over quantity! Spreading your wedding budget across fewer guests means you can invest in a better photographer/dress/menu. If you are undecided on your guest list then having a select number of your most amazing friends and family is a really special way to celebrate. How often have you been to a wedding with a 100+ guests and found you haven’t actually spent any time with the happy couple? Let alone had a conversation with them.

Another great reason to have an intimate wedding is if you are keen on having a destination wedding, or getting married in an area not close to your home. This way you can have a small number of guests to either treat to the whole cost of accommodation and/travel or pay towards some of their costs. With intimate, destination weddings it is also really popular to then combine your wedding with a holiday away (or even your honeymoon afterwards). You can then spend more time celebrating with your guests. Intimate weddings are also perfect if you have fragmented friendship groups, you are not marrying for the first time or you have limited/no family you wish to be there.

intimate church wedding norfolk

small wedding norfolk

norfolk wedding

Step-by Step Guide on How to Plan an Intimate Wedding.

  1. Set your budget – exactly as you would for any wedding and you can find help and advice in this blog.
  2. Pick your location – whether this is overseas or in the UK
  3. Think about your guest list.
  4. Decide on the type of legal wedding you would like – registrars office/licensed premises/religious ceremony.
  5. What style of venue would you like? Hotel/outdoors/period property/exclusive use property/restaurant etc. This blog has some useful tips for picking your perfect wedding venue.

Intimate wedding in Heydon

Once you have some ideas based on the above you can begin working through the rest of your wedding planning. Picking a venue will be pivotal to your day and with smaller guest numbers you may need to get a little more creative with your options. Unfortunately many of the more typical wedding venues have minimum numbers which may be outside of your guest number and incur an additional surcharge.

Heydon village hall

The Drawbacks of an Intimate Wedding.

One of the main drawbacks of planning an intimate wedding is that you only have a small number of guests  to celebrate with. You can always get around this by having a separate party to celebrate at a later date with a bigger group of guests. Finding a suitable venue is also a little more of a challenge so I would advise you to be open-minded and get creative. Look for venues with private rooms or small function rooms which you could transfer into a suitable celebration space.

norfolk destination wedding