Planning a Small Wedding: The Benefits

Weddings are big business in America.  Go to any bookstore and you’ll see all sort of magazines aimed at prospective brides, and each and every one of them is filled with pages and pages of advertising from companies hoping to make money from your wedding ceremony.  And there’s nothing wrong with that; they’re meeting needs for people who want their services.  But don’t feel pressured to have a large, extravagant, expensive wedding because of an image you’ve grown up with about what “the perfect wedding” looks like.  You don’t have to conform to that image, and in today’s tough economic times, planning a small wedding makes a lot of sense.

First off, by planning a small wedding, you’ll save a lot of money, possibly even tens of thousands of dollars.  The cost of the average wedding in America just keep climbing year after year, and a traditional ceremony can be extremely expensive.  Did you know that a typical price per guest for a traditional wedding reception is getting close to $100 per person?  And it can go much higher than that.  If you’re having 200 guests, which is fairly typical, you’re looking at close to twenty thousand dollars spent just on the guests.  That doesn’t include the cost of other big ticket expenses such as the bridal gown or the photographer.  Whether you’re paying for it yourself, or your parents are springing for it, or you and the groom are chipping in together, that is an awful lot of money to spend to declare your life long love for another person.

Second, planning a small wedding can make the experience even more unforgettable, and more enjoyable, while taking a lot of the stress out of a wedding.  With a big crowd, many of whom will no doubt be strangers to yourself, the pressure to have everything just perfect will be a lot higher.  Making a mistake in front of a big crowd full of strangers can be mortifying; making the same mistake in front of a small group of friends and family can be endearing.  And you’ll have more time to spend with each guest when you have a small wedding, and you’ll be able to show just how much their presence means to you when they’re not rushing through a receiving line.

For those two reasons alone, a small wedding has a lot to offer over the big, traditional wedding ceremony.  And it’s your day, and so it should be your decision.  Don’t let anyone pressure you into having a big wedding if you prefer a small, intimate one.