How To Plan The Perfect Intimate Wedding

What is an intimate wedding?

Think bespoke. Personal. Private.

An intimate wedding is typically smaller than a traditional wedding, with less guests, taking up a shorter amount of time and with less extravagance, for the most part. Intimate weddings allow you to focus on a guestlist of your nearest and dearest without the hangers-on or periphery family members etc. The timetable of your day is flexible, meaning you can customise your wedding to your taste, style, priorities and preferences.

Don’t want speeches, no problem. Scrapping the aisle, hurrah. Less people to pay for, sign us up.

A small intimate wedding opens up an array of possibilities that are not possible with larger, grander weddings. The perfect place for a smaller wedding is an intimate wedding venue, a special place to you and your partner or somewhere that may not necessarily do weddings even. Choose to get married at a registry office and have a private and decadent party to celebrate with loved ones afterwards or pick a unique wedding venue that caters to smaller numbers and plan your wedding itinerary to fit around you. Opt for a twilight wedding and make the most of your morning beforehand with no rush to get down the aisle.

Intimate weddings are growing in popularity not only for the reasons above but for the saving on time, cost, planning and waste. It’s no wonder that more and more couples are seeking smaller, more private and more affordable wedding venues to celebrate their special days.

Benefits of an intimate wedding

We’ve touched on a few of the benefits of intimate weddings above but here are more reasons why scaling down your special day will create a truly unforgettable experience for both you and those you share it with.

Atmosphere

Traditional weddings can be big and busy, and often you have to fight to get a glimpse the special couple, let alone a cuddle! A smaller wedding allows for a more relaxed atmosphere and more time for catching up with the newlyweds. Intimate weddings offer the opportunity for a more personal experience for everyone attending.

Cost

Typically, an intimate wedding will have far fewer guests. This means the ceremony itself can be intimate, can involve more people and can be special for everyone invited. Any celebration meals afterwards are for less people, meaning more interaction amongst guests, more quality time with each and every person you have invited and as mentioned above, a more informal atmosphere overall.

Privacy

Share your special day with your special people. An intimate wedding at a small intimate venue gives you far more privacy than a larger wedding at a production-line venue. Be selective with your guestlist and consider a social media ban and your wedding day will be free from distraction, intruders or troublemakers.

Flexibility

Your wedding, your way. Take ownership of your own itinerary and allocate enough time on your special day for the things you care about. Have food first then get married, or opt for a twilight wedding instead, with a lazy morning and party the night away afterwards.

Less Waste

For those couples who are passionate about living a sustainable lifestyle, large weddings can be wasteful with much of the decoration discarded after use, wedding attire only worn once and quantities of uneaten food thrown out. An intimate wedding provides a great opportunity to think about how you want to celebrate and how you can reduce the waste produced by your special day. Less guests inevitably means less waste.

How to create your own intimate wedding

Here are our suggestions for intimate wedding ideas to make the most of your once-in-a-lifetime wedding day.

· Venue – choose an intimate wedding venue, such as The Lawrence, for a unique Lancashire wedding venue that offers a bespoke wedding package.

· Officiator – a celebrant officiating your ceremony is a more personal and more relaxed way to say your vows in front of your nearest and dearest.

· Guestlist – keep it short! That was one good thing to come out of COVID-19. Limiting wedding guest numbers, whilst inconvenient for those experiencing it showed us that less can be more when it comes to who to invite along to you wedding day.

· Styling – investing in a wedding stylist will make smaller spaces look magical, providing a stunning backdrop for whatever you choose to do on your day.

· Itinerary – think about what matters most and how you want to spend this special time. Your wedding venue will help you put together a timetable that works best for you.

· Budget – see our blog on How to Plan your Budget Wedding for suggestions on how to prioritise your budget, save money on unimportant parts and where to splurge.