If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 1,000 times in the last 6 months-- but my favorite wedding that I ever planned had a guest count of 19 people.
Years before any of us had ever heard of COVID-19, I met a bride-to-be at a wedding show. She and her sister were BOTH engaged and planning their weddings for the following year. Their father had given them each a set amount of money, and told them that they could choose to spend all of the money on a wedding, or could choose instead, to use a portion of the sum for their weddings and the remainder to help pay for a car or a downpayment on a house.
Sister #1 used the full amount from her parents and threw a beautiful soiree in a ballroom with a band and 200+ guests. Sister #2 chose to have an intimate wedding with 19 people in their backyard. While the guest count of wedding #2 was limited, the attention to detail was fully present and accounted for.
When helping couples with their budgets, the first thing we look at is the number of guests. You can have $100K to spend, but if you want to invite 300 people, your wedding is not going to appear as though it cost $100K. That is not to say that the day won’t be beautiful, but to put it simply-- things add up quickly when you multiply them by 300.
If you go to the rental company, for example, and fall in love with tablecloths that cost $33 each, that means you’re going to spend close to $1000 on guest tablecloths alone-- before you ever place a plate or centerpiece on them.
If you have a guest count of 50 however, and you use that same tablecloth, it’s $165. Yall, I’m not a mathematician, but even I can see how much further the budget can go when you have fewer guests in attendance.
Now before I go on, let me just say that I get it. I had a wedding with 200+ people split between two separate days so it felt less overwhelming. But at the end of the day, we were still feeding 200+ people, paying for 2x the entertainment, amenities, etc.-- and that adds up quickly.
But on C’s wedding day, we were able to create a completely personalized and intimate celebration with their closest friends and family. They weren’t worried about ‘making their rounds’, or if family photos ran longer than expected. Every guest shared a memory of the couple during dinner, and enjoyed course after course of beautifully prepared food paired with wines and specialty cocktails.
The evening was exactly what the couple wanted-- a celebration with their closest friends and family. Not once did they complain about the stress of the day or needed help navigating drama among family members.
I say all of that to say this-- just because having weddings of 130+ people is ‘the norm’, doesn’t mean it has to be what your wedding looks like. We have had so many couples that have been forced to downsize their wedding days due to COVID and as it turned out, they were grateful for it because it was much more closely aligned with what they had actually envisioned for their day.
It is our job to execute your vision. Not your moms, or your best friends-- but yours. Whether you want 25 people or 250 present when you say I do, we just want to be sure it’s the day you pictured for yourself. And if that picture in your head is a handful of your closest friends and family, we’re more than happy to help you bring that vision to life!