Why Many Couples Ditch Big Traditional Weddings for Intimate Weddings and Elopements

When all else fails, be true to what you really want.

As wedding planners for couples who dream of getting married in Europe, this is the advice that we always give.

It is most applicable when couples are pressed for time in planning their big day or they fall short of the wedding budget that they cannot stick to the original plan.

When faced with this problem, cutting your guest list would be the most logical thing to do. Otherwise, you’d have to sacrifice some wedding elements that matter the most to you like venue styling or your wedding dress. What a nightmare, isn’t it?

Most couples these days would not want to make sacrifices like these so they’re choosing a wiser option instead – a small intimate wedding.

The Guest List problem

We cannot be more accurate when we say this – 99% of couples who are planning their wedding have the same major headache – THE guest list.

This element is the real deal breaker, especially when you realize that you cannot afford to invite all the people who are initially included in your mental guest list.

And because of this stressful part of wedding planning, more and more couples are gearing towards a small intimate wedding rather than a traditional one with guests ranging from 100-200.

Allow us to discuss with you the reasons we often hear from couples who ask us to plan their elopement or intimate wedding in Europe.

You can spend on the elements you love the most

You wouldn’t want to sacrifice the beauty of your wedding dress only to cut costs, would you?

Sadly, some of the brides who are getting married the traditional way have to do it so they can give their guests a wonderful feast after the ceremony. Some had to settle with a lesser kind of bouquet only to allocate a chunk of the budget to pay for venue styling.

But when you choose to have an intimate wedding for around 20 persons, you can prioritize your wedding gown and the bouquet because you won’t need to spend too much for venue styling or for the dinner party .

Only the best for the most important people in your life

Not spending too much for catering is an automatic consequence of cutting your guest list. 20-50 guests is a far cry from 100-150, which is the ordinary headcount for a traditional wedding.

When you go for a small wedding, you don’t simply cut the number of people invited. You are also giving yourself an opportunity to pamper the people who really mean so much to you.

In the case of our wedding packages for Northern Ireland, Italy, Germany, Ireland, and France, we can arrange a dinner reservation for 10-20 people in an awesome restaurant where you and your favorite people can all enjoy sumptuous European cuisines the grandest way possible.

With a lean and mean guest list, you can splurge on the dinner party, choice of wines, wonderful desserts, or hotel accommodations for your beloved friends and family.

You can be detail-oriented

Wedding planning always begins with specific preferences until it dwindles down to generic choices. That’s how it goes for traditional weddings.

At the start of the process, you’ll think of customizing wedding favors according to each guest’s preferences. But as you go along, you’d realize that this will be a logistical nightmare because you have over a hundred guests to consider.

At first, you’ll think about styling the reception tables with specific decorations that you love but as the wedding day approaches, the budget gets tighter too, and all that you can do is to drop the first plan and go for a cheaper option.

This is not the same story with intimate weddings. You can have personalized wedding favors because you’ll only have 20 or 30 guests. You can put your preferred decorations on the dinner table because you’ll have only one or two by the way.

You can be as detail-oriented as you want with an intimate wedding because you’ll have a smaller crowd to accommodate. It will be easier to plan and less stressful to arrange.

You can fly them to a destination spot abroad

Another cool thing about an intimate wedding is that you can allocate a part of your budget to plane tickets and hotel accommodations for your loved ones in a far-off land!

Imagine getting married in Venice, Italy and flying your favorite people with you in this romantic country for an intimate wedding.

Instead of spending too much on a feast for 100 people, you can allocate that amount to buying plane tickets for your loved ones.

If that’s still too expensive for you, then you can request your favourite people to buy their own plane tickets while you pay for their accommodation and the expenses for the ceremony and reception. Experience all these conveniences while you enjoy a meaningful wedding in a breathtaking European destination spot!

If you’re wondering why elopements and intimate weddings are fast becoming a trend specially for millennials, just look back on the reasons we’ve mentioned above.

Who knows,  you might just convince yourself that this is the way to go even for you!