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If you're scaling back your wedding to 20-60 people, you may feel like that's too intimate. It may feel a bit easier to plan but I recommend still hiring a planner. We have all the ideas and the forethought to make it feel like you are at your wedding. So let's begin! Here are 7 Tips to Make Your Wedding Feel Like a Real Wedding.
Photo by Ryan Hamilton Photography
Choose a venue who can accommodate the size of your wedding with a dance floor. - It can't be too crowded or too large or else it will feel "off" somehow. You'll need something to accommodate such an intimate seating arrangement. Your wedding planner and coordinator should be able to help you with this step!
Go big with the decor and flowers - you're going to want to see the place and think "wedding". There's no better way to do that than to bring in all the pretty. Flowers at weddings just go hand in hand, and if you're wanting to deviate from just another party, go big with the florals.
Make it personal - Since your wedding is smaller, you can make things personalized with escort cards, table names, pretty tablescapes, and edibles on the tables. Think about the scent of the room, coming off the tables, and take home favors.
Something to do at every hour - Right after the ceremony, open the bar, pass out hor dourves have the music playing, for sure. After dinner, run the formal dances and open the dance floor instantly. Don't get stale energy, let's keep things moving.
Have a professional DJ or MC- A less than ideal MC who lives for random awkward pauses, ear piercing sound checks, yell at the guests to move their bodies, and play music loud will not go over too well with a smaller, intimate crowd. Something more intentional and who can read the crowd is better. Don't have dancing going on? Plan for a professional musician to speak to the crowd and play throughout dinner and cocktails.
Have a super-awesome officiant - With a smaller wedding, you're going to want that ceremony to be worth the trek. If your officiant knows what they are doing, it's going to be a very special ceremony. That's the reason why we're all here, isn't that right? Let's have someone professional to create that ambiance from the start.
Have an event enhancer - Photo booths, uplights, spotlights, and a professional vendors such as a musicians, cigar wrap vendors, or perhaps rent an audio guestbook since the book won't be filled in all the way, any way :)
That's it! I have plenty of wedding planner secrets of my sleeve but I can't give them all away... right?
My number 1 reason for thinking every intimate wedding needs a planner is because it is WAY harder to make a wedding out of a smaller crowd than it is for a larger one. Why? Because larger groups always make the place feel full, like a party. Smaller weddings tend to break off into smaller groups, or feel somewhat sweet yet informal. You have to do extra things in order to make it feel like a wedding, an that's why I think planners are helpful. We can read the room and plan for all the things!
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