Micro weddings, elopements, or minimonies (yes, there really is a word!) are the most intimate of celebrations. Having a small wedding means that you don’t have to keep postponing. Enjoy the journey and your dream wedding will become the reality. This will be the best day of your lives. Our 5 top tips to help you plan your micro wedding:
1. Think big on a intimate, mini wedding scale
This is one of the most important days you will ever have to plan so we say “go all out to make it amazing.” All love stories are beautiful and yours is going to be the best. It doesn’t have to be a big wedding to appear big!
You may be having an intimate wedding but you can keep all the traditions you always wanted – your exquisite dress, your favourite flowers in the colours you have always wanted, a photographer to capture every moment of your day and the awe-inspiring wedding cake that looks and tastes fantastic.
2 Your small wedding venue and other creative plans
Once current restrictions are eased, venues will want to help you create your dream wedding. Choose the venue to suit your small wedding. Talk to their wedding coordinator about potentially holding your ceremony in a more intimate setting, which might not be their traditional space. Did you know some venues e.g The Barnyard at Upchurch hold twilight weddings? How romantic to be married by candlelight.
Instead of separate tables, choose fine dining, where you and your guests (carefully socially distanced where necessary of course) can sit around one large table. This allows you to sit with all of your guests and talk to them, a much more relaxed and intimate feel to your reception, rather like having a dinner party, just on a larger scale and definitely more elaborate. Go to town with your table settings, have an abundance of flowers and candles creating a stunning dining experience. The table design for Yewande and Harry designed by Miriam Faith at The Landmark in London was exactly like that.
If your venue is using their traditional wedding room, arrange with them to create a more intimate space, perhaps by having a beautiful backdrop or screen making everything feel that bit more special. Many venues offer micro wedding packages now.
3 Extra special guests
The guests you invite to your small wedding will be those who mean the absolute most to you. You may have had your heart set on a large guest list, but your small group of guests will make your day even more special. During the marriage ceremony your guests could sit carefully around you allowing them to really feel part of your day.
Although it’s regrettable not everyone can be with you, ask your photographer or videographer to live stream your wedding ceremony. Everyone is a Zoom expert now and they too can become part of your glorious day.
It’s been amazing to hear from couples, such as Victoria and Glen who held their intimate micro wedding at The Orangery, Kent. They said that they thought it might be sad having such a small wedding with so many of their friends and family not able to come, and other plans derailed, but actually it probably made it a lot more touching and meaningful, especially since they hadn’t seen some of the guests for months.
4 Statement wedding cake
Do you need a wedding cake? Yes, of course you do. Cutting your cake is a tradition that you must not miss out on! You may be having a small wedding, but your cake doesn’t have to be. You want the wedding cake of your dreams and if this is a four tier extravaganza, then have it. In fact, it doesn’t even have to be all real cake. This is where dummy cakes (imitation tiers) come into their own. They are iced and decorated exactly as the other tiers of your cake. Only you and your venue need to know.
If you decide your cake is going to be a single or two tier cake, include the most amazing oversized stunning sugar flowers that really give you the dramatic ‘wow’ centrepiece you want.
For those guests you’re unable to invite in person you can send slices of your dazzling wedding cake to them, perhaps with a beautiful photo of you both cutting the cake. For those guests you’re unable to invite in person send slices of your dazzling wedding cake to them, perhaps with a beautiful photo of you both cutting the cake.
Your wedding cake is a huge part of your planning and preparation. Talk to us, your wedding cake makers, who are here to help you design and create the cake you want. Choose the most exquisite, handmade sugar flowers that we’ll have made petal by sugar petal especially for you. Of course, you can keep these forever. Have an amazing party to celebrate your first wedding anniversary and your sugar flowers will still look beautiful added to the cake we can create for that special day too.
Why not give each guest an individual mini cake? You can have a single tier cake for you to cut and the mini cakes for your guests. The impact of giving each guest their own cake is not only a delightful surprise, but a lovely gift to remember your wedding day.
A small wedding still includes tasting scrumptious flavours, discussing your wedding cake, seeing your sugar flowers come to life. You’re not going to miss out on any of this.
5 You’re getting married!
Your wedding is about the both of you whether in an intimate setting of a small country house in Kent or in the grandest of ballrooms in London. A small wedding gives you the perfect opportunity to really enjoy every part of your wedding preparation and your day. Don’t overthink it. Your family, your planner, your florist, your cake designer want your day to be relaxed, personal and definitely magical. Sit back and enjoy the intimacy and bliss of your day.
Venues featured: The Barnyard, Kent; The Landmark Hotel, London; The Orangery, Kent.
Photos: Rebecca Douglas Photography, David King Photography, Yvette Craig Photography, Photos from Sophie, Fiona Kelly Photography, Bluebell Kitchen
We are Erica and Charlie Bell, a mother-daughter team creating breathtaking wedding cakes and macarons from our studio in Maidstone, Kent. We love nothing more than getting to know our couples, and creating distinctive designs that are inventive and imaginative. Our one-of-a-kind cakes that are designed down to the very last (sugar) detail. We deliver across London, Kent, Essex, Surrey, Sussex and beyond.
Want to learn the secrets of sugar craft, create your own favours or macarons? Join us at our cake school in Maidstone, Kent.
