How to make our small ceremony still feel special

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We'll definitely have a cake cutting I think and maybe some finger food type things or little tea sandwiches maybe. Just keep it simple yet elegant!

View quoted message That’s beautiful!! If we go this route we’ll definitely keep it low key. I wouldn’t want to take away from the big reception next year. Just have some beer on ice and either lots of finger foods or burgers on the grill. Very casual and simple!!

View quoted message Sounds like it will be beautiful! I’m actually starting to feel like it’s kinda cool to get to have both an intimate ceremony/relaxed day but also a ceremony with all our friends and family and the big party too. Are you guys planning to do food or anything after the small ceremony?

View quoted message That’s great! Sounds like you will have a really nice space to have the ceremony and the sunset pictures would be beautiful. My fiancé is going to make an arbour for us I think. I have definitely started looking at Pinterest for ideas. I found these for some inspiration!


Now here’s hoping we’re allowed to have at least 20 people! 🤞. Will you guys be doing food afterwards or anything? We’ve talked about maybe just doing a barbecue or something low key. We want to have some food and maybe do a cake or cupcakes, but don’t really wanna do an actual sit down meal.

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That's a good idea. We already have a bunch of decor, like wooden crates, lanterns, etc. that we got for our big wedding. I feel silly for not even thinking to incorporate them somehow lol.

I have my dress, we have the rings, tux is on it's way, so we feel we can do everything we need to make our small gathering as special as it can be. I'm looking forward to including flowers and cake! We'll also have much more time to focus on getting some nice photos. The day as a whole will feel so much more relaxed and slower I think, really toned down. And then we can still celebrate with a reception later on.

Look up “backyard weddings” on Pinterest and there’s lots of awesome ideas there to make it feel and look special. You can have an arbor, arrange seats, make an aisle, hang string lights over head, the list goes on. And you can absolutely have a photographer take photos and even do a session after the ceremony.
We are doing the same, postponing our August wedding / reception to next year, but elope/have a tiny ceremony in a few months. We may do it in our backyard as we have space and the most beautiful sunset views. My fiancé is building a gazebo this summer so we’ll do it there. I will decorate tons and walk down the aisle. I already spoke with my photographer and she’s happy to take an hour or two off our reception day to use on our ceremony day

This sounds like a nice idea. are you gonna get decor? you could get an isle runner and some decor to make it nice

View quoted message Me too! 🤞🏼🤞🏼 I am hoping that weddings are part of the gatherings permitted to having more people. Even if we can only have 50 people I am sure we could play around with our list and drop it down a bit, I wouldn’t want to but will do what we have to lol!

View quoted message I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to have smaller gatherings by August! 🤞

View quoted message Exactly! Makes things a little more special! We’re hoping we will be good for our postponed date in August. Our wedding was small to begin with, less than 60, so we’re aiming for being able to do our celebration then. If not we’re thinking the same thing of seeing if we cannot book our venue on our 1 year anniversary or will book another venue or have a celebration at that time!

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Congratulations! While it wasn't what you guys planned, I'm so glad to hear it was special . And I agree, it's nice to have 2 days of memories! Our small ceremony this year will be on August 29th, and next year will be on August 28th, so we have joked that from now on we will have an anniversary weekend to celebrate!

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Vow renewal is probably the way we will end up going for next year. I ended up buying a more simple dress for this year's ceremony and am going to save my wedding dress for next year. I hadn't had it altered at all yet, and don't wanna have it altered only to have it not fit next year lol. Although getting 2 wears out of it does seem appealing since it wasn't cheap!

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That spot sounds beautiful for photos! I think I will likely have my dad walk me down the aisle (really hoping we'll be able to have at least 15 people together at the end of August in Ontario!). The anniversary party sounds like a good plan. Our postponed date is the same weekend only next year, so we will likely end up doing this too, hopefully with maybe a vow renewal ceremony too).

We decided to have a small ceremony this past weekend and postponed our celebration to August (hoping that restrictions will be eased enough for our small wedding). We were originally supposed to be married May 23, though this date had no real significance to us. We lucked out and were able to obtain a license and decided to roll with our luck and have a small ceremony at home with our minister, witnesses, parents from a distance and immediate family via video chat. While it's definitely not what we had planned, we still made the day special, we decided not have my parents walk me down the "aisle" as I want to save that experience for our later celebration, did a cake cut and got to take some pictures etc. While it wasn't our ideal choice, I feel like we lucked out because we will now have two days to reflect on and have memories of!

Your day can happen though the photographer can come out to take pictures of your wedding. Wearing your dress twice is doable to keep the moment special with the small ceremony this year and then with the large crowd next year. The plan in progress can go ahead of what you want to do.

The venue booked next year can be a vow renewal in front of the other guests with present family to celebrate your married life. The same day schedule as your wedding day can be done.

I definitely still want our photographer to capture our day, no matter how small.


There are ways to make it special, and they depend a bit on what your original plan looked like. Like if your grandparents can no longer come maybe you find a way to include them by putting their photos in a locket for your bouquet, or having a piece of jewelry borrowed from someone who can't be there. You could still include being walked down the aisle, your first dance, bouquet toss and whatever else you were looking forward to!
If we elope it will be because my fiance's family won't be able to make it. To me it's only fair that if his parents miss it that mine do too, so our ceremony would only have our photographer and the legally necessary people. There is a spot we had planned to go for photos that we might use for our wedding, it's a brick alleyway with twinkle lights and some cool street art including this big neon heart. Then next year we will have an anniversary party reception with all our friends and family.