intimate wedding

Expert Tips for a Tiny Wedding

How to Have a Meaningful & Minimalist Wedding

At Tiny Weddings Bham, we are passionate about celebrating romance in the simplest ways. We take the traditional wedding experience and distill it down to the most important and memorable parts. We love big weddings just as much as the next person, but we understand that elaborate celebrations aren’t for everyone. This is where we have found our niche—providing high-end, minimalist weddings full of meaningful details, with some of the top wedding professionals around. For couples working with a smaller budget, or those wanting to keep things peaceful and intimate, we would love to share some of our tips!

A Minimal Guest List

Guest lists can be one of the most painful and stressful aspects of wedding planning. It is important to decide at the beginning how many people you want to have attend your special day. It gets easy for others to tell you who “needs” to be at your wedding - from old family friends, to fourth cousins, to high school friends. But we suggest only inviting those who you have close and meaningful relationships with as a couple. At Tiny Weddings Bham, we limit our guest lists to under 30 people. If that number is too small, just make a list of your closest family members and your closest friends. Even if the number is higher than 30, chances are it will still be south of average guest list of 120.

Meaningful Details

We are here to tell you that your wedding can be upscale and minimalist at the same time. The key is to focus on having beautiful details without going overboard. We encourage you to pick a couple of key areas that you want to emphasize, and do them well. Pick a venue that’s already beautiful, such as an art gallery or historic home. Many smaller event spaces need very little help to be gorgeous. At Tiny Weddings, our efforts go into having a gorgeous altar, a pretty cake table and drink station, and personal flowers—that’s it! We take a few focal points, and we expertly design them so that they really shine. Share with your planner, florist, and photographer your vision for minimal but impactful, and ask them to work their magic in your key areas.

Minimal Food

Food and beverages can easily become the most complicated and expensive aspects of your wedding. The easiest way to keep it minimal is to have your wedding during non-meal hours. Consider having your wedding around 10:00 AM and serving light brunch food like a fruit tray, mini quiche, and mimosas, or having your wedding around 4:00 PM and simply celebrating with cake and champagne! You might be surprised how beautiful minimal food styling can be.

A Minimalist’s Wedding Day Timeline

At Tiny Weddings Bham, we aren’t afraid of hitting the highlights. Our couples have a ceremony, cut cake, toast champagne, mingle with their guests, and then have a photoshoot with the photographer. It’s a simple and relaxed experience that lasts around 2 hours. Some couples host after-parties and we love that idea, too! A wedding day does not have to be a long, marathon day, it can be short and sweet and equally (if not more) intimate and special.

We hope these suggestions for how to have a meaningful, minimalist wedding have been helpful. If having a Tiny Wedding sounds fun to you, we would love to chat! You can contact us or learn more about what we do at www.tinyweddingsbham.com.

 Tiny Weddings Bham is a collaboration of Birmingham’s best wedding professionals, curated to give you an exceptional experience without the huge wedding price tag. We come together once a quarter to provide a short and sweet experience for couples to get married in style.

Vendors:

Tres Beau Weddings

Photos by Heart

Jennifer Woodberry Photography

Gold Leaf Floral

Studio Flower

Swan Lindsey Lettering

Bustle

The Nest

Clubhouse on Highland

Décor to Adore

Bandit Baking Co.

Olexa’s

Pastry Art Bake Shoppe

Savoie Catering

Bustle Bride: Caitlin Ogren Green

Our first Bustle Bride Feature of the month is Catilin Ogren Green! Caitlin and her hubby, Andrew, said, "I do," on a beautiful Friday evening in May. They both wanted a wedding with a more intimate atmosphere, so they had 31 family members in attendance for the ceremony, then extended the celebration with friends on the following Saturday!

Bustle owner, Meredith, helped Caitlin find her dream dress! She chose a gorgeous strapless lace gown by Essence of Australia, and she looked absolutely radiant on her special day!

I’d say one of the best parts of the day was having such a relaxing and enjoyable day. We loved having a small intimate dinner with just our family, then we met up with all of our friends at Otey’s after dinner. We had another small party on Saturday night at my in laws house with Saw’s BBQ and Big Spoon Creamery catering. We had a blue grass band, and it was again another amazing relaxed evening with family and friends.

Vendors:

Photos - K. Olis Photography

Hair and makeup - Boma Beautiful

Church - Highlands United Methodist Church

Dinner - Birmingham Country Club

Florist - Susan Geddie

Bustle Bride: Helen White Lee

This week's Bustle Bride Feature is the beautiful Helen White Lee! Helen and her hubby, Hunter, became officially Mr. & Mrs. on May 28! They said, "I do" at The Nest in Avondale and had their wedding planned through Tiny Weddings Bham!

The couple knew that they wanted an intimate wedding, so they invited immediate family and their closest friends that made up 25 guests! Helen explained, "we were able to laugh and giggle at the alter together, recite personal and heartfelt vows to one another, and enjoy our special day with those who have been with us throughout the course of our relationship."

Our sweet bride chose a gorgeous Ivy & Aster gown that fit her oh so beautifully on her special day. She looked nothing short of stunning, and we're so glad we had the opportunity to help Helen find the gown of her dreams! She has the sweetest smile and the most genuine spirit, and we absolutely loved having her in our store!

Hearing the vows Hunter wrote to me was by far the greatest part of my wedding day— hearing the person you love most stand in front of a (small) crowd and promise you forever, no matter what it takes, gives you a whole new perspective on what God’s purpose for marriage actually is. In that moment I had a clearer vision of my life than ever before, and a greater love for my husband than I had ever experienced up to that point. I truly believe that the entire day was perfectly orchestrated by God, because it was everything we ever dreamed it would be and more.

Wedding Planner: Ann Marie Leveille//Tres Beau Weddings// Tiny Weddings Birmingham

Photography: Photos By Heart

Florist: Gold Leaf Floral

Lettering: Swan Lindsey Lettering

Catering: Savoie Catering

Baker: Pastry Arts

Venue: The Nest

Hair/Makeup: Sophia Cross