A wedding is a beautiful day. It’s a time to bring together all your friends and family and shove it in their stupid faces how happy you are. Okay, probably not that, exactly. Regardless of how you feel about their faces, you want to put a few personal touches on there so you and your guests will remember your wedding day fondly. Here are some wedding ideas to help you do just that.
While you have extra freedom for the ceremony with a small guest list, your largest creative outlet is going to be the wedding reception. That said, you could definitely re-imagine a few of these and put them into the ceremony itself if you see something you like.
What to Keep in Mind
Make It Original
When it comes to classic men’s wedding bands, you want to go tried and true. Regarding ways to wow your wedding guests (try saying that five times fast), originality is key.
Obviously, you can take cues from things that have worked for others. If, however, you just throw together a bunch of stuff you’ve already seen, chances are your guests have seen them, too. If that doesn’t bother you, go for it. If it does, get creative and think of ways to put your own spin on these wedding ideas.
Don’t Go Over Budget
You want to know what won’t wow your guests? Crippling debt. Okay, your debt probably won’t be crippling, but still. Your wedding day is exciting, but it’s only one day. Leave some fat on the bone here, or you’ll be eating top ramen on your honeymoon. Find a balance of excitement and responsible. It’s OK to spend money here – maybe even a tiny bit too much – but keep some impulses reined in a bit.
Too Much of a Good Thing?
The point of these wedding ideas is that they’re small and tasteful. Pick a couple you love and go with them. If you take one of these wedding ideas and dial it up to 11, the idea will likely outweigh the size of the wedding. If you pick 10 of these and try to incorporate all of them, you’ll be walking a very thin line between fun and kitschy.
Small Wedding Ideas to Wow Your Guests
Art and Décor
Take Polaroids
One of the best things about a small wedding is that everyone can take something home and feel like a large part of the event. When your guest list is short, it’s easy to get fun Polaroids of everyone in attendance that they can take home and hang on the wall. Alternatively, you can keep them all for yourself and make a fun wedding day collage.
Handmade Centerpieces
If you’re artistic, this is a great way to save money, create something custom and send your guests home with a unique gift. This is also one of those things that would be next to impossible if you had a larger guest list. Unless you’ve got your own machine shop or something, you aren’t making large quantities of custom centerpieces.
Whether you want to carve something from wood, make something out of clay or just arrange flowers you picked into some aesthetic vases, handmade centerpieces add a great layer of intrigue and make your wedding reception stand out.
Want to go the extra mile? Coordinate your custom centerpieces with all the little details of your wedding — from the theme colors to the type of men's wedding band you choose.
On-Site Artist
Of course, you want a wedding photographer. That’s a given. However, you also can bring in another artist for the wedding reception. Whether it’s a painter, caricaturist, or secondary photographer to get fun headshots of all the guests, it adds some extra intrigue. Plus, if you go with a portrait artist or caricaturist, your guests will have something to take home.
Music
Live Music
This applies to both the ceremony and the reception. Smaller wedding guest lists mean smaller venues and a wider array of artists and groups who can perform. If you want your ceremony to be really beautiful, having live music for it instead of something pre-recorded really helps.
For the reception, this is the age-old debate of DJ versus band, but there’s really something to be said for the ambiance that live music creates.
Create a Custom Wedding Ring Here
Song Requests Ahead of Time
This is a huge win or severe liability, depending on your friends’ tastes in music. Since you’ve got a smaller guest list, each guest has a larger share of the music responsibility. This is either a good thing or a bad thing, but regardless, it’ll be fun for your guests to hear their song requests played. What’s the worst that could happen? “Sweet Caroline” gets played six times? Proceed at your own risk.
Silent Disco
Who cares if “Sweet Caroline” gets played six times? You don’t have to listen to it if you go the silent disco route. The short of silent disco, if you’re unfamiliar, is that all the guests have headphones and there’s no music played over speakers. This allows guests to listen to one of a few different music choices at any given time. You can listen to whichever choice you like and dance along to your heart’s content.
Food and Drink
Go Wild
It can be a big risk, but it’s your wedding day. If you want to have a more adventurous menu at your wedding, that’s a quick way to be remembered. Sure, it’s not for everyone, but it’s a good way to weed out your friends who have a one-dimensional palate. Food for thought. All pun intended.
Switch Up the Table Styles
If you’ve got fewer people, it’s easier to get creative with your table styling. You can go the traditional head table route, of course, but a sweetheart table is a good choice here. If you really want to get everyone in on the action, get a long table or two and serve the meal family style. This only really works if you’re on the smaller end of small weddings, but it definitely is an option to consider.
Custom Cocktails
Some wedding ideas aren't novel anymore, but it is still fun. While your guests have likely seen a custom cocktail setup at other weddings, the great part about these is that they’re different every time. If you have something you absolutely love, especially if it’s a bit unconventional, now’s the time to serve it.
Wine Tasting
If you don’t want to have signature cocktails, you can always go for a tasting menu with your drinks. While wine tasting is a great choice, flights of liquid grapes aren’t your only option. If you prefer beer, whiskey, gin, mezcal, or whatever – offer a tasting menu of those instead.
To-Go Baskets
Stay with us and see if you relate: it’s late, and you’ve been dancing for hours. You’ve shut down the wedding and it’s been awesome. However, all that dancing has got you famished. Sound familiar?
Sure, you could send your guests to the Dairy Queen down the street, but why not do something better than you would do on a random Tuesday? Point being, if you have little to-go setups your guests can take home, they will love you.
Unique Glassware
It’s not just about what you serve — it’s how you serve it. Let’s just get ahead of what you’re thinking. No, Mason jars are not unique glassware. They’re everywhere, and you’re six years behind if you think they’re unique. Now, if you want to have Mason jars, that’s perfectly fine. It just won’t wow anyone.
You don’t have to drop a lot of cash for unique glassware. While you definitely can, you can also just go out thrifting. There are tons of cool glassware in thrift stores with unique character for super cheap. If you’re living in a studio apartment with mismatched glassware, you’re a bachelor. If you use mismatched glassware at your wedding, it’s an aesthetic choice. Choose wisely.
Interactive wedding ideas
Guest Book
In a large wedding, a guest book is a formality where you sign your name and do a little bit of well-wishing. It’s the adult equivalent of putting “Have a great summer” in the yearbook of the kid you sort of knew but not really. Seriously, why did he ask to sign your yearbook? You had a class together, maybe, but still. We’re getting sidetracked.
In a small wedding where all the guests likely have a closer relationship with the couple, a guest book is a way to express genuine sentiment without feeling rushed. When there aren’t 150 people waiting to sign the guest book, you can take your time and write something genuinely meaningful.
Photo Booth
Look, we don’t care what anyone says. Photo booths are fun. They don’t take up much space and, after a few drinks, everyone is a Dior model in a $2 feather boa. It’s a fun way to get photos of everyone at the wedding in their element and, if nothing else, it allows your wedding photographer a little extra room to work.
Lawn Games
Want to get people up and moving at an outdoor wedding reception? Boom. Lawn games. Especially if they’re in the giant variety because those are even more comical. You don’t have to have the Olympic games and 15 choices. You can, but you don’t have to. Set up three or four of the popular ones and let people have at it. Simple as that.
Sparklers
Or fireworks if you’re feeling crazy, but sparklers are probably a safer bet. When you incorporate them is up to you, but if you’re having a summer wedding with a reception that has a later start, sparklers can add energy once the sun dips below the horizon.
Couple Quiz
Who knows the couple best? A couple quiz gets the competitive juices flowing and isn’t something you’ll see at every wedding. That’s probably because it only works well at small weddings, but still. Pony up some sort of prize for the winner and watch people fight it out.
Extras
A Nod to Those Who Couldn’t Make It
If you’re having a wedding in a city that isn’t where you’re from, lots of your guests may have to travel. Unfortunately, factors like age or work schedules prevent some guests from traveling to celebrate with you. Dedicating a table or section of the venue to your guests who couldn’t make it is a nice touch. Take a picture of it and send it to them so they know you were thinking of them — even when they weren’t there.
Donations Instead of Favors
This is a trend that’s picking up in popularity, but it’ll work well at a small wedding. Your guests likely know more about you and your values than guests at a larger wedding. If you don’t need the extra cash or stuff, consider setting up a donation option to a charity organization you feel strongly about. If you want to split the difference, you can add a donation option to your registry so guests can choose one or both.
Make an Exit to Remember
A great movie or TV ending sticks with you. Think about the iconic endings in media. Citizen Kane, Titanic, Friends. A well-constructed ending lives on in perpetuity. While your wedding exit isn’t exactly a Rosebud-level ending (probably), you can still do something really cool. Getaway cars (still a hilarious name for what it is) are always a hit, especially when done in a unique way. However, a classic Chevy truck isn’t the only option you have for making a wedding exit.
There are plenty of options there, but you don’t need to rely on fossil fuels, or even wheels, to leave your wedding. A send-off arch of all your friends, being played out to a choreographed dance, whatever you want. Get really creative here. It’s the last thing people will remember from your wedding. The nice part of a small wedding is that you can have everyone get in on the fun, especially if it’s something like a send-off arch or other communal celebration.
You want to wow your guests, of course, but it’s about you two as well. When you’re deciding on the little things, you want to keep your guests in mind and how to make them feel at home. However, don’t forget to walk the line between impressive and meaningful.
Image Credits
Veranika Dzik/Shutterstock.com
chrislearyphoto/Shutterstock.com
Valery Petrushkov/Shutterstock.com
illustrissima/Shutterstock.com
