Small Wedding ideas and experiences

We had a smallish wedding (gosh nearly 8 years ago now!). We just invited close family & friends. I think in total we had around 25-30 people in total.

I would definitley recommend some cover in case of rain. We had ours in August and there was a major storm the night before. Also some hard ground (you don't want to be wearing gumboots if it all turns nasty ).

We ended up having our reception at the local Lions Club hall. It cost us $50 + $100 refundable deposit, and it came with chairs & tables which saved us heaps of money, and meant nobody's house ended up a wreck.
We had the Spit Roast company come and cater it which was lovely, although initially we were going to have a pot luck (in lieu of presents people bring a plate) which would have been really nice too I think.

Good luck. My best piece of advice is just do what makes you happy. Don't worry about what family or friends think. In the end it is your day and no matter where or how you do it, it ends up being the actual ceremony that means everything and you remember very little else

Edited by Mum2Sam

Mum2Sam - thanks for that tip - No I do NOT want to wear gumboots lolol!

Yvette!! Hi! I am quite sure some will end up upset here too, but we would end up having over 100 people if we invited everyone (Sunz family is huge) and we want small and intimate like you - 25-30 people tops... The other option we are thinking of is eloping but I think it will be nicer to have a small wedding with loved ones.

Oh and we had a waitress to serve us and they did the cleaning up afterwards whch was really nice.

We also saved money as one of my best freinds who is a photographer did our photos, she has great prices though check her out at

www.momentz.co.nz

My SIL had a small wedding. They had the wedding in the Botanic Gardens and photos there too. They hired out a part of a nice restaurant and we had the balcony to use during the reception too.
Was nice a casual and meant everyone got to sit around and talk afterwards, and most imporantly it was the type of wedding SIL wanted.

Hope your wedding planning goes well!

Great ideas, this is my sort of wedding. But my family think im crazy not wanting to have every man and his dog invited. So hence we are still not married lol.

HUNTD, so with you! I have freinds who will think I am mad too but hey, ya want what ya want!

We had a smallish (60 people) wedding (over 3 yrs ago).

We had it on our farm and hired a huge marquee and all the bits and bobs from party hire (tables, table clothes, glasses, plates hot boxes etc) we also hired a jutebox for the music.

We set up the ceremony outside but had the marquee for back up and we set up the marquee for the reception.

We had a few hicups due to weather even though it was early feb!!!! - the day before was the huge Matata floods, We were in Tauranga at the time but all our family and friends were comming from kawerau, Matata, Rotorua etc, those people also included out celebrant (comming from Kawerau), our inlaws who were doing the catering (comming from Matata), my mum and uncle - mum had the dresses, my ring and my uncle was the one walking me down the isle! (comming from Kawerau)....all the roads were closed off through rotomas and Matata so needless to say we were a little stressed that the wedding was not going to happen!!! our poor guests had to go back and forth from rotoma to matata trying to get through! with them opening and closing the roads ALL the time!!!....then when they finally got through i tried my wedding ring on that had only arrived at mums the day before - and it didnt fit!!!! so i had to go and buy a cheapo for the day!......the wedding was meant to be at 3pm and it ended up being at 5.30ish...but it did happen and was great apart from a few other hicups!! (sister being a drama queen and people sinking in the soft grass and the marquee sinking! lol)....

Oh, I've just remembered that I went to another small one. It was at her parents house, they got married in the garden with everyone just standing around casually. She didn't 'walk down the aisle' she and he just sort of made their way to the the front. Everyone just stood around anywhere and watched. Afterwards there was canapes that her mum had made and drinks, then later was a bbq (everyone brought a plate and their own drinks) although some drinks were put on from memory. She had also asked everyone to bring their digital cameras and take pictures, then when they were leaving gave them a blank CD and envelope with postage already on it for them to download their pictures and post them to her.
That was a great wedding also.

We had 25 adults and 15 kids. Did it in our small back garden and had photos in the reserve next door. Bought some nice organic  meat and did a bbq. Had a couple of trestle tables set up on the deck for the food (had all the salads and the cake made for us). Got a bouncy castle for the kids, and everyone was happy. Did wedding and baby naming in one hit. Started at 11.30am and everyone was gone and the place cleaned up by 4pm. Total cost was under $2500, and everything was what we wanted.

We eloped .. it was stunning! I highly reccomend (sp) it lol

Our Wedding Elopment