How We Planned a Micro Wedding For Under $4k

For less than the average cost of a reception band, we were able to put together a micro wedding for 15 guests. There are many reasons why a couple might chose a micro wedding. For us it was a combination of factors.

My husband and I don’t believe a wedding day is the most important day of your life but one of many important days over a lifetime. So it didn’t feel right for us to drop the equivalent of a downpayment on a house for one day. We wanted to keep the focus on what really mattered to us, the marriage.

I think it helped immensely that neither of us had a preconceived idea of what we wanted a wedding to look like. My husband and I didn’t feel compelled to adhere to American wedding traditions or hold the typical wedding events like an engagement party, bridal shower or bachelor/bachlorette parties. We decided what felt right to us and threw the rest out.

We both wanted something small and intimate. His focus was on good food for guests and my focus was on a good photographer. Those two costs made up more than 2/3 of our budget. Even though we had a micro wedding, it was not stress free. We found the planning process to be unpleasant even for just 15 guests. I honestly don’t know how a couple gets through the process for a large wedding. Thankfully there were only a few moving parts to organize and the main elements like venue, dress, and photographer were figured out pretty much from the start. 

We kept the guest count small to only my immediate family, my husband’s parents and a few friends. If my husband’s family lived in the US our count would have been much higher. But since they are all in China, we will have a second wedding for them. 

If I had to do the wedding day again, I would 100% go with our micro wedding. We would have been miserable if we had to plan a large wedding. I would rather have eloped than do that! While we did not have a lot of the expenses of an average American wedding, I thought it might be helpful for those interested in where money was spent and where we saved.

Expenses

DINNER $1374

We had envisioned hosting dinner and cocktails in a private room at the same restaurant we had our first kiss. But after our initial budget was reduced, their minimum would have taken almost our entire budget. So the venue was shifted to a closer location, within walking distance to our home and no fee to reserve a private room or minimum to pay.

We chose to go with a place where everyone could just order what they wanted off the menu. Though the food was good, the space was not photo-worthy, as it resembled a lodge. The upside to this is that we did not feel the need to pay the photographer to photograph the dinner.

Our original dinner budget was $1200, then cut down to $1000. When it was all said and done, after a few friends got a bit crazy and ordered several extra appetizers and extra drinks aside from everything else, it ended up being over budget. But everyone enjoyed themselves so that was what was important. 

RECEPTION $0

We nixed any traditional reception elements except for the dinner. No dancing, no band, no traditional catering. It seemed unnecessary for us and our small group and saved a lot of money. We opted instead to open the house early with snacks and drinks for guests to mingle, and also scheduled time after the ceremony to talk with guests before heading to the restaurant for dinner.

PHOTOGRAPHER $1400

Thankfully finding a photographer was not difficult. I reached out to a local wedding photographer, who I had previously considered doing some branding photos for me. Her base packages were $3,700 for one photographer and $4,000 for two photographers, both included an engagement shoot and 8 hours of shooting time.

I knew that we were not interested in the engagement shoot and did not need a photographer for 8 hours. So I decided to see if perhaps she would work for a smaller wedding that needed a couple of hours of shooting. I was thrilled when she said she could work for $350 an hour, just herself, for however many hours I needed.

She was incredibly helpful when it came to developing a timeline of the day so I could figure out exactly how many hours I would need her and kept everything on time and running smoothly. I was so thankful to have her help and she made the shooting process so easy and seamless. And as a added bonus she asked to bring along a second photographer who is starting out and wanted to get some practice for no additional cost.

VIDEOGRAPHER $0

I was lucky enough that my job had two high-quality camcorders with triple-pods I was able to borrow. My husband’s friend was happy to set them up before the ceremony started and make sure they were recording. We were happy to get some video footage of the day without the high price tag.

FLOWERS & ACCESSORIES $90

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Knowing that a florist would cost more than I was willing to spend, I decided to try and make everything myself. Overly ambitious? Perhaps…but surprisingly it turned out ok, not perfect, but acceptable. I made my bouquet, boutonnieres for all the men attending, corsages for all of the women attending and a few flower arrangements for decor out of the leftover flowers and greenery.

In the end I forgot to carry my bouquet, some of the boutonnieres broke (note: do not skip threading the wire through the flower!) because they were not reinforced with wire at the stem, and some of the corsage wrist bands broke. But none of these were a big deal and I still got to take photos with my bouquet. 

DECOR $92

My husband and I decided we did not want to buy decorations that we would not reuse or that would be thrown out at the end of the day, so our plan was to do very little around the house.

My mother-in-law felt very strongly there should be some sort of decorating. I relented and happened to find a few leftover holiday decor items at West Elm that were an extra 75% off the sale price, that I knew could be reused for the holidays.

I grabbed some tulle for photos and clearance fabric that I sold to my friend for her to use in her garden. My father-in-law brought these fabulous red Chinese lanterns that we hung in the tree we got married under…so happy to have them to use for future Chinese New Years. Our regular Christmas lights rounded out our decor. 

I do wish that we would have removed the fabric we hung in the tree to create a backdrop. It wasn’t adjusted before the ceremony and ended up being an eyesore. This is when less would have been better and we should have just left it at the Chinese lanterns.

OFFICIANT $0

A coworker who happened to lived behind us graciously offered to officiate free of charge as his wedding gift. Having him marry us made it feel extra special.

SNACKS & DRINKS $128

We wanted the day to be very low-key, so we started our wedding day preparing snacks for our guests, rather than having any catering. My friend let me borrow a plethora of her party tableware that helped us create a beautiful display without having to buy disposable pieces or items we may not use again.

We already had some bottles of wine around the house, so we decided to only buy a few more, mostly sparkling for a champagne toast, which never happened due to a lack of time and frankly forgetting to do it. The only bottle of liquor we had was vodka, along with a few mixers left over from a previous party. So we focused on using what we had and only added cranberry juice as a mixer and also as an non-alcoholic option. 

MUSIC $250

My husband happened to know someone who sings and plays Spanish guitar as a hobby. When he heard we were getting married he asked if he could sing and it turned out to be the icing on the cake for the day. 

I got ready for my wedding with the sound of Spanish guitar in the background. He did a beautiful job playing before and during the wedding, and it felt like the right choice for us instead of having a whole band or nothing at all.

VENUE $0

From the start we knew we wanted to get married in the backyard of our home. It’s charming, cozy and came without a price tag. We wanted to have a comfortable space our guests could relax in, since most of them were coming from out of town. We were able to open up the house hours before the wedding to let people snack, socialize and get comfortable.

WEDDING ATTIRE $132

My husband only purchased a pair of cufflinks for $12 from an antique store that came with the original box. Everything else he already owned. He contemplated purchasing a tuxedo, but couldn’t envision wearing it again, so we nixed that idea and he wore one of his suits.

My wedding dress was graciously gifted by my mother-in-law. Originally I had planned to spend very little and purchase a bridesmaid dress, but she insisted I have a wedding dress. So rather than have the traditional white dress, I went with pink.

My red velvet heels were purchased new off Poshmark and my jewelry I already owned.

ALTERATIONS $75

Though I could have had my dress shortened, as it was a bit long, I felt like it wasn’t worth the money. I knew that after our second wedding I would want to alter the dress into something that can be worn on a regular basis, so I decided to wait until then. I did, however, need the placement of the pads in the chest to be altered, as the fabric wasn’t laying quite right.

After hearing how much typical alterations cost for a wedding dress, I’m thankful that is all I had to pay for mine.

HAIR $60

Originally I planned to pay $90 to my regular hairdresser to style my hair, but she called the night before the wedding from the ER after getting 5 stitches in her finger. I was prepared to do my hair myself, but she was able to find a friend to fill in for her. I didn’t end up with my normal waves for days like I get when she styles my hair, but it looked great nonetheless, and bonus he cost $30 cheaper. 

WEDDING CAKE & DESSERTS $169

I found a fabulous dedicated gluten free bakery that employs those on the Autistic Spectrum to make my wedding cake and treats. My two-tier wedding cake was beautifully decorated in pink roses and cost $45….seriously cannot beat that price and from such a great company! It was a simple vanilla cake with buttercream icing.

Since the two tiered cake would not be enough for everyone, we grabbed a single tiered red velvet cake, chocolate cake pops and lemon squares. That way everyone could find something that suited their tastes. We were lucky that the restaurant did not charge a plating fee to cut and serve the cake for us after diner. No cake cleanup for us!

I did order a custom-made cake topper with our names and wedding date from Etsy, but ultimately forgot to put it on the cake. One of the many little things that did not go as planned but it wasn’t a big deal.

MAKEUP $78

I decided to do my own makeup for multiple reasons. One was to save money. The quotes to get my makeup done were insane. I like the makeup I do everyday and basically wanted the same for my wedding day – I wanted to look like myself. I bought a few new items of makeup to use for the wedding day but also to be used after as well.  

WEDDING RINGS $0

My husband already owned the wedding rings, which we repurposed by removing the engravings and resizing them to fit us. When I saw the rings, they were exactly the style that I wanted, so no money was needed to have them remade into a new style.

INVITATIONS & THANK YOU CARDS $85

Invitations were another part of wedding planning where the cost blew my mind. In keeping with wanting low-key, we texted our wedding day to let people know to save the date. We only sent out paper invitations, made on Shutterfly, to those actually attending. We created Thank You cards that matched with the invitations, but can also be used in the future.

We had originally planned on spending a bit more than $4k, but in the end I’m glad we didn’t. Our micro wedding turned out to be just right for us and we didn’t go into the marriage with financial stress or debt. We also have no regrets about the size of our guest list or removing traditional elements. If a micro wedding feels right for you, go for it!