5 Reasons to Get Excited About Your Micro Wedding in Toronto
Micro weddings have surged in popularity since the pandemic started. In fact, in the last 12 months, the number of elopements had doubled world wide. Once we collectively realized that we’re in this for the long haul (even with vaccines becoming accessible), we saw more and more couples approach us about filming their Micro Wedding in Toronto and across Ontario.
A Micro Wedding is defined as an intimate ceremony or reception with a guest list of 50 or less and we are BIG fans of these smaller celebrations.
In fact, we had two of our own micro weddings back in 2013. We had a destination wedding in Italy with 45 guests followed by a smaller legal ceremony back in Canada later in the year with just 6 of us in total. It was just us and our immediate family. None of the bells and whistles, suits, dresses or decor. We hired an Air Bnb in Whistler, had an officiant come over, popped some champagne and went for a delicious dinner. When we compare our “proper” wedding with our “legal” wedding, we can confidently say one was not better than the other. They were different, but ultimately as rewarding as each other.
While Covid has sucked on so many levels, it has given couples the opportunity to make the experience their own. You can scale down, save money and celebrate with the people that mean the most to you. Most importantly, you can focus on what really matters; creating a personalized way to mark the beginning of your lives together. Maybe you’re reading this because you’re needing reassurances in the face of having to downscale the wedding of your dreams. Or maybe you’re coming at this fresh; you always wanted a small affair and now you have an excuse to make that happen. Either way, we wanted to get you excited about the prospect.
Below we’ve outlined 5 reasons why we feel that you should be super excited about planning a micro wedding. We also have a great video from Love by Lynzie events that gives you some great tips for planning your micro wedding in Toronto.
1) You Can Make the Experience Your Own
How many decisions about your wedding are really your own? There are ceremonies, traditions and unavoidable expectations. Many of them are super important, but are they important to you? Covid gave couples a chance to break with traditions and go back to the drawing board. They were able to throw everything out of the window and create a more unique style of wedding that better reflected their personalities.
We have spoken to so many couples who are now more excited about their micro wedding than they were about the traditional wedding they had planned. Phrases like “it’s a weight off our shoulders” come up often. Of course, you might still want to incorporate religious ceremonies or traditions, but you can do so knowing that it’s because you want them to be a part of your wedding, rather than them being something that’s expected.
Ryan and Karen weren’t able to have a large Catholic wedding they originally hoped for. Instead they found a way to incorporate their faith into their wedding in their own way. Check our their super emotional Micro Wedding in Toronto below. The smaller number of guests gave them the comfort to freely express themselves to each other with deeply personal vows. As a side note, Ryan is actually one of our very talented cinematographers and friend. So this wedding was a very special experience for us too : )
2) You Can Spend A Lot Less, Whilst Creating a More Refined Experience
We all know weddings can be expensive, and a huge part of the budget often goes into feeding everyone and providing drinks. We’ve seen many couples feel obligated to provide some sort of entertainment to their guests, worried that they’ll be bored during the reception. Then there’s decor for the tables and large rooms and multiple outfits for large wedding parties. When planning a micro wedding you can probably cut back on many of those costs.
The other advantage is that you might also feel less pressure to have a weekend wedding. Having a micro wedding on a weekday will likely save you some money. This year we have weddings booked on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Again, it’s all about breaking with stereotypes and expectations. Micro weddings give you permission to do that.
From our point of view, we’ve been able to help couples by offering smaller micro wedding packages. Typically we’d be filming for a whole day, but most of the micro weddings we have filmed have been shorter than 6 hours. We’re also able to film solo because there’s less guests to capture and micro wedding timelines are often a little more malleable. In fact, with most of the micro weddings we’ve filmed, we’ve helped the couple create a timeline that allows them to maximize their budget for photo and video.
One of the great things about micro weddings is that they don’t need to be complicated. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be a luxurious experience. You’ll have more budget freed up for better food, more personal touches and perhaps some extravagant touches that were previously out of your reach.
You’re also able to redistribute your budget from disposable costs to long term investments such as better photographers and videographers. Remember, once the wedding is over, your flowers, food and decor will be gone. The only thing you’ll have are your memories, which could be forever preserved in a beautifully crafted wedding film (hopefully filmed by us!).
3) You Open Yourselves up to More Creative and Imaginative Micro Wedding Venues
When you have a larger wedding, you’re restricted to venues that can host your number of guests. While there are some amazing wedding venues in Toronto, the larger ones are harder to personalize and bring to life in a way that sets your wedding apart from the rest (without spending a ton of money).
By having a micro wedding you open yourselves to a whole new world of beautiful, creative and unique venues. These might include warehouses, cafes, restaurants, boutique hotels, camping sites and private properties. Family homes can even be an option. If you’re interested in finding something unique, definitely check our thisopenspace.com. It’s sort of an air Bnb for small event spaces and photoshoot locations.
Many of these smaller wedding venues are already beautiful designed with more character and personality. This will save you money on design and decor. Of course, you can also get imaginative and book out an air Bnb (or similar) and treat it like a destination wedding. After all, many destination weddings are already “micro weddings”.
We’re super excited about some of the micro weddings we have planned for 2021, which include trips to St Johns, Prince Edward County and Algonquin National Park. Whats even better, is knowing how excited our couples are about their micro weddings.
During the summer, we collaborated with one of Toronto’s best wedding planners, Lynzie Kent (from Love by Lynzie Events) to produce some wedding podcast episodes. One of the episodes focused on micro weddings and Lynzie gave some amazing tips. She’s an expert at planning micro weddings in Toronto, having founded the very popular Pop Up Chapel Co a few years ago. If you’re planning a micro wedding, this information is gold, and you’ll want to watch through from beginning to end.
4) A Smaller Micro Wedding Allows you to Spend more Time with your Guests.
At a larger wedding, couples often have a receiving line or spend time going from table to table talking with their guests. It’s a lovely way to interact, but because you have to divide your time between so many people, you’re not exactly getting the most meaningful interactions. Larger weddings also usually have stricter timelines, because you’re having to move a large number of people from one venue or room to another.
When we filmed Emma and Blake’s wedding in the Fall, we noticed how they were able to spend so much more time with the fewer guests they had. It was so easy for them to sit down and have proper conversations with all of them. They had a lovely cocktail hour, mingling with each other and taking photos, followed by a super intimate candlelit dinner where they could swap chairs, move around and take things at their own pace.
If you’re having a destination micro wedding, you can also plan activities with your guests and get them involved in making the wedding happen. We recently spoke to a couple who are planning a wedding at a glamping site in one of our national parks. During our consultation we talked about different ideas of how they could involve their guests more. We suggested that they could all get involved in preparing decor such as picking flowers, painting signs and preparing refreshments. Then in the evening they could set up a campfire and enjoy a cozy evening surrounded by nature.
Having had our own micro wedding, we know how much we valued the time that we got to enjoy with our guests. We had the flexibility and time to do things the way we wanted, and you do too.
5) You get to Relax and Really Enjoy Your Day
We think this might be the most important advantage of a micro wedding. You get to relax, take your time and soak in every moment. Larger weddings are incredible, once in a lifetime experiences. BUT, they require a lot of planning, management and creativity. Not every wedding goes smoothly and larger weddings sometimes come with higher expectations.
As mentioned above, you might feel obligated to provide entertainment, fill a room with decor and curate an experience that is more unique than other weddings you’ve been to. There are so many more eyes on you and that might make you feel nervous when reading personal vows or getting up to make a speech.
Aisling and Peter (below) contacted us just a few weeks before their wedding. Like many couples, they had originally planned a large Catholic wedding for the summer but ended up delaying, hoping that they’d be able to celebrate with friends and family across the globe later in the year. When restrictions were put into place just a week before their wedding, they made the call to stay the course. Instead they quickly pivoted to a micro wedding at St. Basil’s church, followed by a smaller celebration at their Toronto home.
In the end, the day provided the intimacy only a micro wedding could. We had plenty of time to talk about their experience during their photo shoot and both Aisling and Peter agreed that they had no regrets. Wedding days go by in the blink of an eye, but they were able to enjoy every moment, feeling the love from their closest friends and family guests. What more could you want?
So what do you think about Micro Weddings? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. If you’re thinking of having your Micro Wedding filmed in Toronto or anywhere else in Canada we’d love to hear from you. We have a TON of ideas to share and we can also help you create a fully optimised timeline to make the most of your budget.
We have also put together a range of scaled-down packages which are perfect for micro weddings. Not only that, but we have a selection of live streaming, same day edits and interactive videos that can bring your wedding to life for remote guests. Covid has completely changed the way we organise big events but it’s driven us to better utilize technology to involve remote guests. Even when this pandemic is over, we’ll be making use of many of these tools long into the future.
Whether a micro wedding is your intention or your “plan B”, we want to reassure you that it can still be the best day of your life. Feel free to ask us for our perspective or tips to make the most of the experience. We’re here to help.