Vanessa Acosta marries Sam Roberts in their backyard in Pasadena, California on May 25, 2024.
Courtesy: Vanessa Acosta
Last year, Vanessa Acosta and Sam Roberts found their dream venue for a black tie wedding.
But a series of family events made the couple reconsider their plans: “We don’t need to do this big thing where we’re going to be financially challenged,” said Acosta, 35, of Pasadena, California.
Instead of hosting around 150 guests and spending around $75,000, the couple decided to get married in their backyard with just 54 of their closest family and friends.
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Such events with approximately 50 guests, maximum, are called “micro weddings”. A so-called minimony is even smaller, typically attended by no more than 10 people, according to The Knot, an online wedding marketplace.
Acosta and Roberts had a new budget of $3,000 and knew they had to get creative.
“We did DIY and spent everything,” Acosta said. “We bought my husband’s shirt, he used his nice shoes that he already had.
Trimming the guest list made the wedding “much more manageable,” she said. The couple got married on May 25.
Why micro weddings are gaining traction
Vanessa Acosta and Sam Roberts pose together on a street in California.
Courtesy: Vanessa Acosta
The average cost of a wedding ceremony and reception in 2023 was $35,000, according to The Knot’s Real Wedding Study 2023. The total cost is an increase of $5,000 from 2022.
Inflation over the past few years was a major driver of the higher costs, according to Knot. The report surveyed 9,318 married couples in the US between January 1 and December 2023.
“Simply put, weddings are expensive,” said Allison Cullman, wedding expert and vice president of marketing and brand strategy at Zola, another online wedding marketplace.
The ‘number one way’ to save on wedding costs
As the cost of typical U.S. weddings has risen in recent years, experts say shrinking the guest list is the best way to save money, even if you don’t cut it to the micro-wedding level.
In 2023, weddings with 25 to 50 guests accounted for about 15% of the market; weddings with fewer than 25 guests accounted for roughly 2% of the market, according to data from The Wedding Report, a wedding research company, provided to CNBC.
The average number of wedding guests has dropped since 2006, when the average was about 184 people, according to data from The Wedding Report.
We don’t need to do this big thing where we’re going to put ourselves out there financially.
The lowest number was in 2020, when the average number of people dropped to 107, largely due to restrictions from the Covid-19 pandemic, said Shane McMurray, CEO and co-founder of The Wedding Report. The size of weddings increased in 2021 to 124 because people wanted to socialize after lockdowns, he said.
“But because of the cost of marriage now,” he said, the size of weddings “will probably start to decrease.”
“The number one way to save money on your wedding is to reduce the number of guests,” McMurray said, since many wedding costs, such as meals, invitations and favors, are based on your headcount.
Indeed, “having a mini wedding or a micro wedding allows you to still have an incredibly special party without having to pay for 150 meals,” Cullman said.
A sign reading: “Welcome to Vanessa and Sam’s wedding.”
Courtesy: Vanessa Acosta
“It actually wasn’t stressful dealing with the food situation for a wedding of 50 people,” said Acosta, who reserved a taco stand for $640 rather than paying roughly $90 per plate for about 150 guests.
“Ninety times 150 people. It was a drastic change to go from that to a taco stand that was able to feed every one and still have food left over,” Acosta said.
Set a ‘clear and realistic’ budget
Engaged couples should come up with a “clear and realistic” budget from the start, as well as make a list of what their priorities are, Cullman said. Doing so will help you when you have to make “tough decisions to stay within your budget,” she said.
“Couples should discuss what’s most important to them and what they want to share about the items that will make their wedding feel unique, authentic, and most of all, fun,” Cullman said.
Confirming such priorities will help you “determine where to focus your budget and where you can save,” said Lauren Kay, executive editor of The Knot.
You may have to make compromises along the way.
“Typically, the venue takes up the majority of your budget, and food and beverage costs are determined by the number of guests,” Kay said. “So if location is your highest priority, keeping that in mind will help you properly allocate your budget and make decisions about the size of your guest list.”
Being flexible with your ceremony date can also help keep costs down, Cullman said, since off-peak dates can be less expensive.
Exploring “thrift” or thrift clothing usually won’t “cut you hundreds of dollars,” she said. In this regard, you can take the proverb “something borrowed” even more seriously and rent a wedding dress or even flowers.