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Micro Wedding Timeline Examples and Tips

October 28, 2020 | riley

Of the many benefits that micro weddings offer, easily one of the best is the relaxed and intimate atmosphere as you tie the knot. That relaxed atmosphere also has its drawbacks—starting with its ability to get off course. Creating a micro wedding timeline for the day will keep you on track and build in the flexibility to make time for all of your guests.

Ensure your day has a natural flow and that your vendors know what to expect and when with an expertly planned micro wedding timeline. Let’s get planning!

Micro Weddings Need Timelines

Ever attended a party that felt freeform and you weren’t sure when the food would be served, the champagne would start flowing, or when you could expect to leave? Yeah, us too.

Because of the smaller and intimate feel that micro weddings provide it’s important to have a timeline in place so that your guests don’t end up feeling like they’re attending a neverending backyard party. This is, after all, a special day.

Expert wedding planner Chelsy Ferguson of The Gathering Co said, You have to think through the potential lulls between planned points of the day. Make sure that time isn’t prolonged in certain areas of your timeline if you aren’t anticipating intentional breaks in the day. Adjust your timeline to keep your guests occupied and make sure there isn’t too much buffer for your guests to wait around in an unknown space. Plan for what you know you need and want from the day and all else will fall into place!

Start With What Matters Most

We love this advice from the Mil Besos team, As with any event timeline, couples should highlight what things are most essential and account for some wiggle room. Some of the best memories are those unplanned moments! Don’t be afraid to stray off the timeline a little bit—having a good reference of flow for order of events and any fixed times, such as the sunset, will ensure you don’t miss any shots with your photographer.

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Micro Wedding Timeline Advice from Wedding Experts

You should start planning your micro wedding timeline 8 months to a year before the wedding date if possible, according to The Gathering Co. Adding on to this, Nikk Nguyen says that an extended planning timeline will give you plenty of time to plan for what you want and also let guests know when they can celebrate with you.

The Stars Inside also had excellent advice about including your vendors into your timeline planning. They said, Once you’ve got your timeline down, make sure you share it with all of your vendors once you’re close to finalizing what the day will look like. Certainly there are some suppliers who can help guide you, so it’s worth touching base with them sooner rather than later. Overall, try to be flexible and go with the flow, and encourage your vendors to do the same where they can.

Micro Wedding Timeline Examples

Now that you’ve got our advice under your belt, here are two examples created by two of our vendors. As you can see, they can be very basic and short or involve your wedding crew for the entire day—the choice is yours.

Micro Wedding Timeline from Nikk Nguyen

Nikk Nguyen suggests that in its most basic form, your micro wedding timeline look something like this

  • 3pm – 4pm : Getting Ready
  • 4:15pm : First Look
  • 4:30pm – 5:30pm : Photos
  • 5:30pm : Ceremony
  • 6:00-9pm : Dinner & Reception

Micro Wedding Timeline from The Gathering Co

The Gathering Co suggests making your getting ready portion of the day extra special for those involved in your wedding. Her suggested timeline looks like this

  • 6:30-7:30 am | Sunrise hike and photos (optional)
  • 9-11 am | Wake up call, breakfast, and yoga as a bridal team
  • 10 am | Planner and Florist arrive for set up
  • 11 am | Hair and Makeup (HMU) starts
  • 3pm |  Photo + video arrives for getting ready photos + details
  • 3:15 pm | HMU final touches
  • 3:45 pm | Bride puts dress on and Groom finishes getting ready
  • 4 pm | Bridesmaids photos // insert number of maids 
  • 4:20 pm | Groomsmen photos // insert number of groomsmen
  • 4:30 pm | Catering + bar arrives for set up // family style meal
  • 4:30 pm | Live music artist arrives for set up and practice
  • 4:40 pm | Bridal Portraits
  • 5 pm | Back to bridal suite to relax // Photo + video – ceremony + reception detail photos
  • 5:30 pm | Guests make their way to the ceremony area // music starts
  • 6 pm | Ceremony // live musician to play 
  • 6:20 pm | Ceremony ends – wedding party photos
  • 6:30 pm | Immediate + extended family photos
  • 6:45-7:45 pm | Cocktail hour // live musician playing
  • 6:50-7:30 pm | Bride + Groom photos // Sunset is at 7:40, end photos with sunset
  • 7:50-8 pm | Entrance into dinner with first dance to follow by live music and everyone surrounds couple with sparklers
  • 8-9pm(ish) | Welcome by the couple // family-style dinner! // playlist via phone + PA for dinner
  • 8:30 pm | Cake cutting and champagne “cheers” // toasts to follow
  • 8:45 pm | Parent dances  // live guitarist to perform
  • 9 pm | Photo and video team departs // switch over to music over the speaker
  • 10:30 pm | Evening winds down for vendor clean up to start // hang out on-site

Don’t Forget—This Day is Special

We think The Stars Inside said it best when describing the ideal micro wedding timeline. No matter what you choose, you will have curated a day in which you can enjoy every minute. Intimate gatherings like this give couples a chance to express themselves and celebrate in the way that feels most true and authentic to them—no anxiety, no crowds, just love.

Big or small, elopement or micro wedding, your wedding day is special. Let the timeline you and your vendor team serve as a guide to keep the day on track. Don’t forget what matters most—the celebration of your love. 

Looking for tips on the rest of your micro wedding planning? We’ve got you covered.

Micro Wedding Timelines and Tips Graphic

Photo by Los Ébano

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Idyllic Central Park Elopement at Wagner Cove

October 28, 2020 | riley

We can’t get enough of elopements. What’s better than a romantic ceremony with those who matter the most in the most beautiful places in the world? Absolutely nothing. When first engaged, Catherine and Ryan had every intention of having a big wedding in the UK. But, when it came time to plan, they decided an elopement at Wagner Cove in Central Park was the best choice for them! 

Catherine’s simple ball gown and bridal cape perfectly complemented the garden setting of the city’s park. We can’t get enough of the wildflowers in her bouquet, flower crown, and Ryan’s boutonniere–which she hand-picked in the UK. That’s right, she flew across the world with her flowers, and they turned out gorgeous.

Ready to see a garden ceremony, adorable family photos, and portraits in the city’s bustling streets? Keep scrolling to see all of the beautiful photos captured by Junebug member Aesthetic Sabotage.

The Couple:

Catherine and Ryan

The Wedding:

Wagner Cove, New York City

DIY Wedding Touches

On the lining of my suit, I had our names and date of the wedding stitched in which made the suit very special. Catherine arranged our flowers–the bouquet, her flower crown, and my boutonniere. She gathered all of her favorite flowers in the UK, put them together, and then carefully traveled with them to NYC. It was something of a miracle they weren’t damaged. It was so special to have had those flowers handpicked by Catherine. They were truly stunning.

Why an NYC Elopement at Wagner Cove

We had planned to get married in April 2020 in the UK, but once planning got well underway, we discovered a big wedding wasn’t for us. We joked about getting married in NYC but assumed it would be too difficult–especially because we were only about two months out from traveling there. Would that give us enough time to plan it all? Once we had done a little research we discovered how easy it was to plan it. From there, everything fell into place. We wanted a micro wedding (three guests) in a beautiful venue/destination. That is exactly what we got.

An Unexpected Jazz Show

We didn’t plan any surprises for each other, but there was a jazz band playing on the other side of the river at Wagner Cove. It was a lovely unplanned touch

The Wedding Team:

Photography – Aesthetic Sabotage Studio
Venue – Wagner Cove
Officiant – Rabbi Steven Blane

 

Congratulations again to Catherine and Ryan on their central park elopement at Wagner Cove! We’re so glad that Junebug member Aesthetic Sabotage captured the details of their special day. To see more of Aesthetic Sabotage’s work, check out his profile in our directory of best wedding photographers in the world!

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Disco Ball Chic Catalan Wedding at Cortal Gran

October 27, 2020 | riley

One look at Laia and Gerard’s disco ball chic Catalan wedding at Cortal Gran and we were hooked. With the help of planner Enfelizate, the two wedding videographers created a day based around the motto “freak and chic,” and boy did they nail it. The day was filled with disco balls, neon signs, over-the-top flower arrangements from The Original Fleurs, a seating chart made from old television sets, and a party that never stopped.

Laia looked timeless in her Pronovias gown, and we love that she opted for a shorter 80’s inspired dress for their Dirty Dancing inspired second dance. Meanwhile, Gerard looked like he belonged in old Hollywood with his classic black and white Armani suit.

Ready to be inspired by these totally rad and chic “I do’s?” Keep scrolling to see every tubular detail captured perfectly by Pablo Laguia.

The Couple:

Laia and Gerard

The Wedding:

Cortal Gran, Sant Pere Pescador, Girona, Catalonia

A Secret Message Hidden In The Pronovias Gown

My grandfather passed away exactly one month before the wedding, and it was very important to me to have him with me that day. So, I asked Pronovias to embroider the word “Avi,” which means “grandfather” in Catalan–our language–to have him close to me during the wedding.

A Surprise From The Best Men

There is a wedding tradition in Catalonia where the best man is in charge of bringing the bouquet to the bride before she walks down the aisle, and he has to read her a poem. Our best men decided to reinvent that tradition, and they wrote and composed a song about our love story. One of them even learned how to play the ukulele! The moment when two of our best friends showed up with the perfect bouquet–which was a complete surprise for me–and sang the cutest song just minutes before I met Gerard on the aisle was so emotional, breathtaking, and adorable.

Retro Inspired Wedding Vibes

We wanted to get married during the party of our life. We love retro disco music, and we can’t get enough of the 80’s aesthetic. So, it was crucial that this retro but chic vibe was present all day. We founded our own wedding videography business a few months before getting married, and we called it Freak & Chic Films–so that was the motto when we were planning and designing our big day. We wanted it to be freak and chic!

A Unique Seating Chart

We designed our own seating plan. As wedding videographers, we wanted our passion for 80’s and 90’s movies to be represented in some way. So, we found 2 old tv’s and made a video of ourselves showing the guests where to sit. People loved it and stood in front of the tv’s waiting for their table to appear over and over again.

A Dirty Dancing Inspired Second Dance

I’ve been obsessed with Dirty Dancing since I was a child and everybody who knows me knows that. It had always been a dream of mine to perform the final dance scene on my wedding day. So I asked Gerard to do it. We rehearsed the whole summer, watching Youtube videos repeatedly so we could perform the exact choreography shown in the movie. But we wanted it to be a surprise for our guests, so our first dance was a classic waltz. After that, I went to change my dress and makeup. When we reappeared at the party dancing the Dirty Dancing dance everybody went nuts screaming and crying—they knew that I was living my dream. They were also freaking out about Gerard’s new dance skills!

The Wedding Team:

Photography – Pablo Laguia
Event Planning – Enfelizate
Venue – Cortal Gran
Floral Design – The Original Fleurs
Catering – 21 De Marzo
DJ – Beats&Roll
Videography – David Rodríguez
Makeup Artist & Hair Styling – El Baul de Ruth
Wedding Dress – Pronovias
Groom’s Apparel – Armani
Rings – Rabat
Favors – Pope & Poole

 

Congratulations again to Laia and Gerard on their disco ball chic wedding at Cortal Gran! We’re so glad that Pablo Laguia was there to capture the radical details of the day. If you’re trying to plan your own unique nuptials, check out our guide on how to plan a unique wedding! 

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