NARROWING DOWN YOUR GUESTLIST Who makes the cut and who gets the chop? If you’re ready to go ahead with your micro-wedding, then you need to start thinking about who is going to be on the exclusive list of attendees. Immediate family, of course, make the list and will include anyone from your mum and dad to siblings on both sides. After that, we have grandparents, this could swing both ways and depends on your relationship with them – if you’re going for a rowdy party, then maybe arrange something separate with them. Close friends: whoever isn’t in your bridal party but are still considered close friends, should make it onto your list. Extended family you’re particularly close with like cousins, aunties, uncles, and whoever else comes to mind, should all make the cut too. The easiest rule to follow when deciding who should be there is, if they mean a lot to you and are in constant contact with you, then they deserve a chance at attending. Who are we not inviting? Anyone who hasn’t spoken to us in the last six months! If you can’t be bothered to loosely keep in contact through a message here and there, then you don’t deserve a seat at the table. Obligation invites are also not something we are wasting our time on, just because they invited you to their wedding five years ago, doesn’t mean you have to invite them to yours. Work colleagues – this one completely depends on your relationship with them, and they may even fall under ‘close friends’ category; but just because they’ve caught wind of your wedding, doesn’t mean they are obliged to an invite. Plus ones, absolutely not, sorry – there will be no strangers at this exclusive event. CATERING OPTIONS As one door closes, another opens; in the case of microweddings, as the guest list decreases, the food opportunities increase. With having a smaller wedding, you have more freedom with the style of food you include. Instead of having the formal three-course meal, you can swap this out for an informal and flexible food truck. This type of catering works particularly well if you are having an outdoor wedding and want guests to freely stroll up and get food, as and when they want it. It also creates a bit of a festival atmosphere – which is amazing if you are hosting a summer wedding! Branching off of that, we have the ever-popular barbecue; a classic in any British garden, in the summer, and well-suited to more causal weddings. Barbecues have a decent range of food to please the masses, can be cheap to do, and the food can be nibbled on throughout the day. There’s no need to gorge yourself on a three-course meal and then drag your full tummy to the dancefloor. From here, we have the natural jump to mobile pizza ovens – rising in popularity, understandably so, and firmly making its way into wedding itineraries. Pizza is a crowd-pleaser, customisable, easy to eat for all ages, and just simply tasty. You could even offer a signature pizza; the same way people offer signature cocktails at their wedding. Plus, pizza is the sort of food that could make for some fun images in the wedding album – cramming a roast down your throat doesn’t have the same aesthetic. Moving onto a sweeter note, we must consider the opportunities for an ice cream van at your wedding. The instant and fleeting sense of excitement you get as an adult when you hear the tones of an ice cream van whizz past, can be recreated on your wedding day. If you are planning a wedding in the height of summer, then I cannot recommend enough adding this food truck to your supplier list! There’s plenty of options, it’s customisable (signature soft serve), and it’s an easy food for all age groups. If we are going to discuss sugary goodness, let’s not forget the wedding cake. It’s become a stereotype that the wedding cake is ignored after the initial slices have been taken from it, and that’s a lot of money to spend on something to be neglected. The joy of a micro-wedding is that with less people to cater for, you can opt for a smaller cake with more details and more flavour! Hopefully, the standout nature of this smaller bake will wow guests enough to leave the cakeboard empty. You can always bolster your sweet display with some cupcakes or doughnuts if you’re concerned about there being enough for your guests. unsplash.com.@hellojiro 20
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