You may have heard of the rise of micro weddings and for good reason since it is a wedding trend which is picking up some popularity. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 upended wedding plans for scores of couples, and the industry has been working to recover ever since. While there is evidence to suggest that the coming year will see a record number of weddings, there is also evidence that indicates a growing shift in wedding expectations.
Weddings are celebrations that are often characterized by their scale, extravagance, and glamour. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course. After all, weddings are joyous occasions that should be memorable. Still, many couples are realizing that memorable experiences are not dictated by scale alone. Enter the growing trend of micro weddings. Couples are finding that these intimate affairs are a great way to christen their love while also remaining efficient in terms of money and planning.
What Are Micro Weddings?
An average wedding guest list in Canada falls between 150 and 200 people. As one can imagine, a guest list that size can come with a pretty hefty price tag. Food, drinks, and venue alone are enough to push a wedding towards tens of thousands of dollars. Not only is this a hefty upfront cost, but it also leaves little room for future investments like a honeymoon or down payment on a house.
On the other hand, a micro wedding is a wedding celebration that features no more than 50 guests. Weddings of this kind offer a number of advantages. The most obvious among these is cost. An average wedding in Canada costs around C$30,000. Conversely, a micro wedding can be had for C$5,000 or significantly less, depending on what the couple has in mind. Additionally, weddings with smaller guest lists ensure that those in attendance are indeed the nearest and dearest to the newlyweds. Couples that opt for smaller gatherings can christen their love while avoiding financial pitfalls and unnecessary stress.
The Impact of COVID-19
The ongoing pandemic is bound to have a lasting impact on the public perception of weddings. The limitations wrought by the past two years have given rise to new possibilities. For example, micro weddings have always been an option. However, many couples never considered them as viable until circumstances forced them to do so. Health restrictions have reduced the size of most public gatherings, and weddings are no exception. Additionally, the pandemic has led many people to avoid public gatherings of their own accord.
For many couples, this posed a dilemma. They could either delay their wedding celebrations for a more opportune time or opt for a simple legal proceeding at a courthouse. In a scenario where neither option was particularly appealing, micro weddings have emerged as an effective middle ground between the two. Now that smaller weddings are being embraced in the wake of COVID-19, they are likely to grow in popularity even as the public health situation improves.
Micro Weddings The Rising Cost of Living
In the US and Canada, the cost of living was on the rise long before the global pandemic took hold. Stagnating wages coupled with the increasing cost of housing have created an environment where weddings of traditional scale are becoming less feasible. Micro weddings are a reflection of a growing trend of practical minimalism among millennials. Whether due to ethics or economic necessity, many millennials are coming to value experiences more than material things. Micro weddings are proof that the time-honored tradition of wedding ceremonies need not be lavish in order to be memorable. Micro weddings are a testament to the enduring strength of unions between lovers. In a world where the aesthetics of a wedding can sometimes overshadow its true meaning, reevaluating scale gives one the opportunity to reflect upon what is truly important.
