Planning a Micro Wedding: 4 More Important Things to Keep in Mind

Most of us dream about our wedding day, but planning the actual day? For me, that was a completely different experience than I had imagined. Due to several factors, I ended up planning a micro wedding and not a traditional wedding.

Planning a wedding is stressful. Planning it in four months? It felt a little bit impossible to pull off. There were lots of tears and a few compromises, but the wedding must go on! Oh yeah, did I mention that we planned the micro wedding while in two separate states, about a thousand miles apart? Thank goodness for Google Docs.

So what did we do and what would I change? Because, let’s face it, there’s always something to change.

Did you read our first post about planning a micro wedding? Check out part 1!

1. Wedding Dress

Whelp. We’ve arrived at this topic. When planning a micro wedding, you definitely want to have your wedding dress at the top of the to-do list. The reason I suggest this is because finding a dress can take a while and because tailoring can take a while (even with a non-traditional dress).

I definitely loved my wedding dress. And yet, it wasn’t a white dress. I sometimes look back and I don’t feel like the “bridal” look is there. But, at the time, I loved the texture of the skirt, and the colors that were on it. Wedding dresses are also super expensive and I felt so much guilt at spending several hundred dollars on a dress. A dress that would cost thousands? Most definitely NOT in my budget.

While browsing for wedding dress options, I came across this gorgeous cream and gold skirt that had so much texture and it looked like I could maybe squeeze a mini train out of it. I ended up tracking it down to the BHDLN site but, of course, the skirt was actually no longer being made!

I scoured so many sites, trying to track down the skirt and I finally found it on Poshmark. It cost me around $100 to buy and ship, and then my mom tailored it for me. For the top, we went to store after store trying to find a gold shirt that would go with the skirt. Sometimes, we took the skirt with us and sometimes we would have to do a return. Finally, we found a shirt that matched close enough to the gold on the skirt, and I got the shirt tailored.

I think this was truly the biggest stressor during the wedding planning. From the day we got engaged to the day we got married, there was only a span of about four months. For a traditional wedding dress, that’s just the tailoring time! Out of the four months of our engagement, I would say I spent about two (?) of those months solely focusing on the wedding dress.

What would I change? Let’s be honest. I want a white dress for a re-do wedding. My flippant, dramatic side is really wanting to argue for mandatory wedding dress funds alongside a college fund for women. It’s ridiculous how expensive these dresses can be! Looking back, I think I would have rather spent a couple extra hundred dollars on a nicer, more traditional-looking white dress. BHLDN, the company that sold the skirt I wore for my wedding, had those traditional dresses for a few more hundred dollars but I was just too uncomfortable spending that kind of money on clothing.

2. Makeup & Hair

Alright, let’s get this out of the way. I was not confident about my make-up and hair skills so I went to Sephora to get my makeup and hair done there. The makeup held up during the day but I’m not sure that it quite matched my skin tone. In some of our wedding pictures, I don’t have a natural skin tone, it leans more orange. The hairdresser was really sweet but used so much hairspray that there was absolutely no movement to my hair. While the swirls were cute, I’m not sure that it was anything like a wedding hairdo.

What would I change? Umm…everything. Honestly, I might just do the makeup myself. Part of the reason I didn’t get a professional wedding makeup artist is because the service was just going to be for myself since I had no maid of honor or bridesmaids. In hindsight, I would have just started testing hairstyle and makeup options a few weeks before the wedding and then doing it myself. However, I was just not very confident in my make-up and hair skills.

3. Flowers

The only flowers I got were for my bouquet and for Kyle’s boutonniere. That was it. I absolutely loved my bouquet, and the matching boutonniere was a nice traditional touch.

What would I change? I don’t think I would order more flowers or a bigger bouquet. The amount of flowers was good enough for me. This also really depends on your reception space. Our space was decorated enough that we didn’t really need too many extras.

4. Decor + Paper Goods

When planning a micro wedding, you need to decide what the space and look of your micro wedding will be. Décor and paper goods can help you establish a look for your wedding. You can either decide to spend more money in this category for higher quality materials, or you can spend less and decide to use sparse decorations. We were able to keep our decorations pretty simple since the private dining space was decorated already. Some of the decorations included a few wedding quotes on wood materials, a guestbook with pictures of us, custom cake boxes, and a gold cage where people could leave cards.

The cake boxes were ordered from Etsy but the exact store I used isn’t on there anymore, so here are two similar box items I found (one) (two). I also ordered my wedding invitations from Etsy. I used Penelope’s Paper Pantry and they were so helpful with providing plenty of digital samples so I could see the design before the physical product. The Mr. & Mrs. sign was made using a laser cutter from the Main Library branch of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. The guestbook was made on Shutterfly using engagement pictures. I actually put in too many pages so there are lots of empty, unsigned pages. The other decoration pieces were either gifted or bought at various stores.

Planning a micro wedding in Charlotte, NC, in about four months, is something I never thought I’d be doing but we did it! And at the end of the day, we were married, which is all that truly matters, anyway!

Did you read my first post about planning our micro wedding? Check out part 1!

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