10 reasons to have a small simple wedding in Chicago
How many people do you really need at your small wedding?
Its been a few months since I got married and the more I hear about other weddings, the better I feel about our choice to have a small simple intimate wedding in Chicago rather than a huge over the top event. It worked out really well to have just around 100 people and a 4 hour dinner reception.
As much attention as there is for BIG celebrity weddings with TV shows and magazine coverage, I don’t think it shows your love for one another any more when you have a huge expensive event, and I also can’t understand how to afford that kind of huge wedding. Maybe some people have rich parents, but we were pretty average people so even with some help from the parents we didn’t want to go overboard.
We also didn’t think that a small wedding would represent our relationship any less than a huge one. I am not sure how Wedding have gotten to gigantic proportions, but I think people view them as a combination of some kind of celebrity rock star day to have every dream come true that you have ever had, whether it is wedding related or not. I also think women confuse wedding dresses with formal designer gowns and expect the event to look like the Oscars as well.
The thing is you probably will remember the fancy things for a while but over time my hope is that Steve and I remember how we felt on that day and why we decided to get married. I think the bells and whisles will fadw with time anyway, so I am gad we didn’t go overboard.
Simple small bouquets cost less and are lighter to carry also
With that idea in mind here are my top 10 reasons for having a small wedding in Chicago:
10. Smaller weddings with fewer guests cost less. So do weddings that are shorter in length. If you can keep the event shorter it is much more affordable.
9. Your wedding isn’t really about formality unless you’ve grown up with a lot of formal events. We didn’t, so I wanted to be comfortable at my own wedding and be relaxed enough to enjoy being with the guests, so the less formal look of the event and less protocol was a better fit for us.
8. The fewer things you shoe-horn into your wedding day the fewer issues you will encounter. I would guess the ratio is about 2-4 things go wrong per wedding and this gets amplified if yours is planned to the hilt because there is no room for improvisation and no time.
7. The guests have a better time because they are more comfortable at the event and can have some fun
Weddings at home are small and intimate and a lot of fun
actually spending some time with you.
6. Its easier to find a venue for 50 people than it is for 300. Lots of Chicago restaurants would be intimate and perfect for this and really beautiful.
5. If its small, your wedding is more about you and less about silver candle sticks and personalized runners and napkins.
4. You might actually get to spend some time with your new husband and with your guests rather than running around the whole time.
3. You have less of a let down after the wedding if you keep things simple. We had about a week or two after the wedding where we didn’t know what to do with ourselves in the evenings because we didn’t have all the planning to do, but it was relatively minor because we didn’t have a Hawaiian vacation to miss.
2. There is a lot less stress in planning a simple wedding than a complicated formal huge wedding.
1. Its the people you will remember, not the stuff. Likewise with your husband. Hopefully you will remember how you felt about him that day and how wonderful he has been ever since.