I always knew I wanted a small wedding. So once the excitement of the engagement wore off, we got out a notebook and wrote down the names of everybody who meant the world to us - there were close to 80 names on that list.
I also knew that I wanted my wedding to be elegant and incredibly romantic. We wanted to spoil our guests because we had people flying in from literally all corners of the world - from Argentina to Austria, from Colorado to New York City, everybody met up in Miami to celebrate the fact that we were finally tying the knot. (Why such an international guest list? Our life is spread out: I'm a Latin American mutt and my husband is from Europe and we've lived in every major city in the East coast.)
Oh, and we had to stick to a budget because we paid for everything ourselves. In other words, we wanted it all - and because we had a small(ish) wedding, we got it. And it wasn't stressful - in fact, it was fun! It felt like a great big dinner party where all of our friends and family finally got to meet. And they did, because no one was lost in the crowd.
We also got to do a lot with our wedding budget: A swanky cocktail party with free-flowing drinks and tuxedoed waiters passing hors d'oeuvres? Totally manageable. A reception hall decorated to feel "like drinking champagne at midnight?" Done. Hand-written place cards? Done. (By me.) Adorable little gift boxes at every seat? Easy! (How do you think I got so good at tying Tiffany bows?)
Keeping your guest list to a manageable size makes it so much easier you to make your wedding your own. There's no need to compromise on filler, because everyone and everything has a reason for being there. And don't feel like you have to hold back because your event is on the smaller side. You can have entertainment (we had mariachis, as you can see in the picture above) even if you "only" have 20 guests. You can serve alcohol. You can have dinner and dancing, and the cake cutting, and walk down a long aisle in a huge church if that's what you want. We did.
You don't have to have a 300-person wedding to create beautiful memories. You don't even need to have a "Big" wedding, if that's not what you want. All you need is to be surrounded by those you love, and the rest will fall into place.
