Hi y’all, it’s me again! If you’ve been following along with our wedding planning diary, it’s good to see you again! If you’re new, I’ll give you a little background. I’m Meagan! I’ve been with Inspired by This for the past 6 years. After writing countless wedding inspiration posts and featuring the prettiest real weddings, it’s my turn to get married! Little did I know when I started this planning diary that I would soon become what (I guess) we’re calling a “coronabride.” I also had no idea that I’d be planning a microwedding instead! I promised to take you along on this journey, so here’s me filling you in on what so many 2020 brides are having to do – Start over.
If you were planning on getting married this year, know that I feel you. There are so many brides going through the same roller coaster of emotions. There’s no “right” way to get married (or not get married) in 2020. This is my personal experience, and I want to encourage you to do what YOU want. There are no rules anymore!
(Photo by Sanaz Photography, Hair & Makeup by Page Beauty, Venue at Cielo Farms)
The Coronavirus Decision
If you had asked me in March what our wedding plans were (and a lot of people did!) I would have said that we’re 100% proceeding as planned in August. As the weeks and months went on, both my fiancé and I had a sinking feeling that we’d have to shift our plans. There are so many options for “coronabrides,” it’s overwhelming to say the least. Should you postpone the whole thing? Elope? Have a microwedding? What about a minimony?
Ultimately, we decided to have a microwedding with our immediate families on our original date, and postpone the reception to 2021. My advice for brides trying to make that decision now would be to decide what your personal priorities are! For us, we wanted to get married and have the important moments (like walking down the aisle and a first look) with just us and our families. Next year will just be a big party, and kind of like a 1-year anniversary celebration!
I’ve described the feeling as an overwhelming sense of relief. The back and forth of whether or not we’d be allowed to have our wedding was so draining. Now that a decision has been made, I felt free to move forward and make it happen!
Now What?
The biggest piece of the puzzle for our microwedding was finding a venue. We knew that a private property would be ideal, since then we’d have more flexibility with our guest list. My fiancé’s grandma actually saved the day – She suggested a family friend’s backyard in Orange County, and it ended up being perfect for what we wanted! We’re so thankful that they were willing to let us host the ceremony there, and can’t wait to see it all come together.
Planning A Microwedding
Since we’re still having our reception next year, planning a microwedding became our second event to put together. So many of our original vendors were incredibly flexible and willing to work with us on both events, which we were so appreciative of! We’re grateful to Shannon and Vikki from All You Need Is Love Events for keeping us sane and helping us coordinate dates and new contracts. We’re also so glad that Sanaz Photography, Inessa Nichols Design, FiftyFlowers.com, and Page Beauty will all be working with us on both of our events!
The New Dream Team
With a new venue comes new catering and rentals, so that was the biggest piece that we had to coordinate. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Colette’s Catering on so many of our events, and I was so excited that they were available for our microwedding! Their menus are to die for, and it was so hard to narrow down what we wanted to serve! I also can’t wait to share the pieces we selected from Archive Rentals to build out the backyard space.
For the design, I wanted to do a more intimate and romantic version of what we had planned for our original wedding. I chose a softer color palette and more rustic rentals that fit the outdoor space better.
Now, for the things we all really go to weddings for – The cake and the wine! I still wanted a wedding cake for our small backyard wedding. Plumeria Cake Studio was kind enough to set us up with a fun to-go cake tasting! Our favorite flavors were the lemon and the chocolate raspberry. My fiancé and I are both winos, so it was important for us to have wine at our wedding as well. We opted to go for a selection of red, white, and sparkling from ONEHOPE – One of our favorites!
Letting Guests Know
We chose to send out a “change of plans” to all of our guests via email. We already had their email addresses from our digital Save The Date, so it was an easy way to update everyone at once. Once we narrowed down our microwedding guest list, we ordered the cutest invitations from Minted! We didn’t need to send out invites since it was just family, but it was important to me to try to make the microwedding just as special as the full wedding would have been. I’m so happy with how they turned out!
The next time you hear from me, I’ll probably be married (whoa!)! I’ll share more on our reception planning process too, but I hope this post on planning a microwedding can help even 1 coronabride decide what to do. We’re all in this together! In the meantime, check out this virtual wedding planning guide you need to read!