Let’s chat with one of my brides - Natalie!

Natalie and Rob were married in September of 2019 and hosted a small wedding in Rochester, NY! It was absolutely perfect so I wanted to give her a chance to share her (new found) expertise. I know a lot of couples might be faced with cutting down original guest lists and/or completely changing their wedding plans due to COVID-19 (I officially hate that word haha). If this sounds like you, my hope is this interview and collection of images will give you some confidence, and relief! Small weddings are all the hype! Let’s jump right into it!

How did you guys determine a small wedding was best for you?

We went back and forth on what we wanted for our wedding. We looked into pretty much everything you could imagine! Destination wedding, elopement, big wedding, small wedding, you name it, we researched all of it!  After a lot of thought and back and forth we asked ourselves, what the most important thing was for us. We both decided it was sharing this special moment with our family. We felt that keeping it simple and intimate made the most sense for us and our guests.

After you decided on a smaller wedding, how did you decide who made the cut? Any tips on how to keep the list small?

My husband has a rather large family and I have a smaller family. We included everyone in my family and limited my husbands family to the most immediate; the people we spend the most time with and are closest with. This was a little bit more difficult in deciding as opposed to my side of the family. My husband and I looked through the list and narrowed it down to the family members he keeps in touch with the most, and the ones that I have met throughout the years. I know this can be difficult to exclude family members but we really wanted to keep it to the ones we have shared memories with in the past and were the closest to. It was tricky in deciding what friends, if any, we would invite. My husband has a substantially larger friend group than myself, and thinking about who we would invite and the wedding party became quite difficult. We decided on keeping it just family with the exception of one of my very closest friends. We asked her if she would officiate our wedding which was extra special and allowed her to be a part of our day. Our total guest count was 40 people! We rationalized limiting friends at the wedding by have a big celebration with everyone at a joint Bachelor/Bachelorette party. This gave us the opportunity to celebrate with all our friends not just for a day,  but an entire week! 

What was your favorite part of your entire day?

It’s hard to just pick one part of the day because I loved all of it! If I had to narrow it down though, it would have to be when my husband and I exchanged our vows. We are both more on the private side and the thought of exchanging our intimate vows in front of everyone gave us anxiety! We decided to exchange our personal written vows in private before the ceremony with Megan there to capture the moment. It was so meaningful and private it meant so much to both of us! 

On your wedding day, did you ever feel rushed?

I was surprised at how relaxed and laid back the day felt. I never once felt rushed or overly nervous. With any party or get together I’ve planned in the past, I am always worried about if people are having a good time and feeling like I need to run around and cater to everyone. Having just our closest family and friends there gave me the opportunity to live in the moment and not feel like I needed to rush around checking in on everyone. It was actually really freeing. I only had feelings of excitement and happiness throughout the day. Megan helped a lot in coming up with our timeline and it was perfect, I never felt rushed at all!

How was the process of planning a smaller wedding?

Planning a smaller wedding was so straight forward. I had friends planning weddings around the same time as ours, and I could definitely feel their stress when it came to managing everything. There are obviously a lot of things to coordinate for a wedding regardless of size, but having a smaller guest list definitely made things much easier.

Do you feel you had more quality time with your guests?

Yes!! I’ve been to weddings with a 100+ guest count and maybe spoke to the bride and groom for a few minutes before they made their way around the room. We were able to engage with all of our guests throughout the night and never felt like we needed to cut things short to go make our rounds. 

What would you say the biggest pro would be in regards to having a smaller wedding?

My husband and I had a really hard time rationalizing the cost of just one day So keeping things small gave us the opportunity to have everything we wanted and the ability to spend a little extra on the details. It was definitely more cost effective and gave us the ability to splurge a little more on our honeymoon and bachelor/bachelorette party! 

If you could go back and change anything about your day- would you? And if so, what would that be?

I wouldn’t change anything! I really enjoyed every moment and when I look back on that day I am so happy with how it all turned out. We were able to have the best of both worlds. A huge celebration with our friends before the wedding and an intimate ceremony and reception with our families. I couldn’t have asked for anything better!

VENDORS:
Venue: Jackrabbit Club (& catering, and coordination)
Flowers: Stacy K Floral
Officiant: Nicole Visnick (close friend!)
Hair & Makeup: Blush Beauty Bar
Bakery: Evelyn’s Bakery
Ceremony Music: Cello player Rachel Lemna
Reception Music: Terence Dunphy Trio
Wedding Dress: Pronovias Dress from Silk Bridal
Invitations: Minted