Couples are having micro weddings as average cost now over $30,000

By Finance News On Jul 6, 2024

Vanessa Acosta marries Sam Roberts in their backyard in Pasadena, California, on May 25, 2024.

Courtesy: Vanessa Acosta

Last year, Vanessa Acosta and Sam Roberts found their dream venue for a black-tie wedding.

But a series of family events made the couple reconsider their plans: “We don’t need to do this big thing where we’re going to put ourselves out financially,” said Acosta, 35, of Pasadena, California.

Instead of hosting around 150 guests and spending about $75,000, the couple decided to get married in their backyard with just 54 of their closest family and friends.

Such events with roughly 50 guests, max, are called “micro weddings.” A so-called minimony is even smaller, usually attended by no more than 10 people, according to The Knot, an online wedding marketplace.

Acosta and Roberts had a new budget of $3,000, and they knew they needed to get creative.

“We DIY’ed and thrifted everything,” Acosta said. “We thrifted my husband’s shirt, he used his really nice dress shoes he already owned. I made my dress and I thrifted the fabrics; I made my veil.”

Cutting the guest list made the wedding “much more manageable,” she said. The couple tied the knot on May 25.

Why micro weddings are becoming appealing

Vanessa Acosta and Sam Roberts pose together on a street in California.

Courtesy: Vanessa Acosta

The average cost of a wedding ceremony and reception in 2023 was $35,000, according to The Knot 2023 Real Weddings Study. The total cost is a $5,000 increase from 2022.

Inflation over the past few years was a key driver to higher costs, according to the Knot. The report polled 9,318 US married couples between January 1 and December 2023.

“Put simply, weddings are expensive,” said Allison Cullman, wedding expert and the vice president of brand marketing and strategy at Zola, another online wedding marketplace.

‘The number one way’ to save on wedding costs

As the cost of typical weddings in the U.S. has swelled in the past few years, experts say cutting down the guest list is the best way to save on costs, even if you don’t trim it to micro-wedding levels.

In 2023, weddings with 25 to 50 guests took up about 15% of the market; weddings with less than 25 guests made up roughly 2% of the market, according to data from The Wedding Report, a wedding research company, provided to CNBC.

The average guest count at weddings has been declining since 2006, when the average was about 184 people, according to data from The Wedding Report.

We don’t need to do this big thing where we’re going to put ourselves out financially.

The lowest count was in 2020, when the average headcount declined to 107, primarily due to restrictions from the Covid-19 pandemic, said Shane McMurray, CEO and co-founder of The Wedding Report. The size of weddings rebounded in 2021 to 124…