Microwedding Timeline and logistics

I think you should follow basic hosting etiquette no matter the size of your wedding. Provide drinks and apps while you take photos, then provide a meal. Don't expect your guests to work for your wedding, hire caterers to take care of the cooking.

We’re having around 45 guests at our wedding at an Airbnb. We’re doing a first look and bride/groom photos before the ceremony. We’re doing family photos after the ceremony and our day of coordinator will have people start to get their food (we’re doing a buffet) the last 10 mins we’re taking photos. Our photographer said family photos should take around 20-30 minutes. After dinner we’re playing yard games like giant jenga, connect four, and cornhole. We have a Spotify playlist to act as background music. We’re not big dancing people and we just wanted our wedding to feel like a more upscale tailgate basically lol.

I would have music playing & drinks & appetizers available while you are taking pictures. I would provide dinner after the ceremony.

View Quoted Comment I certainly don't expect anyone to cook anything and we'll of course cover the cost of alcohol/apps/food. I guess I was kind of looking for suggestions on alternate catering options. The place we rented is extremely nice and we're covering the cost of room and food for the entire weekend for everyone.

View Quoted Comment Upscale tailgate- love it! When we were originally planning a traditional wedding I was all about a first look but now I feel like it's so few people that I don't want anyone to see me before which is totally unrealistic. How long are you planning to have your day of coordinator on site?

My wedding isn’t much bigger at 30 guests. You can get catering from a nice mom n pop restaurant for cheap, some will even help you set up but please PLEASE buy or rent chafing dishes, even disposable ones. Guests don’t want cold food or to get sick, it’ll be a major weight off your shoulders.
We’re going with an actual caterer with staff because the company was nice enough to work within our micro budget.

View Quoted Comment Lol, thanks for the HOT tip (see what I did there?). The house has two ovens so I'm wondering if it's reasonable to have a restaurant deliver in disposable chaffing dishes and then we just keep it warming in the oven and grab it out when it's time to eat?

We did catered appetizers and then the rest of the ceremony was a potluck! i think it adds a nice personal touch to the wedding. you could also set up board games and lawn games and stuff like that.

Oooh that's a cool idea. I like the idea of having games available. Did you have a playlist or anything running? And do you have a day of coordinator?

View Quoted Comment Well our coordinator is the best mans younger sister so she’ll be there the whole night haha but after dinner and the cake cutting she doesn’t have to do anything wedding related

View Quoted Comment Possibly but it depends on how long you’ll leave it out. If you just have the meal and toss it you’re good but if guests want seconds or thirds you’ll need chafing dishes. You can buy the disposable ones you light yourself at Walmart for $30, I almost went this route for sure.

Our timeline is First look, then ceremony, then cocktail “hour”(more like 30 mins) for family portraits, then dinner my caterer will announce, then dancing and finally cake and dessert bar. We’ll have a band playing during cocktail hour and dinner, plus a DIY photobooth guests can play with whenever. We’re considering outdoor games as well.

View Quoted Comment Hmmm fair point about people wanting seconds and thirds. Glad you brought that up!!

View Quoted Comment Yeah guests tend to graze when it’s not on their dime, they want to go back and try everything. Be sure to get a thermometer as well to check the food. Nothing ruins a wedding quite like food poisoning. 🤢 but this is absolutely doable! And with a small guest list you can get some really fantastic stuff for your wedding a lot cheaper than a big guest list would. I definitely splurged on table linens and things like that because it was so affordable! Also if you want fresh flowers for a good price Fiftyflowers.com has ready made centerpieces for $65 for five centerpieces! Micro weddings are awesome.

View Quoted Comment Thanks so much for the perspective! We'll definitely avoid a food poisoning situation! We're not planning on doing any linens or decorations since the house itself is so beautiful and we'll decorated on its own. I want the ceremony to feel like a ceremony but I want the "reception" to feel like a family dinner. Hopefully we can accomplish that. Your event sounds really nice!

Publix catering is actually pretty impressive and I think would be great for your small wedding, I ordered it for an office Christmas party last year. We got a ton of food for 30 people for about $150-$200 I think? They have everything from little croissant sandwiches, meat and cheese tray, fruit and veggie trays, all the way up to fried chicken and hot side dishes! Shouldn't break the bank too bad and man is it good! (they also do wedding cakes!)

View Quoted Comment Thanks! I don't think they have Publix in MO but I can ask around about a similar option! I hadn't thought of that!

View Quoted Comment Wow I didn't know until just now that Publix is only in six states Oops! Basically Publix is just a nicer grocery store, has a lot of fancy/pricey grocery brands (coming from someone who strictly grocery shops at Walmart lol). Hopefully they have a something similar out there that you can look into!

We are not big into dancing, so we brought board games for our 32 guests! That said, people mostly spent the time talking and didn't really start playing til the last half hour, haha. Since most of our guests were family, we invited them all to come with us for pictures (we didn't have a photographer, we just used our phones and one friend brought his fancy camera) Our venue came with catering, but I've been to events that were catered by grocery stores like roche bros and wegmans that did a great job! I know a bunch of local restaurants in my hometown also do catering as well, so it never hurts to check your favorite restaurant's website for that either!

View Quoted Comment Have you considered hiring a private chef and assistant? It may be worth looking into. They will cook everything on-site to your menu choices.

View Quoted Comment I'll check it out! Hopefully not too cost prohibitive. Thanks!