What Is a Micro Wedding?
A micro wedding is a full wedding held for a small guest list: on this site, 40 guests or fewer, at one venue, over three to five hours. It keeps the ceremony, a meal and toasts, but drops the logistics of a large reception. An elopement, by contrast, is the couple plus an officiant and a witness or two.
Quick Answer
How is a micro wedding different from an elopement or an intimate wedding?
An elopement is the couple, an officiant and a witness or two, built around the ceremony and portraits. A micro wedding adds a guest list of up to 40 plus a meal and toasts. An intimate wedding, on this site, is roughly 20 to 50 guests and overlaps with micro; the difference is format more than head count.
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Micro Wedding vs. Elopement vs. Intimate vs. Small Wedding: Where Are the Lines?
The four labels overlap and different planners draw the lines differently. These are the ranges the pages on this site use.
| Term | Guest count | What it usually includes |
|---|---|---|
| Elopement | The couple, an officiant, sometimes a witness or two | Ceremony and portraits; a meal afterwards is optional |
| Micro wedding | 40 or fewer | Ceremony, meal, toasts; one venue; three to five hours |
| Intimate wedding | 20–50; overlaps with micro | A micro-sized day described by feel rather than head count — often a dinner-table format or a weekend away |
| Small wedding | 15–75; the umbrella term | Anything under a conventional reception size, micro and intimate weddings included |
If you want a single test: an elopement is built around the ceremony and portraits, and a micro wedding is built around the ceremony and a meal. Everything else is a judgement about head count, and vendors will mostly follow whichever word you use.
What Does a Micro Wedding Usually Include?
- One venue — ceremony and meal in the same place, or within a short walk of each other
- A ceremony — civil or religious; the legal part is identical to any other wedding
- A meal as the reception — one long table or a private dining room rather than a ballroom
- Toasts — usually during dinner, from people who all know you
- Portraits — a short block for the couple, plus family groupings run from a list
- Three to five hours — from getting ready to the last toast; dancing is optional
What it leaves out is the production that exists to move a large crowd: a rehearsal dinner, shuttles, a cocktail hour engineered to hide a room flip, a seating chart with table numbers. The micro wedding photography page describes how the shorter day changes coverage.
How Do You Plan a Micro Wedding in Minnesota?
The license. Minnesota marriage licenses are issued by the county, are valid for six months and have no waiting period (Minn. Stat. 517.08); the ceremony needs two witnesses aged 16 or older (Minn. Stat. 517.10). The Minneapolis courthouse guide and the St. Paul courthouse guide cover the application, witnesses and how to book a civil ceremony — and a courthouse ceremony followed by dinner is one of the simplest ways to hold a micro wedding in the Twin Cities.
The venue. Most micro weddings follow one of a few patterns: a restaurant or taproom private room, a backyard, a rented lake house or estate, or an outdoor ceremony spot with dinner somewhere else afterward. For places sorted by capacity, start with the Minnesota small wedding venues guide or the Minneapolis under-50-guest venue list.
The light. Twin Cities sunset runs from about 4:30 PM in early December to about 9:00 PM at the summer solstice, so even a short timeline needs its portrait window planned against the sun. In summer that is easy; a winter micro wedding with a 4:00 PM ceremony has to do portraits first. The sunset-by-month timeline post has the windows.
Backyards. Face guests away from the sun, not into it, and put a midday ceremony in open shade — the side of the house or under a large tree — rather than the middle of the lawn. Have one honest rain plan: a garage that can be cleared, a porch, a tent hold.
Photography. Four hours of coverage fits most three-to-five-hour micro weddings whole, and one photographer is the right call for nearly all of them. Wedding collections start at $3,100 (Emerald: four hours, one photographer, 75 edited photos per hour, a 1-hour engagement session, timeline assistance and a private online gallery). Travel is included within 40 miles of downtown Minneapolis; beyond that it is billed at cost with no markup and quoted before you book. Elopement coverage starts at $650 if the day is just the two of you. A curated sneak peek arrives within 1–2 weeks of a wedding and the full gallery within 6–8 weeks.
What Else Do Couples Ask About Micro Weddings?
How many guests is a micro wedding?
On this site, 40 or fewer. The intimate wedding page uses 20 to 50 and the small wedding page 15 to 75, so the labels overlap. Above about 40, a day starts to need the things a micro wedding exists to avoid — a seating plan, a longer timeline, a room flip, sometimes a second photographer.
Can a micro wedding still have a reception and dancing?
Yes. At most micro weddings the meal is the reception — one long table or a restaurant's private room — with toasts during dinner and dancing if you want it. What gets dropped is the production around a large reception, not the celebration itself.
How long does a micro wedding last?
Usually three to five hours from getting ready to the last toast, at one venue. That is why four hours of photography coverage handles most micro weddings whole, and why a longer day across two locations is really a small wedding rather than a micro one.
Do you need a marriage license for a micro wedding in Minnesota?
Yes — the legal steps are the same at 12 guests as at 200. The license is issued by the county, is valid for six months and has no waiting period (Minn. Stat. 517.08), and the ceremony needs two witnesses aged 16 or older (Minn. Stat. 517.10). The Minneapolis and St. Paul courthouse guides on this site walk through the application, witnesses and ceremony booking.
Does a micro wedding need a second photographer?
Almost never. In a room of 25 to 40 people a second camera mostly doubles the presence of the photographer. The exception is a longer day split across two locations, which is when a second photographer earns a place.
What is a minimony?
A minimony is a very small ceremony — often the couple, an officiant and immediate family — held on the original wedding date, with a larger celebration planned for later. It sits between an elopement and a micro wedding.
Where do couples hold micro weddings in Minnesota?
Four patterns cover most micro weddings: a restaurant or taproom private room where dinner is the reception, a backyard, a rented lake house or estate, or an outdoor ceremony spot with dinner somewhere else afterward.
Planning a Micro Wedding?
Send the date, the rough guest count and where you are thinking of holding it, and I will reply with the coverage that fits a three-to-five-hour day. Honey Deww is a Minneapolis wedding photographer booking 2026–2028; a 25% retainer holds the date.
Check My DateBy Emma Ziegler · Updated
Where the rules come from
Permit rules and license requirements come from the offices below, not from me — check them directly before locking in a date or location.
- Hennepin County — marriage license applications and courthouse ceremony scheduling
- Ramsey County — marriage license applications for St. Paul; civil ceremonies are arranged with a district court judge