A micro wedding of 20 to 50 guests in the US usually costs between about US$5,000 and US$12,000, going by the prices published by planners Tiny Wedding Co. and San Diego venue The Point. The low end is an all-inclusive ceremony package; the high end is a full venue wedding with dinner. Catering and the venue move with your guest count, while photography, attire and the officiant cost much the same as they would for 150 people.
Sources: package price from Tiny Wedding Co.; venue wedding and catering ranges from The Point, San Diego; planner fees from Verve Event Co., New York.
Tiny Wedding Co., which plans micro weddings in Chicago, Washington DC and Baltimore, sells packages with the main vendors included, from US$4,875 on weekdays and US$5,090 from Friday to Sunday. It says its couples have spent anywhere from about US$1,000 on a backyard barbecue to more than US$35,000 at a Michelin-starred restaurant.
At the venue end, The Point, a waterfront venue in San Diego, puts a micro wedding at US$7,000 to US$12,000, against US$30,000 or more for a traditional wedding in the city. For what counts as a micro wedding and how it differs from an elopement, see our guide to micro weddings.
The Point's breakdown shows how a micro wedding budget divides between the main costs:
| Item | Typical cost | What changes it |
|---|---|---|
| Venue rental | US$1,500 to US$5,000 | Day of the week, season and exclusive use |
| Catering, 20 to 50 guests | US$2,000 to US$4,000 | Menu style and guest count |
| Photography | US$1,000 to US$1,500 | Hours of coverage |
| Flowers and decor | US$500 to US$1,000 | Number of tables and installations |
| Entertainment | US$500 to US$1,000 | Live music or a DJ, and the length of the night |
These are San Diego prices for a venue wedding, and they leave out attire, rings, stationery and a planner. Use them as proportions: the venue and the food together take more than half the total.
Photo: Joel Santos (Pexels)
Some costs stay the same however short the guest list. New York planner Verve Event Co. lists photography and videography, attire, hair and makeup as costs that don't fall with guest count. You may book the photographer and band for fewer hours, but full-day coverage costs what it would for a big wedding.
Planning help varies the most. Verve puts it at about US$1,000 for a newer day-of coordinator, upwards of US$20,000 for an experienced full-service planner and designer.
Many venues set a food and beverage minimum, a spend you must reach whatever your guest count. Verve gives the example of a US$50,000 minimum: easy to reach with 150 guests, hard with 30. Before you fall for a big venue, ask for its minimum and work out the spend per guest it implies.
Galleries, rooftop bars, botanic gardens and private houses often have lower minimums or none. Our list of unconventional venues for micro weddings and elopements has ideas. If a venue offers a micro wedding space, walk through the room you will actually use and ask whether another wedding is booked the same day.
A package bundles the main vendors at a set price, which is how small-wedding specialists keep costs down. Tiny Wedding Co.'s base package covers a two-hour event with a day-of coordinator, an officiant, a photographer, two personal floral pieces and a small cake. The company says that booking vendors one by one exposes you to each one's minimum, and that a florist alone can start at US$10,000 on a peak-season Saturday.
The trade-off is choice. Packages like this assign vendors by availability and let you set a colour palette rather than pick specific flowers. If a particular photographer or florist matters to you, a package may not suit.
A wedding abroad changes the maths, because catering and hire scale with the guest list while the setting doesn't. Many resorts sell wedding packages for small groups, and our destination wedding packages show what venues abroad include. For the smallest end of the range, our guide to how much it costs to elope covers the figures.
Written by
Senior SEO Specialist, Wedded Wonderland
Mark Tuason is the Senior SEO Specialist at Wedded Wonderland, where he writes and refreshes the brand's guides to destination weddings and cultural wedding traditions. He starts with the questions couples search for, checks the answers against trusted sources, and shapes each guide to help them plan, compare and book with confidence. Based in the Philippines, he specialises in content strategy and on-page SEO.
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