Micro wedding checklist: what stays, what shrinks, what you can skip

The short answer: the core stays, the logistics shrink

At a small size, the legal paperwork, the officiant, the venue, the food, and the photos are just as necessary as at a 150-person wedding, while seating, signage, shuttles, and most of the day-of staffing shrink or disappear.

That is the useful way to read any standard checklist when your wedding is small. Each line falls into one of three buckets: needed at any size, smaller but still there, or optional. Standard lists do not sort this way because they are written for a big party, so you end up scanning pages of items that do not apply to a dinner for twenty.

The checklist in this guide does the sorting for you. If you want the full-size version for comparison, our full wedding planning checklist lists everything a larger wedding needs.

What "micro" means here: a size you choose

There is no official definition of a micro wedding, so in this guide it simply means a wedding small enough that you can talk to every guest, usually a few dozen people at most.

Venues, planners, and magazines each draw the line somewhere different, and none of them is a rule. What matters for your checklist is not the label but what changes as the room gets smaller: you can seat everyone at one or two tables, you may not need a sound system or a coordinator, and a single space can often hold the ceremony and the meal.

If you are still deciding how many people to invite, work that out first. Our guide on making a wedding guest list walks through the circles of family and friends and how to cut a list down. The checklist below assumes you have a rough number, and it works whether that number is ten or fifty.

Still needed at any size: license, officiant, venue, food, photos

Five things do not shrink with your guest count: the marriage license, someone to officiate, a place to hold the day, food, and a way to capture it.

• Marriage license and legal steps. In the United States, marriage license rules, waiting periods, and any witness requirements vary by state and county. Check with your county clerk before you set a date, and ask what they need from you and from your officiant. We do not state any rule here, because it depends on where you marry.
• Officiant. A friend, a family member, a religious leader, or a professional. Confirm early that they are authorized to officiate where you are marrying, and ask your county clerk what that requires.
• Venue. Small weddings open up places that cannot hold a crowd: a restaurant private room, a family home, a garden, a rented house, a courthouse followed by dinner. Ask each place about its rules for events, noise, and time limits, and get the details in writing.
• Food. Fewer guests do not mean fewer decisions. Ask about dietary needs and allergies before you choose a menu, and decide whether you want a seated dinner, shared plates, or something casual.
• Photographer. In a small group, a photographer often matters more, not less, because there are fewer people to share the memories. Lead times for good ones can still be long, so ask early about availability.

None of these are cheaper in effort just because the party is small. A tight guest list gives you more choice of venue and more room to say yes to the ideas you actually care about, but the order of operations is the same: date, legal steps, venue, officiant, food, photos.

Smaller but not gone: guest list, seating, and the day-of plan

Three jobs shrink to something you can finish in an evening but still deserve to be written down: the guest list, the seating, and the plan for the day.

• Guest list. The list is shorter, but the decisions are heavier, because every name is a visible choice. Write down your rule for who is in (for example, "immediate family and closest friends") before you add any names. Plus-ones, kids, and a few relatives you would normally invite are where it gets hard.
• Seating. One long table or two or three round ones can replace a full seating chart. You still decide who sits near whom, particularly if there are family tensions, but you can do it in one sitting. If you want to see it laid out, a seating chart is a room, its tables, and guests placed on them.
• The day-of plan. A short written schedule still helps: when people arrive, when the ceremony starts, when the food comes out, when photos happen, and who is responsible for each. With a small group the plan is one page, not five.

In MyWedding Planner, the guest list is organized by household, with categories like family and friends and an adult or child age range for each guest. The seating chart is visual: you draw the room, add round or rectangular tables, and place guests by drag and drop. The day-of timeline holds the times, the key moments, and who does what. At this size none of it takes long, and it keeps everyone working from the same page.

Often skipped at this size, and what that frees up

Many couples drop the items that exist to manage a crowd, and those are the ones the standard checklist spends the most time on.

These are choices, not rules. Keep any item that matters to you, and skip the ones that are only on your list because every other list has them.

• Formal seating chart and escort cards. With a few tables, people can sit where they like, or you can place a few name cards and leave the rest.
• Shuttles and parking plans. Nearly gone when the group is small enough to carpool or when the venue is central.
• Wedding website. A group text or a single email with the details can do the job for ten or twenty people. Some couples still like a page for the address and schedule.
• Large wedding party. Many small weddings have one or two people standing up with the couple, or none.
• Day-of coordinator. Often replaced by one trusted friend who knows the schedule. With a larger venue or complicated logistics, you may still want one.
• Sound system, band, or DJ. A playlist and a speaker can be enough. Check whether the venue provides its own.
• Favors, programs, and signage. Easy to drop, or to replace with one handwritten sign.

What this frees up is mostly time and attention. Time you would have spent on a long vendor list can go to the things that remain: a good meal, a good photographer, and time to talk with each guest.

A timeline from a few months out to the day before

A micro wedding can be planned in a few months, but the order matters: legal steps and venue first, details last.

The timeline below is an example, not a rule, so stretch it if you have more time or compress it if you do not. Only the venue, the photographer, and the officiant tend to have limited availability, which is why they come first.

1. Four to six months out. Choose a rough guest count, pick a date, and book the venue. Ask your county clerk what the marriage license needs, and book the officiant and photographer.
2. Three months out. Finalize the guest list and tell people the date. Choose the food and ask guests about dietary needs and allergies.
3. Two months out. Send invitations or messages with the time and place. Confirm the license steps and any waiting period with your county clerk. Decide on outfits and any rings.
4. One month out. Collect replies and chase the missing ones yourself. Settle the seating, even if it is one table, and write the day-of plan.
5. One week out. Give the final headcount to the venue and caterer. Confirm times with the officiant and photographer, and share the schedule with whoever is helping.
6. The day before. Make sure the license paperwork is where you need it, prepare anything you are bringing, and confirm the schedule once more.

In MyWedding Planner, tasks are dated automatically from your wedding date, grouped by theme, and shown as a list, by month, or in a calendar. For a longer, full-size version to borrow from, see our full wedding planning checklist.

Telling people it is small, and drawing the guest line

Tell people your wedding is small early, in one plain sentence, and give everyone in the same position the same answer.

The harder part of a micro wedding is rarely the checklist, it is the list of who is not on it. A boundary you can say out loud is easier to defend than a case-by-case decision. For example: "We are keeping it to immediate family and our closest friends, and we would love to celebrate with everyone else afterward."

• Say it before invitations go out. Nobody should learn about the wedding from a photo.
• Do not over-explain. A long reason invites a negotiation. The boundary itself is enough.
• Treat the same roles the same way. If one cousin is invited and another is not, expect the question.
• Offer another moment, if you want to. A casual party later, or a dinner when you return from a trip, lets people celebrate without crowding the day.
• Decide on plus-ones and kids once. Apply the rule to both sides of the family.

If the weight of all these decisions starts to feel like too much, you can break it into smaller pieces and tackle one a week. And if you are planning a rehearsal dinner too, our guide to the rehearsal dinner guest list helps you draw that line separately.