Written by our rad team member, Kiersten Roy
So, you’ve decided to start planning a micro wedding and are wondering exactly how to go about it. Well, friend, you are in the right place! Whether you’re dreaming of a two-day wedding weekend or a multi-day celebration with all your favorite people, this guide will help walk you through everything you need to know about how to plan a micro wedding in Washington State. Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
- What is a Micro Wedding?
- How to Plan a Micro Wedding
- What You Need to Know About Packages For Your Micro Wedding
- Meet Your Micro Wedding Photographers
- More Micro Wedding Inspiration
What is a Micro Wedding?
First things first, what is a micro wedding?
Well, in the words of Hannah Montana, a micro wedding gives you the best of both worlds! Imagine celebrating your marriage surrounded by all your favorite people while also getting to enjoy the intimacy and freedom of an elopement! That’s exactly what you get when planning a micro wedding.
Micro weddings allow you to skip the overwhelming guest list that often come with traditional weddings and plan an intimate day filled with intentionality and meaningful moments. Micro weddings take the best parts of elopements and traditional weddings and combine them into an epic celebration of your love! Seriously, what could be better than that?
If you want to learn more about micro weddings, check out our guide below! In it, we cover everything from guest count to location ideas to timeline tips, and more!
How to Plan a Micro Wedding
Choose Your Micro Wedding Photographer
The first step in planning a micro wedding is to hire your micro wedding photographer (hey, that’s us!). Choosing a photographer early on can help make the rest of the planning process so much smoother. You don’t have to have all the details planned out. In fact, many of our couples come to us with a general idea of when and where they want to celebrate, and from there, we help bring their micro wedding vision to life.
Set a Budget for Your Micro Wedding
Did you know that the average wedding in Washington State costs around $26,000? While micro weddings can be a more budget-friendly alternative to traditional weddings, they are not cheap weddings. Most of our couples spend anywhere from $20,000-$50,000+ for their micro wedding. While these estimates are helpful starting points, the actual cost of your wedding will depend on several factors like how many people you invite, where your wedding takes place, which vendors you hire, what details you choose to include, etc.
Before getting too far into your micro wedding planning, sit down with your partner and decide how much money you want to set aside for your wedding budget. Then, share which aspects of the day are most important to you. Is it photography, food, or maybe your venue? Make a list of the items that are the most important to you and then set aside the largest portions of your budget for those items.
Decide How Many Guests You Want to Invite
One of the best things about micro weddings is that they allow you to have an intimate wedding day with your favorite people without sacrificing time for just the two of you.
While the size of micro weddings can vary from photographer to photographer, our team considers micro weddings to include 15-50 guests. We’ve found that micro weddings with this number of guests allows you to preserve the intimacy of the day without sacrificing the quality of your experience.
When thinking about who you want to invite, consider those people that you could not imagine getting married without! Maybe it’s your best friend from childhood or your sisters and brothers! No matter who makes the list, focus on the people you want to include and don’t feel pressured to invite anyone out of obligation!
Choose Your Micro Wedding Location and Date
One of the most common questions we get as Washington micro wedding photographers is “Where should we hold our micro wedding?”. While Washington is filled with some incredible locations, the truth is, there are just a handful of places that we’ve found to be the best for couples planning a micro wedding! Here are our top three picks:
North Cascades National Park
If you are looking for a micro wedding location with incredible mountain views, this is the place for you! The North Cascades has some of the best mountain landscapes in the country, and it also happens to be one of the least visited national parks! This means you’ll get more privacy on your best day ever (win-win)!
Best Time of Year to Visit: July – September
Olympic National Park
Struggling to choose between a forest elopement, a mountain elopement, and a beach elopement? In Olympic National Park, you don’t have to choose – you can have all three! This is, by far, one of the most diverse micro wedding locations in Washington. Want to see for yourself? Check out Rainey and Logan’s Olympic National Park elopement with multiple views!
Best Time of Year to Visit: May – early October
Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (aka Snoqualmie Valley)
Located just a few miles outside downtown Seattle, Snoqualmie Valley is one of the most easily accessible micro wedding locations in Washington! This makes it an ideal location if you have guests traveling from out of town and are looking for a convenient place for them to stay. Plus, we know all the hidden gem locations that will give you the same incredible views as the national parks, but without the crowds!
Best Time of Year to Visit: May – early October
These three locations offer so many options for our couples when it comes to where to hold your ceremony, as well as micro wedding venues to choose from! We’ve been photographing elopements and micro weddings in these areas for the past seven years and we aren’t joking when we say we know them like the back of our hand! From weather patterns to backup locations, hidden gem spots, and more, we can’t wait to share everything we know about these beautiful areas when we start planning together!
*Insider Tip – You might be wondering why we didn’t list Mt Rainier National Park! While we love this national park, they have very strict rules regarding where you can hold your ceremony and the number of people you can invite. Plus, with limited road options and the park’s reservation system, traffic getting to the park is often very heavy! If you plan to elope at Mt Rainier with 10 people or less, this park is awesome, however, we recommend avoiding it for micro weddings as it simply doesn’t provide the best experience!
Book Your Micro Wedding Venue
If there is one thing every micro wedding needs, it’s a micro wedding venue! Your venue can be as simple as a park lodge or day use area or it can be a venue designed specifically for intimate weddings. We’ve created an entire resource dedicated to our favorite Washington micro wedding venues, which you can check out below, but here are three of our top picks!
Apres Cabin
It truly doesn’t get any more cozy than this beautiful PNW lakeside cabin set against the mountains! Apres Cabin is one of our favorite North Cascades micro wedding venues because it’s not only located in a stunning location, but the cabin provides everything you need for a micro wedding with all your favorite people! Micro weddings at this venue truly feel like hosting your own adult summer camp!
Agate Beach Lodge
Located on the Olympic Coast, Agate Beach Lodge is one of the most stunning micro wedding venues we have ever photographed! The A-frame lodge sits on a private beach and is surrounded by the forest giving you two different landscapes in one incredible venue!
Treehouse Point
Want to channel your inner kid and hold your wedding in a treehouse? Well, at Treehouse Point, it’s possible! Located in Snoqualmie Valley, this micro wedding venue is made up of 7 unique treehouse accommodations. You and your guests can sleep Swiss Family Robinson style and explore the surrounding rivers, mountains, and forests during your best day(s) ever!
Hire Your Micro Wedding Vendors
When it comes to planning a micro wedding, we highly recommend working with other vendors who can help bring your vision to life! As your micro wedding photographers, we will help you choose your location and plan your micro wedding timeline, but hiring a wedding planner can help you feel less stressed and more present for your celebration. From coordinating with other vendors to setting the tables and taking out the trash at the end of the evening, a wedding planner is there to handle all of the little details so that you and your guests can be fully immersed in the experience.
Other micro wedding vendors you may want to consider are:
- Florist
- Hair and Makeup Artist
- Officiant
- Videographer
- Caterer / Private Chef
- DJ / Band / Musician
Book Your Transportation and Accommodations
As your micro wedding day approaches, you’ll want to start booking your transportation and accommodations. If you are traveling from out of state and flying into Washington, the best airport to fly into is Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
From there, you can rent a car (we recommend a 4-wheel drive vehicle if you plan to drive through the mountains) or hire a shuttle to drive you and your guests to your venue, like this couple.
We also recommend looking for accommodations near your ceremony location. Some couples choose to book accommodations that can house them and their guests so everyone can enjoy their time together, while others prefer to book separate accommodations that everyone can retreat to at the end of the day. No matter which option you choose, our biggest tip is to consider how far your lodging is from your venue or ceremony location. This will help eliminate additional drive time on your wedding day.
Create Your Micro Wedding Timeline and Backup Plans
Planning a micro wedding truly allows for so much flexibility! Want to go on a sunrise hike and then enjoy a celebratory brunch with your guests? Or maybe you want to go on a kayak tour and then exchange your vows at sunset. No matter what activities you want to include, know that anything is possible!
However, here is one tip we always like to share: the more guests you invite, the more time you’ll need to fully enjoy your day (especially if you’re planning an adventure wedding in a remote location).
For many couples, planning a micro wedding in nature is all about creating an experience for your family and friends. We want to make sure you have enough time to soak in those moments with your loved ones without feeling rushed (because no one wants to feel stressed on their best day ever).
At the same time, we also know your adventure as a couple is just as important. This is why we strongly encourage couples to plan a two-day micro wedding. This option allows you to have a full day celebrating with your favorite people, while also reserving a separate day for just the two of you!
As your micro wedding photographers, we’ll work with you to help you create your ideal wedding timeline during our planning process. We’ll be sure to include all the important moments and details as well as backup plans in case unexpected events arise.
Communicate Your Plans with Guests
Once you’ve finalized your micro wedding plans (date, location, venue, timeline, etc.), you’ll want to start communicating those details with your guests.
On top of sending invitations, many couples choose to create a wedding website so they can easily send updates and share information with their guests. Of course, you’ll want to share information like your date and the location, but it can also be helpful to share tips for what guests can expect. Share an itinerary for the weekend and provide tips on what to pack and how to prepare. You may also want to let them know that your micro wedding might look a little different than weddings they have attended in the past and that’s ok!
Have the Best Day (or Days) Ever!
Once your micro wedding day approaches, all that’s left for you to do is sit back and have the best day ever! Leave the rest to your vendor team and simply enjoy the present moment because you, my friend, are getting MARRIED!
What You Need to Know About Packages For Your Micro Wedding
When planning a micro wedding, we recommend two elopement packages to our couples: our two-day or full buyout micro wedding packages.
Our two-day micro wedding package is perfect for couples who want to get married on a weekday. As many of the locations we go to are in nature, these places can get very crowded on the weekend. By planning a weekday wedding, you get a beautiful view and the best experience possible for your best day ever!
Our full buyout package is perfect for couples planning a wedding weekend! This three-day option allows you to create an intentional experience with your guests and enjoy a long weekend filled with your ceremony, celebratory meal, and other micro wedding activities!
Ready to learn more? Click here for more information about our micro wedding packages.
Meet Your Micro Wedding Photographers
We feel most at home in the outdoors, so it’s no surprise that is where we gravitate towards as your micro wedding photographers. Between the Pine was founded by Mollie in 2018, and she has hiked hundreds of miles all over the Pacific Northwest and Kauai, to capture couples during their best day ever. Since 2018, we’ve grown our team and continue to hire even more incredible photographers!
Our team at Between the Pine is passionate about our jobs and adventuring to the most beautiful locations to document your best day ever. We know the Pacific Northwest like the back of our hands and are dying for a reason to head back to the mountains, forest, and everything in between! Click here to learn more about the Between the Pine team, your micro wedding photographers!
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