Micro Weddings: The Rising Trend of Intimate Celebrations

We love things in miniature. Tiny houses, tiny horses, tiny jewelry — give it all to us. Some people have found a happy medium for producing the biggest day of their lives. Fancy weddings are suddenly going small… really small.

This week, Slate's Shannon Palus introduced us to the new industry of tiny weddings. If you prefer a more elevated term, "microweddings" works too. Rather than stress for months about every last detail of a massive religious, civil, and social event, couples who choose these package deals can get a nice backdrop, a few special guests, a professional cake, and a hard rule that you're done in 90 minutes. One provider offers these services for about $2,000, plus available add-ons.

We already know that student debt, among other earnings issues, can put a huge damper on how we throw and attend weddings. Figuring out what to spend on gifts is another pressure point for guests. In fact, shelling out enormous amounts of money on a wedding is one of our most common top financial regrets. Even resources for "chill brides" can cost you.

In those circumstances, it makes sense that millennials would want to pare down. We don't even settle down until much later than other generations did, and we don't tend to get engaged until our salaries equalize. Still, as Parus points out, the very minimalism of these tiny weddings does seem like another form of conspicuous consumption.

Ultimately, just make sure you're happy with what you're buying, no matter what you spend. "[I]n a backyard or a public park," Parus writes, "$2,000 could buy a vast supply of cheap rosé and a ton of sheet cake to facilitate an evening-long party between a hundred or so people you love."