Planning a small wedding can be somewhat different from planning a larger one, but a nice result of planning a small wedding is lesser costs and confusions on that special day. Before planning a small wedding though, you'll need to define specifically what you mean by "small". For some people, a small wedding is just ten or fifteen of their closest friends and family. For others however, a small wedding includes at least 50 people.

For the sake of this article, we'll consider planning a small wedding to mean planning a wedding which will have 20 people or less. This makes things much easier to plan and pull off without a hitch, plus it can really help you keep your wedding budget low too!

Small Wedding Food Tips: When planning a small wedding of just 20 guests, you don't usually have to worry about having a catered meal. Family members can get together and create a home cooked meal for your wedding reception instead, or you can make arrangements to have the meal at a local favorite restaurant.

If you'd rather have the meal catered anyway, you can still do so of course. Simply find a caterer who specalizes in smaller events, and work with them to plan the details for your own small wedding reception.

Small Wedding Ceremony Tips: When planning a small wedding, you have many options for creative ceremonies. You can for instance, simply make arrangements to have your wedding ceremony in a small local chapel you've always adored, or get a permit from your county or city to use a pretty gazebo in your local park.

In fact, when planning a small wedding you can actually choose to have the ceremony at your home, a friend's home, or maybe the family home you grew up in. Since there won't be too many people in attendance, it's easy to fit the wedding ceremony in a variety of places that aren't practical for larger ceremonies.

Some people prefer to have their small weddings in unusual places too. A couple of four wheel drive enthusiasts for example, might plan a small wedding which involves driving to the top of a mountain and having the ceremony overlooking a beautiful lake or canyon.

Small Wedding Reception Tips: Planning a small wedding makes the reception planning much easier and less expensive too. You could for example, simply plan to have your wedding reception at a friend or family member's home. You could have the wedding reception at a local park, or you could simply have everyone gather together at a favorite club for the reception too.

Keep in mind though: Just because you're planning a small wedding does not mean you have to go super low budget. Small weddings can be "done up" in the very same way larger weddings can. Planning a small wedding can still involve having gift registries, elegant invitations and thank you notes, formal ceremonies and celebrations, and all the trimmings of food, wine and spirits too.

So if you're planning a small wedding yourself, first think about how small that wedding will be. Then decide whether you want the wedding to be unique, creative, or traditional. From that point it's just a matter of setting your budget, then planning your small wedding!