When I proposed to my husband, I had no idea what our wedding would look like. I was one of those women who never really thought about it. I didn’t think I’d ever get married, so of course I hadn’t imagined the details. I didn’t know what kind of wedding I wanted.

Why did I get married, you might ask? Well, I can’t really explain it. I just knew from the moment we got together that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, and my desire to get married grew and grew. I was going through a very dark period and his presence, his words, his posture simply confirmed to me that he was the man for life.

When it came down to it (the moment he said “I do”!) we started by making a list of all the things we didn’t like about traditional weddings and didn’t want to reproduce. I soon realized that for my wedding, as for everything else in my life, I was going to apply the principles of minimalism.

THE ADVANTAGES OF A MINIMALIST WEDDING:
Much easier to organize,
Less costly,
Allows you to enjoy the big day much more

MINIMALIST WEDDINGS: WHAT IS IT?
Minimalism is the art of the essential. It’s about freeing ourselves from the superfluous, from things that aren’t really necessary, and cleaning up our beliefs.

In the case of weddings, which have been around since the dawn of time, traditions and legacies are ingrained in everyone. Even if weddings are becoming more and more modern (and I was delighted to discover this when I did the research I’ll talk about below), we all know the “highlights” that recur at every celebration: “the bouquet toss”, “a cake for two to cut”, “couple’s games” and so on.

There’s a tendency to put so much into them, so much that I don’t know how the bride and groom manage to enjoy them, so I think it’s important to get back to basics.

It was therefore very important for me – vital, in fact – to take stock from the outset, as I do with my coaching clients, of what I liked and didn’t like about weddings, so as to create an event that reflects us, free from the somewhat “political” obligations we’re all familiar with (you have to invite this person or there’s a scandal). We got together with my fiancé to see if we had a similar vision, and so moved forward.

MINIMALIST WEDDING: CHOOSING GUESTS
The first step in our planning was to choose our guests. When you want a minimalist wedding, you can’t over-intellectualize this part.
The ones you think of first are the final guests! I’m simplifying a little, but let’s just say that when you embark on a minimalist wedding, it’s important to know how to free yourself from the superfluous in terms of guests.

No politics with minimalism, the aim is to remember that this is the bride and groom’s day, and that we’re not here to please everyone, or to make everyone happy. Just because someone isn’t on the guest list doesn’t mean they don’t mean anything to us, it’s just that when you want to keep things simple, you have to choose.

For our part, we set ourselves the rule of inviting only parents, brothers and sisters (I’ve already got 4, so it goes fast) and friends. Please note that this is not a minimalist wedding rule; you have to create your own rule when it comes to guests: your essentials are bound to be different from ours, it’s just important to be okay with that.

This is probably the hardest part of a minimalist wedding, agreeing to give up on pleasing everyone. What counts in the end is the satisfaction of both spouses.

MINIMALIST WEDDINGS: DRAWING INSPIRATION FROM A SIMPLE, REFINED ATMOSPHERE
This is where I began my search on Pinterest. The aim of this step was to define a mood in terms of decoration, to see what appealed to me most, in relation to our personalities but also according to our means.

The advantages of minimalism, in general as for a wedding, are that we choose what seems essential to us, so we keep things simpler, which also helps lighten our finances in the process. I’ll tell you more in the last post in this wedding series about choosing suppliers and the total cost of the wedding.

Back on Pinterest, then, where I entered targeted keywords like “Minimalist Wedding”, I was able to get quite a few ideas already. Looking at the pins I was saving in my secret “Wedding Mood” board, I quickly discovered the mood I was most drawn to: I wanted a wedding that was a little bohemian, a little country, something close to nature and simple. Given the setting we’d chosen (my father’s garden), it was perfect.

MINIMALIST WEDDINGS: SIMPLIFY ACTIVITIES AND CHOOSE “HIGHLIGHTS”.
One of the things my fiancé and I agreed on right away was that we didn’t want a wedding that started in the morning and ended in the middle of the night. As a wedding guest, I’ve always found it too long and energy-consuming, and in my desire to make this wedding “Kids Friendly”, I wanted to spare them too long a day too.

By choosing a shorter wedding, we also spared ourselves the need to occupy time with activities of all kinds. Because while some people like “traditional” wedding activities, we’re not really fans of them.

So we asked ourselves the question, went through all the traditional activities and highlights we wanted to keep, chose the simplest, and the bonus is that we were able to enjoy each other’s company more.

In short, to have a successful minimalist wedding, you need to :

1 – Ask yourself what you really need
2 – Dare to make simple, good-for-you choices
3 – Enjoy the big day!