Inspiration and Ideas for Home Weddings
2020 has brought a lot of new wedding trends, and one of those is the rise of small, intimate weddings at private homes. If you’re considering hosting your wedding at home, our experienced team of wedding planners have some ideas for you (trust us, we’ve done it before)! Here are our best ideas for home weddings in Minnesota and beyond.
Ideas for a Unique Home Wedding
Involve your guests in the ceremony
For a small wedding at home, consider having every single guest participate in the ceremony. This is not feasible for a larger, traditional wedding so take advantage of celebrating small!
There are so many ways guests can participate that aren't limited to just standing up and giving a reading. Guests can share advice and well wishes, play music, participate in a singalong, or heck - perform the ceremony! Any way you can think of to meaningfully incorporate your guests will make your ceremony that much more special for you and them.
Go beyond a sit-down meal
A lot of people, when considering entertaining at home, immediately think they should do a sit down meal together. While there's something to be said for gathering around the table to break bread and converse, I encourage couples when planning their small wedding to think outside the box.
Host a cocktail style reception utilizing several rooms in your house. Each space can have its own agenda. Have food and/or an activity in each room. For example, turn your den into your Dessert and Drawing Den where guests will go to enjoy their sweet treats and get a fashion sketch done by an artist.
There are many benefits to a cocktail style reception. For one, you can invite more people! A sit down dinner means all your guests need to be seated at the same time and you probably don't have a table that seats more than 12 comfortably. With a mingling reception your home can easily accommodate more guests as they flow from room to room.
It also creates an unexpected experience for your guests. They will want to discover what each room offers and will be able to talk to more people instead of just the guests seated to their right and left.
With a cocktail reception you can have a variety of food stations, plus butler passed hors d'oeuvres, so you are sure to please even the most particular palates and accommodate dietary restrictions.
Make each guest feel special
One of the main benefits of a small, at home wedding is the ability to hyper-personalize. Each guest that you are inviting is an important person in your life, and you get to show them why through your wedding.
Make them feel special from the start—in the invitation, ask them to reply with a song they want to add to your reception playlist or to share a memory about you two that you can have as a keepsake (and surprise, you will write out your favorite memory about them to give to them at the wedding!).
Create fun buttons, badges or name tags for your guests that tell everyone what their relationship is to you. "Brother of the bride" or "best friend from college" will be worn proudly and be a great ice breaker for your guests.
Instead of doing a place card with just the guest's name for dinner, include your favorite thing about them. Everyone loves receiving a compliment, especially in an original way. Let them know why they are special to you! (I would bet money that your guests will save this place card.)
Another fun seating assignment idea is to have your guests find their seat by photo. Mark their seat with a photo of you and your guest, bonus points for putting it in a nice frame for them to take home.
Give your home a signature scent
Want to be super unique? Consider a signature scent. This is easily accomplished with a high quality room spray. A signature scent engages the underutilized sense of smell, creating another level of experience for your guests.
Choose unique entertainment
Often overlooked for small home weddings is entertainment. Entertainment doesn't mean just music, although live music is always a great way to level up your party.
Entertainment can be anything that your guests interact with and enjoy—from a tarot card reader to a wedding painter. Bring in a florist and have them make flower crowns or a poet who creates custom poems for your guests.
Personalize your favors
At the end of the night, send your guests off with a personalized party favor. Include THEIR favorite things and maybe a personalized token of your appreciation like custom notecards with their name or a monogrammed luggage tag.
Choosing the Right Space
Picking the right space in your home to host is really about letting your home tell you what kind of small wedding will work best. You can't change the architecture so your best bet is to work within the parameters of the space. If you want a sit down dinner for 24 but your table seats six, you can't make it work (sorry Tim Gunn).
That said, get creative. Can you move items around in your living room to make space for a long table to seat everyone? Just because a room serves one function for your everyday life doesn’t mean it can’t serve another for entertaining.
Move knick knacks and unnecessary furniture to a room you aren't using. It is good to have a room that is off limits to guests to store boxes for rentals and miscellaneous stuff anyway. Additionally this decreases the likelihood of things getting broken.
Consider non-traditional spaces
Virtually any space can be transformed for partying, including a garage or old barn. These spaces often work well because there aren't a lot of extraneous walls or decor and they have electricity. If you think your guests will be wary of venturing to the garage or barn just remember, guests will go where the bar is!
Go outdoors
Don't forget the value of outdoor space. You can create a magical wedding experience right in your backyard. Experienced wedding planners and rental professionals know how to make the most of outdoor spaces. You may be surprised at where you can put a tent or how many tables you can fit on your patio.
Logistics Tips for Home Weddings
If you’ve never held a large party at your home, the logistics of a home wedding might feel a little overwhelming. Heck, even if you have had a large party at your home a wedding presents unique challenges that most people haven't had to deal with. These tips will help make sure your wedding at home runs smoothly.
Hire help
Hosting at your home doesn't mean you have to do all the work. Hire event professionals to manage your wedding. A planner can ensure the wedding runs smoothly and you can enjoy the day with your family and friends. Post-wedding hire a cleaning crew to take care of the mess, this will be money well spent we guarantee it.
Plan for parking
Parking is an often-overlooked logistic at home events. Do you have enough parking for all your guests? If not, what are your options? Double check that there are no parking restrictions around your home. Some cities require special permits, and the last thing you want is your guests' cars to be towed!
Create a timeline and communicate that to your guests
Guests will feel at ease knowing when things are happening and - maybe more importantly - when they are supposed to leave. A simple sign at the entrance or a custom cocktail napkin with key times should do the trick.
Create a great flow
A great flow is key for an unforgettable guest experience at your small, intimate home wedding. Think about all the things your guests will need throughout the course of your wedding and then plan your flow around that. For example, where will they get a drink?
Consider common congestion areas in your home and create a plan to keep people from congregating in those areas. Well placed signage can help your guests find the restroom, coat closet and stay out of areas you don't want them to go.
Make a Plan B for outdoor weddings
If you are planning your small home wedding outdoors make sure you have a Plan B. Mother Nature doesn't always cooperate and you need to be able to transition smoothly and quickly.
Bonus tips:
Stock up on toilet paper! You can never have too much toilet paper for a home wedding.
If kids are invited it is essential to create a "kids only" space so they don't overtake the whole house.
Buy more alcohol than you think you need, trust us.
Fun Decor Ideas for Small Home Weddings
Oh the decor possibilities for intimate weddings! With a wedding at home, you have so many options for making the look and feel cozy and personal. Here are a few ideas from our Minneapolis event designer we love.
Make your decor a family affair
Set your table with items sourced from relatives. Use grandma's china, Aunt Sue's glassware, your mother-in-law's flatware. Platters for food service, cloth napkins, tablecloths, cake service, salt and pepper shakers... everyone has something they can contribute!
Make sure to print on the back of your menu where all the items came from and thank everyone for loaning them to you. The look will be eclectic and lovely and completely one-of-a-kind.
Don't forget about lighting, inside and out!
Most homes are not built with party lighting in mind. Overhead lighting can be too harsh and floor lamps are often in the way. Candles add great ambiance and light to virtually any room in the house. Small, unobtrusive battery powered uplights can make a big impact.
Outdoors, it is especially important to think about lighting for your guests' safety, but it also can be a compelling decor element. Throw some floating glowing orbs in your pool - they will let guests know to stay away from the water and also look really cool. Exterior lighting or video projection mapping can turn your house into something else entirely!
Don’t over-do your centerpieces
When it comes to centerpieces, keep them low. The whole point of an intimate dinner party is to be able to talk to people. Large obtrusive centerpieces will just annoy your guests because they make conversation impossible.
Make your entrance a statement
Have a huge floral arrangement in your foyer or surround your front door with balloons. Your guests' first impression is here, don't waste a key experiential opportunity.
Prepare a show
Use your TV for a slideshow of images or trivia-style questions about the couple and guests.
Catering Ideas for At Home Weddings
Use family recipes
Ask your caterer to recreate some of your favorite family recipes. It is a great way to honor loved ones. Family recipes make for great party favors as well.
Consider your meaningful meals
Food memories are some of the strongest memories. Work with your caterer to craft a menu based on meaningful food memories. Where did you eat on your first date? What does your family make for Thanksgiving? Your wedding meal won't just be any old food, it will be nostalgia on a plate.
Don’t forget mingling foods
No matter what kind of meal you are having, make sure to butler pass some hors d'oeuvres at the start of the party. This allows for your guests to mingle and have the food come to them. It also eliminates lines at food stations which can be particularly problematic at home weddings where there is less space.
Consider a tasting menu
Family style food service works really well for small, intimate home weddings and is a natural fit.
At the same time, a multi-course tasting menu style dinner also works great. A tasting menu is something different than you would experience for a larger, traditional style wedding meal. Having a chef at your home explaining all the courses will be memorable for foodies and non-foodies alike.
Safety & Sanitation: At Home Weddings During COVID-19
As a responsible host, the onus is on you to know the rules and guidelines around having a wedding at your home in your state. What is required varies widely and changes often so do your research and check back for new information. Your primary focus should be your guests' safety.
Send cute custom masks as part of the wedding invitation as a way to approach the topic of attendance. Make it clear that you want your guests at your wedding, but only if they feel comfortable attending and they aren't exhibiting any signs of COVID-19. An additional insert or on the RSVP card would be a good place to address this.
Upon arrival, give your guests individual bottles of hand sanitizer, bonus points if they have custom labels coordinating with your wedding.
Have signage throughout your home reminding guests to take precautions and practice good hygiene. The signs can be clever and cute, even a quick visual cue to a guest could create the desired behavior.
Hire event professionals, again. Reputable companies are way more likely to have safe and sanitary business practices and can assist you in creating your plan to celebrate safely.
With the pandemic still in play, the team at Rocket Science Events expects to see a lot of home weddings in 2020 and 2021. The uncertainty makes a wedding at home more appealing, feel manageable, and less stressful.
We would love to help guide you in the art of home entertaining—creating a warm, thoughtful, highly personal wedding at home. Contact us today.
An alternative to home weddings in Minnesota…
Does a home wedding sound like more stress than joy? Consider a simple and stylish small wedding that requires almost zero work on your part— Minne Weddings.
Minne Weddings are all the awesome parts of a wedding without all the stuff you don’t want. Planned by top Minneapolis wedding planners Rocket Science Events (that’s us!), we provide the wedding venue, officiant, planning, design, flowers and decor, photography, rentals, and more. Check out our upcoming Minne Wedding dates.
Photos in this post by Cadence & Eli, Maypole Studios, Anna Grinets Photography,
Amanda Nippoldt, La Vie Photography, 1012 Photo, & Jeremie Barlow