Twenty to fifty of your favourite people
A micro wedding is a real wedding with the padding taken out. Twenty to fifty guests, a venue that would never take a big one, and enough room in the day that nobody is being herded anywhere.
“At forty guests I learn every face in the room before the entrees land. That is the whole reason the candids from a micro wedding land harder than the ones from a wedding five times the size.”
By the time dinner starts I know which uncle is going to make the speech nobody sanctioned, and which friend has been quietly crying since the vows. You cannot photograph that at three hundred guests, because you never learn who anyone is.
A restaurant you love. Your parents' backyard. A winery table for thirty. The best micro wedding venues in Melbourne are places that do not market themselves as wedding venues at all, which is exactly why the photographs do not look like everyone else's.
Big weddings run on a schedule that eats the day. At this size there is room to sit down, eat your own dinner, and talk to every person who came. I shoot the whole of it rather than sprinting between five set pieces.
The shape of the day
Somewhere between twenty and fifty guests, one location or two, and enough breathing room that nobody is being herded.
Not everyone does. If you are getting ready together, or at home, or in a hotel room with two friends and a bottle of something, it is worth an hour. If you would rather I arrived at the ceremony, that is a perfectly good call too.
Garden, backyard, rooftop, restaurant courtyard. At this size guests stand close, which means reactions are in frame behind you rather than forty rows back. It is the single biggest photographic advantage of a small wedding.
Twenty minutes, close by, then you are back with your people. I do not take couples away for ninety minutes at a wedding where there are only thirty guests. You will regret the time and the photographs will not be better for it.
Speeches from where people are sitting. Food that is actually good because the kitchen is cooking for thirty, not three hundred. This stretch is usually the heart of the gallery.
Someone starts the dancing. The bouquet goes up. Small weddings still know how to party, and I keep shooting long after most cameras give up.
Worth knowing
It is almost always the same thing, and it costs nothing to fix.
People book coverage that starts too late and ends too early. The hour before a micro wedding and the hour after dinner starts are where the photographs you will actually frame come from, and both routinely get cut to save on hours. If your budget is fixed, I would rather you trimmed the middle of the day than either end of it. Tell me the plan and I will suggest where the hours should sit. Send me your rough plan
Good to know
Loosely, anything from about twenty to fifty guests. Below that it starts to feel like an elopement and above it the day begins needing a schedule. The number matters less than whether you can talk to everyone who came.
At this size, no. A second shooter exists to cover two rooms at once, and a micro wedding rarely has two rooms. The money is better spent on more hours with one photographer who knows the whole story.
Not at all. Dark restaurants and long tables are some of my favourite things to photograph, and I shoot comfortably in low light with and without flash. Tell me the venue and I will tell you what to expect.
Most micro weddings sit between five and eight hours. The mistake people make is starting too late and finishing too early. If the budget is fixed, trim the middle of the day rather than either end.
Keep reading
Just the two of you, or a handful of favourite people, anywhere from the city to the coast.
The Victorian Marriage Registry at the Old Treasury Building, photographed from the walk up to the lunch after.
Where to actually get married around Melbourne, with light, permits and drive times sorted out.
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