Pandemic gives life to new wedding trends: micro weddings and 'minimonies'

ORLANDO, Fla. - The coronavirus pandemic is starting a new trend in weddings: micro weddings and minimonies.

Ask Georginia and David Schutte or Ashley and Josh Given and they'll tell you the one thing COVID-19 hasn't canceled is love.

"The important thing is the journey of marriage," said Georginia Schutte.

"I want this to happen. I want to just go ahead and get our life started," said Ashley Given.

These are some of the couples who didn't want to wait for a pandemic to end to get married. They got married in the middle of it all. They are trendsetters in the now popular world of micro weddings, minimonies, and sequel weddings.

"It’s a more intimate celebration so it can still be very beautiful, and they’re using the money that they would have had for 200 and they’re splurging more," said Lora DeLorenzo, of Overeasy Events. 

DeLorenzo explained a micro wedding has 50 people or less. A minimony has no more than ten people and later on.

"They’ll do the sequel wedding, which is actually the celebration that they had originally planned before the pandemic."

The minimony and sequel wedding are what Georginia and David opted for -- only seven people were with them when they got married at East End Market earlier this month. "It’s just you’re around the people that know you really well and the people that want to support you the most," said Georiginia Schutte.

"Now that we’re on the backside of it, we still have a wedding reception to look forward to," said David.

Ashley and Josh kept their same wedding date, but switched venues did a lot of their own decorations, and downsized from 153 guests to about 24, a micro wedding. "It really worked out really well because what we ended up with was gorgeous and amazing."

In a world full of so much uncertainty, these couples and many others like them are moving forward with the one thing they are certain of and that's each other.

"We just kept being hopeful, hopeful, hopeful, hopeful and then just crash and burn."

"You want to have the memorable moments of the wedding and the big deal but you also want to start the journey of doing life together."

Photos courtesy of Hannah Glo Photo at hannahglophoto.com

Floral Design by Revel Co. at therevelco.com