“You don't need to have everything or spend a lot to make it a magical night. Ours was and it was with few people. It was all super simple and easy,” explains Magui, 31 years old. She and her partner Marc (37) got married in September this year, after about six months of organisation.
They rented a farmhouse to hold the celebration, hired a DJ, an Argentine barbecue caterer, and two people to run the drinks bar. They took care of the rest, with the help of their family and friends. His sister-in-law, who is a chef, was in charge of the food and also served as wedding planner. Her mother and her sister accompanied her to buy the flowers for the arrangements. The couple bought all the food and drinks for the weekend from a wholesaler, and asked several of their guests to store things in their refrigerators the days before.
Magui did not buy a wedding dress. With the help of her mother and a dressmaker she gave new life to the one her sister had worn. Her mother was also in charge of making all the cakes and her sister was in charge of styling her hair, with the help of a YouTube tutorial. The makeup artist was herself. “We prepare everything ourselves. The day before, the two families were at a table cutting the sausages for the snack,” explains Magui.
From the moment they decided to get married, they knew that theirs would be a “home” celebration. “We didn't do it thinking only about the budget. Beyond that, we were clear that we wanted it to be a 'very us' wedding. That means neither with much luxury nor with many people. “We wanted something very intimate,” she says.
“Couples are increasingly looking for a unique wedding that transmits their personality and character in every detail,” says Cristina González, head of communication and press for the Bodas.net portal. "One of the main trends that have already been seen in weddings this past year but that will be consolidated in 2024 is what we have called 'Your wedding, your rules'."
The wedding planner and professor at the International School of Protocol Gemma González adds: “Although the majority of the couples we accompany prefer the traditional format, some prefer to avoid it. “They have been to many weddings of family and friends, and in the end, they seek to introduce original moments, something that no one has done before.”
Raquel (28) and Éric (30) also got married in September of this year. “We didn't want to go into debt to celebrate our wedding. This is something about which there is increasing awareness,” she tells La Vanguardia and adds: “I think that the option of an intimate wedding will become more and more common.”
They uploaded several videos on TikTok, explaining step by step how they managed to set up the event in just three months and only with the help of their family and friends. One of the videos, in which they talk about how they organized the wedding, reaches more than a million views. In another, which has more than 300,000 views, they explain that they spent approximately 10,080 euros, which would be about 150 euros for each of their seventy guests.
“At Bodas.net, we have seen that couples increasingly prefer to invite fewer people per engagement and this has led to a reduction in the number of guests, but more investment in each one of them,” says Cristina González, head of communication and press of the portal.
According to the latest edition of the 'Essential Wedding Book', published by Bodas.net in collaboration with Google and Esade professor Carles Torrecilla, the average number of guests at a wedding in Spain is 117 guests and The average price per guest is €180. In 2019, more were invited and less was spent: the average number of guests was 130 and the budget was about €158 for each one.
“With this figure of 117 guests on average, we cannot talk about intimate weddings, but we can talk about weddings that are a little smaller and more exclusive,” says Cristina González and assures that intimate weddings are “something stable that does not grow, but that represents the 12% of weddings celebrated in Spain, according to a survey carried out by Bodas.net of Spanish couples who organized their wedding through the app and who got married in 2022.” The survey shows that 8% of couples had an intimate wedding between 26 and 50 guests and less than 4% had a micro wedding, with 25 or fewer guests.
Wedding planner Gemma González observes that, although the majority of her clients prefer weddings with long guest lists. “There are couples who celebrate in privacy for various reasons: wanting to escape from standard weddings, being able to extend the celebration and stay together for an entire weekend, for economic reasons and there are also couples who want to get married but don't like the limelight. and they feel more comfortable with this format.”
“Contrary to what is often heard, Generation Z loves weddings. What they hate is 'the usual', that's why now they try to celebrate however they want," says Cristina González of Bodas.net, and indicates that, according to 'The Knot Worldwide Future of Marriage Report', 81% of those surveyed of Generation Z say they are open to the possibility of getting married.
“In 2024, couples will seek to break the most traditional way of celebrating weddings and that is why extending the wedding to more than one day will also become a trend,” she says and points out that “weekend weddings land so that The couple can spend more time with family and friends, celebrating a party after the party or a lunch the day after, or organizing a destination wedding, which consists of saying 'I do' in another city or country, turning the wedding on a great trip.” Another way to break with the typical wedding - says the spokesperson for Bodas.net - is not to assign specific seats to the guests, but rather zones or areas where they can freely choose where and with whom to sit.
Weddings of more than one day are something that many Gemma González clients choose. “They seek to extend the celebration, staying all together, for example, the entire weekend, having a party the night before or a brunch the day after the wedding, to discuss the anecdotes,” he explains and adds: “What they want is that the wedding is not reduced to a few hours. “They want to enjoy more time with their loved ones and this type of wedding is only possible if it is a small group of people.”
Raquel and Éric had a two-day wedding in a farmhouse. They bought the drinks and food to make the pica-pica for their wedding, and they counted on the help of their relatives to cover everything else. “We acted as electricians, cooks, florists... We took care of setting up all the stages, with tables and chairs. My mother made me both wedding dresses. We made the homemade wedding arch. A friend did my updo and another took care of the photos,” explains Raquel. She was in charge of her own makeup and she made her bouquet with olive trees from her house.
In TikTok, the hashtag
According to Cristina Gonzalez, “Bodas.net data shows that these are specific cases and it depends a lot on the type of service. For example, only 3% of couples celebrate their wedding on their own property and/or that of a family member, so practically all weddings are celebrated on properties specialized in weddings. The same happens in the case of the couple's looks: in the case of brides, only 1% use a suit that they already had previously and in the case of grooms it is 2%."
In addition, he points out that, according to the Essential Wedding Book, "on average, Spanish couples hire ten suppliers for their big day, which includes the majority or the vast majority of suppliers that come into play in a wedding." However, he clarifies that couples do not leave aside family and friends during the organization: “19% agree to receive advice, especially when choosing photography services (33%) and music (16%). They even prefer that certain services, such as the car for the wedding day (37%), be provided by a family member or friend and that they make the invitations themselves (35%),” he explains.
From Bodas.net, they recommend “cutting back on extras or guests before choosing to do it yourself, which, although it may seem like it can be a very romantic project, if you do not have availability as if it were a full-time job, it can end up even cause wear and tear on the couple, and generate stress and responsibility in the guests that prevents them from enjoying the celebration. A wedding should be a reason for celebration and enjoyment, not pressure,” says Cristina Gonzalez.
“Although the journey may seem stressful, we experience it as something very special. Our motto was 'Nothing can go wrong', we are going to do it the best we can and know how, and we will be happy with the result," says Raquel and assures: "Everything turned out better than we expected."
“Everyone told me that I was unconscious for doing everything ourselves, but today we are happy to have done it that way, because it felt very much ours. She could feel that warmth that we gave her,” says Magui.
