Over the “pageantry” of weddings? Woman’s micro ceremony tips go viral

Want to celebrate togetherness without the spectacle of weddings? You’re in luck.

One woman has taken to TikTok and shared her tips for a “micro-wedding”—a wedding celebration involving usually no more than 20 to 30 people. The video, posted by Isabella (@izzie_white_), went viral to the tune of over 200,000 views and nearly 13,000 likes.

“If you weren’t quite sure how you fit into sort of the pageantry of weddings, but you still really wanted to have a marriage and party, I thought I’d just talk through what we did, because we felt exactly the same way…it just really wasn’t our vibe,” she said in the video. In the caption, she used the hashtag #microwedding.

Friends make a toast
A group of friends make a celebratory toast. A video on TikTok has gone viral after a woman shared her tips for a “micro-wedding”.

Bogdan Kurylo/Getty Images

Going through a series of photos, Isabella took viewers through the events leading up to the wedding, which were aimed at taking some of the pressure off a big celebration.

Twenty-four hours before the wedding, Isabella said, the couple and their friends had drinks at a local bar.

“When it’s your wedding weekend, this weird thing happens where every single conversation you have is the same,” she said. “Everyone’s like, ‘Oh my god, how are you feeling, are you so excited?’ and if you’re anything like me, socially, that really gets on your nerves—even if it’s your best friends.”

The bar visit made sure all of those socially repetitive conversations happened on the same night. Another added benefit of the pre-wedding drinks, she said, was that the guests at her wedding had the opportunity to meet each other before the event itself, which eased the pressure of having to make introductions while also acting as a bride.

The casual hangouts continued the next day, when the couple gathered their friends again at their favorite cafe—one that the pair has gone to nearly every day for around three years.

“It was so much fun, everyone was there having coffee, getting [breakfast] together. The vibes were so high,” she said. In a sweet surprise, her father had even emailed the cafe beforehand to ask them to bring out a surprise cake during the breakfast.

Reframing the extravagent wedding

Isabella concluded that the activities helped make her wedding the relaxed, but collective, celebration she wanted it to be.

“For us, this i the best way to start a wedding day. You’re with all of your [friends], and instead of getting ready alone in a hotel room with maybe, like, a bridal party, which didn’t really suit us,” she said. “This was just the best way to start the wedding day. Everyone sort of cheered us off as we walked home together to get ready.”

People in the comments appreciated Isabella’s intention to stay true to her desires for a smaller ceremony—and her playing to the strengths of a “micro” wedding. They chimed in with their own reframing of traditional extravagant weddings.

“I call it ‘together forever’ party,” @riellife wrote. “I really don’t want it to feel like a wedding.”

“I love this, a wedding should literally be whatever you want!” @user816391007 wrote. “I hadn’t even considered how chill a wedding could be like this.”

Newsweek reached out to @izzie_white_ for comment via TikTok.