Smaller Weddings, Shorter-Notice Planning: The Wedding Rebellion of 2027
If you look up the average length of time couples take to plan their weddings, you’ll see the 12-18 month range popping up everywhere. If there’s one thing you and your relationship certainly aren’t, though, it’s average - and the couples booking me as their celebrant are choosing to do things differently these days. Looking ahead to 2027 and beyond, the wedding industry is seeing smaller weddings and shorter lead times, almost as though couples are rebelling ever more against norms and traditions. Consider this your permission slip (if you needed one) to plan your wedding in a way that feels true to you - I’ll be right there on Team Non-traditional with you.
Shorter engagements and short-notice wedding planning
Classical wedding planning timelines are being thrown out the window, right alongside the rule book and all those wedding magazines that still refer to every couple as ‘bride and groom’. I’m seeing a trend going into 2027 for couples booking their weddings much ‘later’ (from my perspective), but perhaps much sooner from your own.
Love doesn’t know anything about timelines or planning processes, and there’s no reason at all that a wedding has to take upwards of a year to plan. The only thing a wedding really needs in order to be a wedding is a ceremony - quite literally the beating heart of the whole occasion. Everything else that comes along with it is optional, and if you want to get married in eight or six or two months’ time, it’s perfectly doable.
North Wales and all its untamed landscapes doesn’t care whether you’ve been engaged for five minutes or five years, and tends to attract couples who want to do things a little differently. Perhaps that’s why I love it here so much too, and why it feels so aligned with the deeply personal ceremonies I create for my couples. If you are planning a wedding in North Wales on shorter notice, it’s worth bearing a few things in mind.
Planning a short-notice wedding in North Wales
Less planning time means a little more flexibility required, but North Wales is blessed with a huge variety of the most incredible locations for your wedding - some of which don’t even really require booking, so no-one can possibly have secured your date!
You can have a symbolic, celebrant-led ceremony (like the kind I design) anywhere (caveat: as long as you have the landowner’s permission), and it doesn’t even have to be in a venue. We can hike up a mountain or to a waterfall, wander into the woodland like Sian and Richard, or go barefoot on the beach like at Sally and Lee’s Llyn Peninsula wedding.
If you are planning on short notice in North Wales, it’s worth bearing in mind that you’ll naturally have somewhat less choice of suppliers than you would a year out from your date. Happily, the area is full of incredibly talented wedding vendors, from florists and photographers to cake makers and makeup artists, and they really know their craft and their locale. Once you’ve connected with one of your suppliers, they’ll be able to recommend a host more to you - and you’ll probably find you have more than enough wonderful people to choose from.
I’m very happy to point you in the direction of local wedding suppliers I trust, when you work with me as your celebrant.
North Wales is also filled with suppliers who embrace doing things differently, from photographers who’ll make your images feel straight of myth and folklore, to hair stylists who have specialised in wild outdoor wedding styles, designed to withstand the wind and rain. For a couple who doesn’t care about tradition and wants their wedding to feel like it was built for them, North Wales is a great place to be.
Maybe you’ll choose an outdoor wedding, deep in nature, or maybe you’d rather get married at a wedding venue. You’ll be pleased to know we have lots of amazing ones of those too, but your first choice might be booked upon the most popular dates. For this reason, many couples are choosing to…
Get married mid-week in North Wales
Hosting your wedding mid-week gives you much more choice and flexibility with your venue, and prices are often lower than at weekends too. It’s also a really good excuse to extend the celebrations for longer - there’s no reason you can’t make a few days or a week of it, and enjoy all that North Wales has to offer either side of your mid-week wedding.
There’s naturally a question mark over how many people will be able to attend your wedding if you opt for a mid-week celebration, so I recommend keeping your numbers smaller and making it really intimate and personal.
The best North Wales wedding venues for mid-week ceremonies and smaller guest numbers:
Before we dive in here, let’s just take a moment to remember: your celebrant ceremony can happen anywhere. That means AirBnBs, pubs, beach houses and woodland clearings are all fair game, as long as the landowner gives you permission. Take inspiration from some of my couples:
Sally and Lee, who hired an AirBnB on the Llyn Peninsula and got married on the beach just outside, with the famous Tŷ Coch Inn in the background.
And Elena and Graham who hired an old village pub turned holiday rental in Anglesey, where I led their ceremony in the garden. They later headed down to the beach for a picnic, then pulled their own pints at home in the pub!
Chloe and Richard also got married in the garden of their AirBnB in Conwy Valley, with their four legged friends close by.
If you’d like to get married in a venue rather than a rental, North Wales has some wonderful wedding venues that offer midweek wedding packages for under 50 guests:
Llyn Gwynant Barns offers Wednesday weddings for up to 50 people, at around half the cost of a weekend wedding. They also offer 3-hour venue hire for micro-weddings up to 10 people. Find out more about this wedding venue, and meet some of my couples who married there on a Wednesday
At Chateau Rhianfa you can book a Twilight package for up to 50 guests, for ceremonies taking place after 3pm. This venue offers the most magnificent views across the Menai Strait towards Snowdonia, and features in my list of the best beach wedding venues in North Wales
Gwydir Castle also offers a midweek rate for up to 20 people
Squirrel’s Nest is a treehouse venue that’s every bit as sweet as it sounds, with space for up to 12 people in an intimate treetop setting. Get in touch if you’re getting married here - I’d be honoured to be your celebrant.
Bach Wen can be hired midweek for up to 50 people, offering beach access, on-site camping and lovely natural surroundings in Caernarffon.
Couples are choosing smaller, more intimate weddings - and even elopements
I work with lots of couples who have smaller guest numbers, and even those who choose to elope and have no guests at all. There’s something lovely about leading a ceremony for a more intimate group, and you have an opportunity to involve your loved ones much more in the proceedings.
Having fewer guests means you can really focus on their experience, including lots of deeply personal details, interactivity and bespoke elements that your closest people will really appreciate. Rather than following the tradition of inviting basically everyone you know to your wedding, keeping the numbers small means you share this most special day only with the people you really, really want there - those who have impacted your lives meaningfully, and will hopefully continue to do so for many more years.
There are many reasons couples choose to elope, and whether your elopement is the entire wedding for you or just a part of it, it’s always incredibly special. You can choose a private elopement where you’re free to be vulnerable and emotional with one another without eyes or attention on you, or a wild elopement ceremony as a precursor or follow-up to your wedding with your guests.
The point is this: there are no shoulds or have-tos, because with a celebrant wedding there are no boxes to tick to do it ‘properly’.
If you are eloping, I highly recommend working with a local photographer who knows the area well and offers location scouting as part of their service. This helps you find the most perfect spot to exchange your meaningful moments, without accidentally running into a coach-load of tourists right in the middle of it.
Need a non-traditional celebrant for your considered, non-customary wedding?
I’d love to chat. Working with couples who reimagine, redefine or refuse completely all the traditions that go along with a wedding is something I love, building on the personalisation and intimacy of doing things your way. Weddings seem to have blurred into a somewhat homogenous display of ‘the done thing’, and I’m happy to see couples beginning to un-blur the lines and do something that feels unmistakably them.
Get in touch to begin designing your deeply distinctive ceremony.
Kate Rostance is a humanist wedding celebrant based in North Wales. She creates ceremonies that are relaxed and full of meaning - with a touch of humour and plenty of heart. She works across North Wales, including Snowdonia, Anglesey, Gwynedd, the Llyn Peninsula, Cheshire and beyond.
