I am not surprised by what I am hearing about minimonies…

It turns out that many couples who did a minimony last year — with the intent of doing another larger wedding the next year, are cancelling the second big wedding.

Since I have been in the small wedding market for over six years, this didn't surprise me in the least. Because it turns out... the first small wedding was meaningful enough.

Why plan another wedding and go through the expense, time and stress of planning a big wedding when you had a perfectly beautiful small one and now you just kind of want to ... move on?!

Many couples are buying homes and having kids around the time they get married, these things become priorities after they are married and having another wedding just doesn't seem as appealing as they thought that it would be. Not to mention that it is no longer necessary, just optional.

Sure, this doesn't apply to all couples, but I have heard from many colleagues that this is the case and I am guessing that this applies to a majority of couples.

This means that as a wedding pro, should you be pushing minimonies?

Here is my opinion; I think that doing minimonies with the intent of booking another wedding from the same couple, is not a good business model and I would say NO.

But, if you are doing minimonies with the intent on making them beautiful and meaningful options for a couple without the need for them to be booking you again, then I would say YES.

Now I don't say this to ruffle any feathers, because by all means, do what works for you! If you are having great success with text book minimonies and are making a killing with them, then go on with your bad self.

But, if you are seeing couples drop off after their minimony and you have built an offering as a stop-gap solution to last year - then I am guessing you are already wondering when you can get back to doing big weddings.

From my experience, couples under-estimate how important and significant their one wedding day is. This makes total sense seeing as how the majority of our couples have never had a wedding before! So, once they have their day no matter how big or small or fancy or bare-bones - they feel married.

I see this all the time with the elopements we do. And in fact, I would venture to call these weddings elopements rather than minimonies - even if they are doing a second wedding.

To me the very term minimony is problematic because I don't think we should be planning weddings for couples that are just quick-fix solutions. I think that all weddings should be meaningful, and whatever our intent might be as wedding pros, that all weddings are going to be meaningful to the couple regardless -- and that is a great thing!

What do you think about them?

Let me know in the comments below or better yet lets continue the conversation in the Elopement Wedding Pro Community, haven’t joined us yet? Well, what are you waiting for it is free! JOIN HERE

Photo Credit: Jenny Haas Photography