Stripped Back & Fuss Free Micro Wedding & Mini Wedding Dress

Welcome to the chilled out, stripped back and fuss-free micro wedding of Sarah and Mikey who were hitched on the 10th October 2020. Their wedding plans drastically changed due to COVID-19, but they pushed forward with their wedding for 8 guests. They tied the knot at Witney Registry Office in Oxfordshire and following their loved ones turned out to surprise them for a confetti arch. How special is that?!

They then headed to their favourite restaurant for dinner to celebrate and kept the decorations simple and pared back. I have to rave about the outfits! Didn’t Sarah and Mikey look amazing? Sarah wore a crochet mini wedding dress, teamed with veil, yellow heels and a rainbow bag of dreams. Mikey meanwhile wore a suit jacket with jeans and a white shirt, very dapper indeed. What I love most about this wedding though is Sarah and Mikey determination and keeping the focus on their love ❤️

Emily Collett Photography, thank you so much for sharing these very special images with us.

Bride In a Mini Wedding Dress

The Proposal

We’re not much into public displays of affection or being the centre of attention. After having a Christmas party with all our family and friends, Mikey proposed when we were alone at the end of the night.

The Vision

Like many other couples, we went through the dreaded Covid rollercoaster of emotions during the lead up to our wedding.

Originally, we had planned a Spring wedding. We love filling our spare time with festivals, gigs and partying with friends and that was basically what we wanted for our day. It was quite a packed itinerary – we were going to get married in an intimate registry office ceremony, a vintage VW campervan was then going to transport us from our ceremony to the reception venue, where we would have a casual blessing ceremony in the woods (where there was space for more guests to join us), surrounded by thousands of wild bluebells, followed by a large festival-style reception in a giant tipi. This included bbq food and pizza, an ice-cream van, live music, outdoor fire pits, festoon lighting, and candlelit lanterns. To allow celebrations to continue late into the night, we organised a silent disco and bell tent glamping for our closest friends.

Covid-19 emerged just weeks before our wedding. At that point everything was very quickly up in the air, our plans were rapidly changing, and our dream day was slipping further and further away. We did reschedule the reception to May 2021 (although that’s now been cancelled too), but ultimately, we just wanted to get married and took the first slot the registry office had to offer us. Rebooked for October, we planned a chilled out, stripped back and fuss-free day.

The Venue

We finally married at Witney Registry Office in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, in an intimate ceremony with just 8 guests. The maximum number of people allowed in the room meant that we sadly had to sacrifice having our photographer in the ceremony, but it was a small price to pay in order to have our closest family members there.

We walked through our local park where Sarah’s Mum had organised a surprise socially distanced walkway of some of our friends and family who clapped and threw confetti over us, sheltered from the rain briefly by the rows of colourful autumn trees.

We then continued on to our favourite family-run restaurant in Witney – Fat Lil’s. Having both spent a lot of time there over the years, it felt perfectly personal to us. There were just 15 of us and our immediate families in the rustic, industrial style bar and grill. The staff had hung some colourful paper decorations for us, and super cute strings of fairy lights in the floor-length windows.

Your Outfits

Another aspect affected by Covid-19 was our outfits, because Sarah’s dress couldn’t be finished and delivered. There were a lot of parcels being delivered to us for a while when Sarah was trying to find a dress!

In the end, Sarah wore a crochet style short white dress, with statement puff sleeves, from Coast. She styled it with mustard yellow block heels from River Island, dainty jewellery, a colourful clutch bag and a simple fingertip veil. A last-minute purchase of a faux fur coat was made from Sainsbury’s when she realised she was probably going to be freezing!

Mikey had his suit ready, although it felt too formal to wear the waistcoat and jacket to our casual day, so he just wore the jacket with a crisp white shirt and black slim jeans. The suit was charcoal grey with subtle pink and yellow checks from Moss Bros.

The Ceremony & Music

We had a very short and simple ceremony, due to Covid restrictions the music was controlled via Bluetooth by Mikey’s brother (& best man). We walked in and out to Golden Hour by Kacey Musgraves, and whilst we signed the register, we had Firestone by Kygo playing. We also used Golden Hour as our first dance song.

The Styling and Décor

We opted for very simple styling and decor to reflect the chilled vibes of our day. There was no bridal bouquet, only buttonholes and corsages, the only table decorations were handwritten name cards, and we had a few whimsical extras around the room such as pink paper fans hanging from the ceiling and strings of fairy lights in the windows.

Your Photographer

We actually changed our mind a few times about whether or not to re-book a photographer for our rescheduled wedding. We didn’t want to feel like posing for photos was a chore or imposing on our day too much seeing as it was very intimate. Emily Collett Photography was the obvious and perfect choice for us. We both love her style of editing – always bringing out the most beautiful colours in her photos. We’ve also known Emily for a few years now so we knew it would be fun and easy with her, without feeling like we were being ordered around!

Emily blended in with the day so well and organised all our photos seamlessly without us really having to think about it. She also got them back to us so fast, and we were overjoyed when we sat and went through them. They just captured the day exactly how we remembered it and we are in love with the way she makes all the right colours pop – like Sarah’s yellow shoes and the autumn leaves!

The Honeymoon

Our honeymoon plans are on hold for the moment due to Covid-19. We had booked 2 weeks in Bali for June 2020, which coincided with Mikey’s 30th birthday. Because after our wedding the UK went back into lockdown, we actually haven’t had the chance to go anywhere, even for a mini-moon!

Memorable Moments

As a surprise, some of our friends and family gathered in their covid bubbles, lining the walkway at the nearby Leys, in order to share just a few moments of our wedding day with us. It was such a lovely surprise and we were so touched by how many people had come out to see us from afar even though it was so cold and rainy! We had been trying to stay upbeat about the situation but obviously, we had shared a few sad moments. It was so uplifting to see so many happy faces, and it just made everything feel better.

Advice for other couples

Try not to stress about the small things! The most important part about weddings is the celebration of two people who are in love. All of the other stuff is just a bonus!

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Sarah and Mikey thank you so much for sharing your beautiful micro wedding in the rain, it looked just incredible. I hope you are able to jet off on your honeymoon soon too.