A micro wedding is a full wedding with a short guest list: the ceremony, dinner, toasts, first dance and cake, for 50 guests or fewer. Nothing is cut from the day. Only the number of chairs shrinks.
It isn't a courthouse ceremony with a dinner afterward, and it isn't a big wedding with the budget cut. It's the whole day, planned and run properly, for the people you'd miss if they weren't there.
How many guests is a micro wedding?
There's no official number. Most planners say 50 or fewer, and this guide does too. "Small wedding" is looser: it usually means up to about 75 guests, and sometimes 100.
The park is built for 30 to 80 guests. A micro wedding sits at the low end and a small wedding at the high end, and the park suits both. Neither is the lesser booking.
If your list is shorter than that, ask anyway. We make exceptions.
What stays the same
A micro wedding keeps everything people remember:
- A ceremony, here under the arch with the waterfall behind it.
- A dinner, at tables set before you arrive and cleared after you leave.
- Toasts, a first dance, and a cake someone else cuts and serves.
- One person running the day, so neither of you has to.
A short guest list doesn't shrink the work, so the venue matters just as much at this size. The park sets up, staffs, coordinates and cleans up whether you bring 30 guests or 80.
What changes at 50 guests or fewer
Everyone gets a conversation. At 50 guests, you can talk to everyone before dinner ends. At 150, you get a receiving line.
The money goes further per guest. Most of a wedding budget is a price times a head count. A smaller count leaves room for the photographer you wanted, a better dinner or a longer evening.
The setting matters more. Forty people in a ballroom built for 200 looks like a party that didn't fill up. Forty people under old-growth pines looks intentional. Here the whole party stays together from the first look to the last toast.
The venue's minimum starts to decide things. Many venues are priced for 150 guests. A short list hits a guest minimum or a food minimum, and you pay for the empty chairs. Ask about both first. How a venue quote is built covers every line to check. Here the price is per person, based on your final count, not a number fixed at signing.
How long does a micro wedding last?
As long as any other wedding. The packages run 5 or 6 hours, not counting setup or cleanup. Music stops at 9 pm so everyone gets home safe, and the evening is still ahead of you in Lake Arrowhead Village, five minutes down the road.
What a micro wedding costs here
One price per person, with no separate venue rental fee and no service charge:
- Traditional is from $199 per person. It covers the park for 5 hours, set up before you arrive, staffed throughout, coordinated, and cleaned up after you leave. You arrange the meal, either from LouEddie's, the family's restaurant 50 steps across the property, or from a caterer we approve ahead of time.
- Premium is from $239 per person. It adds dinner from one of two menus, the LouEddie's artisan pizza experience or a secret menu of two hand-carved proteins and three sides, plus an extra hour and a rehearsal.
For 30 guests on Premium, dinner included, expect about $7,200 before sales tax. For 40 guests, about $9,600. Sales tax, 7.75% in San Bernardino County, is the only addition. These are estimates; your quote is exact.
Neither package covers your own vendors: flowers, photography, music and alcohol. Beer and wine are available here; spirits are not. Pricing has both packages line by line.
Is a micro wedding right for you?
Probably, if the people you can't imagine the day without add up to 30 or 40, and every venue you look at wants twice that. Past 50 guests, you're planning a small wedding, and that fits here just as well. Far past 80, this isn't your venue, and it's better to know now.
The quickest way to find out is to stand in the place with your guest list in mind. Book a tour. It takes about an hour and it's free, and Katie, our lead coordinator, will show you where the ceremony, dinner and dancing would go at your size.
