Smaller Weddings are Awesome

Bulong Estate Wedding Industry Awards

Boutique Winery Wedding Venue
of the Year:
Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges,
2019, 2020, 2021 & 2022

How many is too many?

Determining your numbers for your wedding can be minefield of politics of family and friends. But don’t just keep adding names to the list, there are many great reasons to have a smaller wedding.

You will hear many couples exclaim after their wedding day that they just didn’t have time to get around and talk to everyone. Or they spent their entire reception having two or three words with each person and no time for them to eat, drink, dance or enjoy themselves. A large crowd can leave you without a moment to just enjoy one of the most special days of your lives. Picture instead, a more intimate gathering of only your very closest family and friends. You get to spend a nice amount of time with each of them, and still have time to enjoy the delicious meal you have selected, share a drink or two with your friends and even partake in the entertainment you carefully organised, be it a dance floor, photo booth or games. Keeping your invitations to a manageable size can really allow you to spend your time with the people you care about and enjoy spending time with, rather than the “I can’t remember why we invited them” people.

What is a “Small Wedding”?

Everyone’s idea of what a small wedding is differs. We like to define a small wedding as around 40 guests. Less than 40 guests and we describe it as a micro wedding or some people are calling it an elopement. Either way, we love a small wedding at Bulong Estate Winery. I would even go far as to say it is our speciality.

Our reception venue is the perfect size for seating up to 60 guests. Your guests won’t be lost in some huge room designed for 200 and you won’t be put in a partitioned space or side room and have to share the venue with another party. You will instead have the whole place to yourselves, an intimate venue space just right for your small wedding with a huge vineyard and view all around you ensuring your privacy. Your guests can enjoy the view from our fantastic deck and lawn space where your ceremony can be held.

We find quite often that couples having a small wedding also enjoy doing their own decorating or flower arrangements. We welcome DIY at Bulong Estate and are more than happy for you as a couple to come in an decorate your own tables or ceremony space, or send a few special friends and family volunteers on your behalf. The space is yours to create your own style for your wedding and add your special touches. If you prefer to hire some professionals then we are to supervise them while they work.

Small weddings are budget friendly

You have probably already worked out how good smaller numbers are for your budget. Fewer people to feed and buy drinks for means you have a bit extra for something special.

If you are thinking about a smaller wedding again, what may be called a micro wedding of 6 to 40 guests, or an elopement with just yourselves and a couple of witnesses. We can offer you a micro wedding or elopement package. You still enjoy the space all to yourselves and the romance of a vineyard wedding. You can hold your intimate ceremony and some wedding photos, stay for a couple of hours and enjoy a grazing platter and celebratory drinks before going on elsewhere for an intimate dinner at home or a lovely hotel or restaurant. We can offer this Sundays to Thursdays.