When you have only five guests at your wedding, you can really spoil them, and that’s exactly what Katie and Jacob did. Married at The Fan Museum, London, in May, they wanted to have a low-cost, low-stress intimate wedding where everyone felt like a real part of the day.

The day began with everyone taking a flower-making class in the morning and making their own bouquets! Katie explains, “I love flowers and I feel my most beautiful when I’m carrying them – sometimes I just go to M&S to buy a bunch of flowers and then walk the long way home with them, haha! I wanted all of our guests to have that same feeling. We all made our own bouquets from a selection of stems that I chose, and I love the look of the photos with everyone carrying flowers, as it’s quite unusual for people who aren’t the bride or bridesmaid to have flowers. I attached a blue brooch to my bouquet that had been given to my mother-in-law on her wedding day, to add something sentimental (and blue!).”

Katie and Jacob’s wedding wasn’t a culmination of lifelong dreams or the result of meticulous planning from the moment they met. In fact, they hadn’t even wanted to get married at all. But when practicality kicked in—the legal benefits, the idea of a blow-out honeymoon coinciding with Katie’s 30th birthday—they decided to take the plunge. “We wanted an intimate, no-frills, classy city wedding,” Katie continued. “I didn’t want that big ‘reveal’ moment where the bride walks down the aisle. It just didn’t feel like me. So we walked together, and it felt perfect. We also both wore suits.”

Both gave deeply personal readings during the ceremony, with Jacob reciting a poem Katie had written for his birthday. Their vows, too, were crafted from the heart. When it came time to sign the marriage certificate, they queued music from Shrek and Monsters, Inc. “I somehow managed to forget my parents’ names at that moment,” Katie laughed, “so we were glad we had enough songs lined up to cover the awkward silence.” They exited to I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do by ABBA, because why not?

After the ceremony, the couple and their guests shared a meal at Roka in Canary Wharf, a Japanese restaurant they love and have been to for multiple past anniversaries. The intimate celebration wasn’t followed by a traditional reception, but ten days later, Katie and Jacob had a party at a local pub with everyone they love who wasn’t there on the actual day.

When reflecting on the process, they both agreed that decision fatigue was real. Even with a small wedding, they had to sort out music, readings, outfits, and flowers, and the pressure to conform to tradition crept in at times. “We almost convinced ourselves that I had to walk down the aisle alone, because that’s what’s ‘normal,’” Katie said. “But in the end, we made choices that felt comfortable for us.”

In conclusion, Katie and Jacob hope their wedding will inspire other couples to see that small weddings are just as valid and can still be beautiful and meaningful. “It was difficult to find examples of weddings that were as small as ours, or very small weddings that still looked elegant and beautiful and didn’t feel ‘empty’,” Katie admitted. “Sometimes it felt like our wedding wasn’t a ‘real’ wedding and wasn’t important or special enough to put lots of thought into – we’d get hung up on decisions and then think ‘why do we even care, barely anyone is going to see this’. Hand on heart, we now wouldn’t change a thing though. It was small but perfectly formed. And we love looking back at the photos.”