Keeping Up With What is Trending: MINIMONY

In 2022, Sarah Gill, writing for Image, presented an interesting editorial piece regarding the rise of microweddings. For many, it seemed like an outcome of how wedding plans and celebrations all over had contracted with Covid taking a toll on people's enthusiasm and spending bandwidth and not just the industrial and IT workspace. Come to 2023, and it seems like that microweddings are still emerging as a trend but differently for differently abled/scaled people. For celebrities, a minimony might be a way to escape the limelight that comes with hosting a typical, celebrity-standard wedding whereas for young couples saving for their immediate future and hoping to land a memorable honeymoon across the oceans, in an idyllic island setting, a micro-scale wedding makes more sense from a financial perspective - save money on the wedding cake and spend it where it seems to matter more!

This is what AI defines as a Minimony: A minimony is a term that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic to describe a small and intimate wedding ceremony. It combines the words "mini" and "matrimony." Minimonies became popular as couples sought ways to celebrate their marriage while adhering to safety protocols and restrictions on large gatherings. Typically, minimonies involve a limited number of guests, such as immediate family members and close friends. The main focus is on the ceremony itself, rather than hosting a large reception or elaborate event. Some couples choose to have a minimony as a standalone celebration, while others plan for a larger wedding reception at a later date, often called a "sequel wedding" or "reception."

Minimonies can take different forms, ranging from simple civil ceremonies at a courthouse to small outdoor gatherings in backyards or picturesque locations. To include those who cannot attend physically, some couples may opt to livestream the event, allowing virtual participation for loved ones. While minimonies initially emerged due to the pandemic, they have gained popularity beyond those circumstances. Many couples appreciate the intimate nature and reduced stress associated with smaller-scale weddings. It provides an opportunity to prioritize their commitment to one another while still celebrating with their closest loved ones.

This is a good resource to understand the difference between a Minimony versus Micro Wedding versus Elopement - this is important since microweddings and mini weddings seem very similar in terms of the nomenclature but there might be some subtle differences. However, neither should be or can be possibly confused with eloping and tying the knot because a smaller-scale wedding is not the same as eloping, vanishing, marrying, and then, announcing it to the world. This source also has some good Miniwedding ideas which are practical. Just when you thought that these terms could not get more confusing, comes up the concept of a sequel wedding - as it turns out, a sequel wedding is associated with the grand scheme of things related to a micro wedding. If you think that the nomenclatures could not get more creative, wait, we also have a ceremini - obviously adapted from the term "ceremony", it perhaps refers to the idea of having a less grand, more budget wedding ceremony, and celebrity cereminies are not that surprising.