Don't feel guilty if you're planning a small wedding. Especially in these tough financial times, many brides and grooms are choosing to keep their guest lists on the low side, and then be able to enjoy a formal reception for 50 guest rather than 250, complete with the cake, catering, dancing, photographs and gown they want.

A smaller wedding means you'll get more quality time with your closest friends and family, not get stuck spending all five hours of the wedding visiting from table-to-table, taking pictures with third cousins because your parents think it's neat, and spending your entire planning process watching massive amounts of money just pour away. That's not peaceful at all!

While some brides and grooms are skipping the whole circus and just eloping, you might decide to just hold a more intimate wedding in a unique setting that those 250+ guest list brides don't have access to (like a garden or grand sitting room at an estate home or a winery party room with fabulous leather chairs and giant casques). There are big perks to chucking the big guest list and just keeping it to immediate family and friends only. Not the least of which is that you can focus more on the vows, the music, and the moments between the two of you!

"Guest list? It took two minutes," says one bride who kept her guest list to 35 people. "No drama, no if-you-invite-them-you-have-to-invite-them baloney. It was a snap."

And more and more parents are quite happily agreeing to a smaller guest list. They don't want to get wiped out financially or deal with big family guest lists either! When you eliminate the guest list drama, everyone enjoys the planning process so much more!