Dreaming of a small, intimate wedding, surrounded by your nearest and dearest?
Do you actually want to know the name of everyone attending your wedding?
The truth is that the Israeli wedding industry is big wedding-oriented and it’s challenging to find venues that accommodate small weddings. It’s important to remember that by Israeli standards, less than 150 guests is considered a small wedding.
Personally, I had a small wedding (120 guests) and finding the right venue for my event was difficult. But you can absolutely have your dream small wedding in Israel – you just need to understand how to make it happen.
Finding A Venue For A Small Wedding In Israel
I would advise choosing a venue that specializes in small weddings. While you may fall in love with a spacious outdoor garden, keep in mind that with less than a few hundred guests, it will look empty.
An indoor urban space, villa / private house, or restaurant is your best bet. Look for venues with בית (house) or וילה (villa) in their names.
It’s important to remember that just because these venues are small doesn’t mean they’re cheap. Small wedding venues are often in high demand (due to the shortage of small wedding venues in Israel) and are considered boutique locations – so they charge accordingly.
You can expect price per meal to be higher than in a venue that regularly hosts 300 people.
Minimum Number of Guests – Solutions
Since summer is the peak wedding season in Israel, every venue will have a significantly lower minimum number of guests during the winter months. If you have your eye on a particular venue that has a 200 person minimum during summer, there’s a good chance that you can convince them to go much lower for a wedding in the winter.
One other solution is to pay to make up the difference. You may find a venue stating that their minimum number of guests is 130 – and you really want to invite 120 people to your wedding.
Let’s say that the price-per-guest is 250 shekels – so that means you’ll pay a 2500 shekel fee for the “empty seats”. It may be worth it to you to tell the venue that you’ll pay for 130 guests.
It’s up to you to decide what you’re willing to spend as a “penalty fee” for having a small wedding in Israel.
Other Considerations
Hiring photographers for your Israeli wedding often means that you’ll get an entire team. Many times, you’ll be offered a deal for more than one still photographer. Add into the mix a videographer who may or may not have an apprentice, the magnet photographer who comes with an assistant who prints and cuts the magnets, and so on.
It makes sense to have multiple photographers if you’re having a big wedding, so that you’ll be sure to get photos of all the guests, but with a small number of guests, too much paparazzi action can quickly get overwhelming. If you are having a small wedding, I highly suggest having a maximum of 3 photographers at the event.
Advantages Of Small Weddings
Although I was sure that I wanted an intimate wedding, before the event I worried quite a bit about the decision. Would my wedding be boring, lacking the crazy energy of a big Israeli wedding? Would the dance floor would be empty? Would the venue look empty?
In the end, my wedding day went (relatively) smoothly and I’m happy that I had a small wedding. The biggest advantage of having a small wedding is freedom – you can have your wedding your way.
If you want to have a wedding in your backyard, it is infinitely easier to pull off with a smaller number of guests. If you’re imagining a high-concept wedding, let’s say with a 5-course tasting menu and gourmet chef personally preparing meals in front of your guests, this will definitely be easier if you’re having a small wedding.
The Israeli Wedding 
Any specific suggestion for small weddings in Israel. We are expecting no more than 175 people and hope to be in close vicinity to a location with pool and room accomodations.
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Hi Blythe. First off, Mazel Tov!
If housing many guests coming from abroad is a priority for you, I think a great solution would be finding a Kibbutz which has a hotel and a wedding hall. For example, Kibbutz Shefayim (about 20 km/12 miles north of Tel Aviv) has a hotel and a nice wedding hall/events center called HaGan BeShefayim (הגן בשפיים). I would recommend searching this way – looking at Kibbutzim that have hotels as well as wedding halls.
Another option would be to get married at a hotel in Tel Aviv, where there are plenty of hotels for a wide budgetary range. There are both the hotels along the beach, like the Hilton, Carlton, etc. where you can do a sunset outdoor ceremony with a view of the sea, as well as more boutique hotels within the city (the Norman comes to mind.)
Because of the pandemic, hotels and events halls are currently closed all throughout Israel. On that same note, because many of the venues have been closed for the entirety of the pandemic, many places which would have previously only agreed to do a 200-250 person minimum for a wedding will likely be happy to accommodate your 175 person wedding.
Hope this helps.
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