The Brief

Spring is here and so is wedding season — but what many people consider to be the ideal wedding may be changing.

Marriages have been on the decline, with the average marrying age rising to about 30 for men and 28 for women in the United States. With shifting values on marriage, a looming recession, and the ongoing recovery from the pandemic, a three-tiered cake and hundred-name guest list no longer reflect what many couples want and value.

Enter the micro wedding.

A bride and groom hike up a mountain trail in New Hampshire as part of their micro-wedding ceremony

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Emma Thurgood

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Courtesy Emma Thurgood

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What is a micro-wedding?

A micro wedding, or elopement ceremony, usually has between 25 to 50 guests, typically just close friends and family, and does not follow the standard wedding format. They can be as small as just the couple and the officiant or as individualized as a hike up a local mountain or time spent baking cookies after exchanging vows.

“In the industry, we sort of talk about weddings in a box, or wedding factories,” said Emma Thurgood, an elopement specialist who also plans micro-weddings. “I call them manufactured weddings, where you go to a venue, and the venue helps you plan the same wedding that they do for all their other couples. Elopements and micro weddings are outside of that kind of experience.”

Thurgood said that is what can be so special about a micro wedding: Couples can create a day that represents their relationship and interests.

Thurgood said that what really matters when planning a micro wedding is that the “experience for the day feels like it’s a true reflection of the couple.”

A bride and groom get married on a cliff overlooking the ocean in California

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Courtesy Jaime Trabert

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Unusual locations

Micro-weddings also tend to take place at unconventional locations. This is due in part to conventional wedding venues requiring guest minimums that do not accommodate for the smaller scale of a micro-wedding.

But this obstacle can also be an advantage when trying to create a unique and memorable experience.

“It's kind of turned a con of not being able to find micro wedding venues into a pro, because we're really looking outside the box and saying, ‘Hey, let's get married at a bowling alley or a bookstore’,” said Jaime Trabert, co-owner and founder of Our Little Wedding, a California-based micro-wedding planning agency.

Other venues include the couple’s backyard, a favorite restaurant, or a national park.

Although micro weddings and elopement ceremonies can be cheaper than their more traditional counterparts, the main draw is to have a tailor-made experience that prioritizes the couple.

“They like the idea that they don't have to spend as much on an elopement, but then also the money they do spend, they can allocate it to things that they care more about than just feeding and entertaining a hundred people,” said Thurgood.

A new perspective on marriage

According to Shane McMurray, CEO and founder of wedding research company the Wedding Report, the number of marriages in the U.S. has been declining since 1984.

McMurray said that micro weddings have been around for a while — though they’ve just recently become more popular, in large part due to the COVID-19 pandemic requiring large gatherings to be scaled back.

“I think that it goes back to what is the true purpose and sole intent of the event for those that wanted to be married,” said Sarah Beachkofsky-Moore, Executive Director for the Center for Low Country Hospitality Education at the University South Carolina, Buford. “Especially during the pandemic, you couldn't have a group of more than 10 together. So it truly made you narrow down who did you want to have where, and when, and for what purpose.”

Beachkofsky-Moore also said that the pandemic gave people the opportunity to reflect on their relationships and ideas of marriage.

More and more couples are choosing to live together prior to marriage, and younger generations may be viewing a walk down the aisle as an unnecessary affirmation of their commitment to one another — especially one that has such a steep price tag.

A small wedding ceremony in a national park in California

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Viera Photographics/Viera Photographics

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Courtesy Jaime Trabert

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According to a survey conducted by the Thriving Center of Psychology, 73% of Gen Z and Millennials say that weddings are too expensive. The average wedding costs about $35,000, according to The Knot’s 2023 Real Wedding Study.

And, as McMurray said, the easiest way to cut down on wedding costs is to cut out wedding guests.

Still, this new trend towards smaller ceremonies and weddings that forgo the traditional aesthetic and routine may have more to do with shifting perspectives on marriage and its value in today’s society.

Perspectives around marriage, especially amongst younger Millennials and Gen Z, have been shifting away from traditional ideals for a number of years now. According to that same survey by the Thriving Center of Psychology, 84% believe that marriage is not necessary for a fulfilling relationship.

“I think people are starting to feel that this kind of traditional American wedding is really performative and micro weddings are allowing people to kind of have a day that's more authentic to them,” said Trabert. “Freeing them up from any rules and expectations.”

Inside the micro-wedding industry

Despite a growing popularity in micro weddings, the percent of weddings that fall within the 25 to 50 guest range is roughly 15%, said McMurray. And for less than 25 guests, it's about 2%. According to McMurray, many weddings are still typically anywhere from 50 to 100 guests.

Although the number of micro-weddings is still in the minority, there is a budding industry dedicated to helping couples create these intimate ceremonies.

A couple kissing at the end of their micro-wedding ceremony

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Courtesy Jaime Trabert

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Trabert and her husband started out as wedding photographers with their own company Viera Photographics. They had been doing wedding photography for more than 15 years when the pandemic hit. Since most weddings during that time moved to micro weddings, Trabert and her husband decided to start their own wedding planning company focused on these more intimate ceremonies.

“It also had been an idea that we had had for a really long time, just kind of noticing a trend of couples on these big weddings, not really enjoying themselves and not really being able to be in the moment and enjoy their day,” said Trabert.

Our Little Wedding offers all-inclusive as well as partially inclusive wedding packages.

According to McMurray, photography and videography are one wedding expense that has gone up in the last few years.

This is also true of micro weddings, which is why so many professionals in this niche sector of the industry tend to be photographers. A challenge that comes up when trying to find resources for clients, said Thurgood, an elopement specialist, micro-wedding planner, and photographer based in New England.

A couple kissing after saying their vows in a small sitting room of an inn.

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Emma L Thurgood

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Courtesy Emma Thurgood

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Because micro-weddings go against the established standards of the industry, most wedding vendors and venues do not accommodate for elopements and micro weddings. Thurgood said that most venues, make-up artists, and caterers have a minimum headcount that often doesn’t suit the micro-wedding scale.

“It's a slow tide turn, but it is starting to happen where there are more resources to help couples plan weddings like that,” Thurgood said. “That's the biggest struggle I think couples face logistically.”

One-stop shopping

That's also why businesses in the industry like Thurgood's and Trabert's are often all-encompassing.

Thurgood officiates and legalizes her couples’ marriages herself, and Our Little Wedding offers officiants, make-up artists and floral arrangements.

“And that is in essence just to keep the wedding planning as simple and streamlined as possible for our clients,” said Angelina Apilado, lead wedding planner at Our Little Wedding, who said that wedding planning can be overwhelming.

However, micro weddings also offer some flexibility that traditional ceremonies don’t — namely the diversity of possible venues.

McMurray mentioned that the biggest disrupter to the wedding industry has been the shift from traditional ballrooms and banquet halls to more interesting locations: Think tops of mountains, middle of the woods, barns, rooftops, and sometimes schools.

Trabert noted that beyond venue space, micro weddings allow couples to get married sooner. And there could be a major benefit for the wedding industry as a whole, if venues start accommodating micro weddings on weekdays.

“We're working with these bigger venues to create packages that fit for micro weddings. And we do them on a Wednesday instead of a Saturday. So it helps not only the couples, but it helps the venues and their businesses as well,” said Trabert.

Possibly the biggest hurdle the industry faces is the traditional ideals of many outside the micro-wedding space.

Helping people plan these smaller ceremonies also means helping them navigate “the interpersonal drama that might arise,” as Thurgood put it — primarily from family and friends that want the pomp and circumstance.

Apilado said that the American wedding culture puts a lot of expectations on couples getting married.

“I think the biggest thing is emphasizing to these couples is that they don't have to feel like they have to do X, Y, and Z to have this perfect wedding,” said Apilado. “It is what they want and their partner want at the end of the day.”

Cleanup is just beginning for a contaminated industrial site in South Gate, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials who are leading the effort.

The small southeast L.A. city was built on industry — in the early 20th century it boomed with auto, chemical and other manufacturers.

That legacy also left it with three Superfund sites, areas designated by the federal government as highly contaminated with hazardous waste.

The three sites are all clustered on a large lot framed by Southern and Rayo avenues. A residential neighborhood is nearby.

“This site is less than 50 yards away from a home, so we want to make sure that we clean it to a point where we can feel confident,” said South Gate Mayor Joshua Barron.

South Gate is home to about 90,000 people, the majority of whom are Latino. The median household income is about $74,500 and the state has identified the city and surrounding communities to be disproportionately burdened by pollution and its health effects.

This site, dubbed the Southern Avenue Industrial Area, housed a screw manufacturing business for 30 years, then a carpet adhesive plant. Both businesses are now defunct and the site was designated by the federal government as a Superfund site in 2012.

The pollution at this property was compounded by pollution from companies next door.

One of the two adjacent Superfund sites was used by Cooper Drum Co., a steel drum recycling plant. A group of Cooper Drum’s former customers, including chemical manufacturers and oil companies, are paying for part of that cleanup. The other site, previously operated by an aircraft rivet and conveyor belt manufacturer, is still in the analysis and planning stages.

At the Southern Avenue site where the EPA broke ground Tuesday, analyses commissioned by the agency found widespread lead and other toxic contamination in the soil, as well as a plume of trichloroethylene, a carcinogen, in the groundwater.

Officials say the plume has not affected the deeper aquifer South Gate and other southeast L.A. cities rely on for drinking water.

In 1986, the city closed water wells contaminated by the neighboring Cooper Drum site.

EPA project manager Kelia Liang explains the cleanup effort in South Gate on Tuesday.

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Erin Stone

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LAist

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“ The water is safe to drink,” said Mike Montgomery, superfund director for the EPA. “What we're trying to do is prevent it from becoming impacted.”

EPA officials estimate soil cleanup will take about two months. Groundwater cleanup planning will start in 2027 and could take a year or more. The whole effort is estimated to cost between $45 million and $60 million, primarily through federal dollars.

The summer heat may be sweltering at the moment in Southern California, but predictions about this winter’s El Niño show it could be the strongest on record.

So the LAist newsroom wants to know: What questions do you have? (You can submit below.)

We can tell you now that El Niño is a climate pattern that happens roughly every two to seven years, and is one of the most powerful drivers of the Earth’s weather.

During an El Niño event, the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America warms to above normal temperatures. The warm ocean adds moisture and heat to the atmosphere, influencing atmospheric circulation, temperatures and precipitation on a massive scale.

El Niño typically results in mild weather in the northern United States and wetter conditions in the southern part of the country.

In Southern California, we could start to see the effects of El Niño in the late fall or early winter. Generally, those effects include significant rain and high sea levels and the consequences that come with them, such as flooding, mudslides and coastal erosion.

Forecasters say there is a more than 90% chance of a powerful El Niño event this year, and a 70% chance that it’s record-setting.

That said, uncertainty remains around how exactly this winter’s El Niño will play out here.

So as you gear up for an El Niño winter, ask us your questions and we’ll do our best to get answers in the months ahead.

The company behind the Garden Grove hazardous waste scare earlier this year is planning to resume full operations in late September, subject to an independently monitored, court-approved safety plan.

GKN Aerospace employs 500 people at its Garden Grove facility.

What happened?

GKN Aerospace said in a news release that it had permanently decommissioned the tank that set off the hazmat scare in May and forced some 50,000 nearby residents to evacuate.

Removal of the tank is pending review and approval from state regulatory agencies, according to an emailed response from Salma Elshakre, a spokesperson for the Orange County Health Care Agency, which is overseeing the cleanup.

All of the toxic chemical, methyl methacrylate (also known as MMA), has been removed from nearby tanks as well, Elshakre said.

What about the compensation fund?

This week, the company also announced a forthcoming $100 million compensation fund for affected residents and businesses. GKN expects to release details on how to apply in the coming months.

What's next?

At least 39 lawsuits have been filed against the company in conjunction with the hazmat incident, according to a GKN webpage set up to track the fallout. The company pledged to explain the legal effect of participating in the compensation fund before it is launched.

What's the community reaction?

Garden Grove Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein said in a statement that the city “welcome[s] this progress and will continue to expect GKN to address the broader effects on our community.”

A coalition of community groups called GKN Out of Garden Grove Coalition wants the city to shut down the GKN plant completely. The coalition plans to release a report documenting the company’s alleged history of hazardous waste failures at a news conference Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at 11300 Stanford Ave. in Garden Grove.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States. If it happens, the move would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in U.S. history and would likely face legal challenges.

Unless challenged or revised, the State Department is expected to announce in the coming weeks the revocation of so-called B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 whose holders have sought asylum or are now seeking asylum, according to State Department documents obtained by The Associated Press and two U.S. officials. The action will be taken in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.

“We are coordinating with DHS to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently,” said State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.

He declined to comment on the number of visas that might be revoked, saying “as the process will be ongoing, the number of revocations remains dynamic and will be done on a rolling basis.”

The revocations would not necessarily result in their immediate deportation, the officials said. Most of those with asylum cases currently pending would be recategorized but would lose their status as business or tourism travelers, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the revocations are not final yet.

Since President Donald Trump took office for his second term last year, his administration has steadily ramped up restrictions on visa applicants — demanding more information about their social media histories, requiring the posting of expensive bonds for the processing of visas, and outright banning the issuance of visas to citizens of certain countries.

In a social media post on Monday, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau called out people who he said try to use tourist and business visas to get into the United States and then apply for asylum.

“People in the US and all over the world are fed up with bogus asylum claims,” Landau wrote on X. “Asylum isn’t supposed to be a loophole to circumvent immigration law.” Landau cited the case of a Colombian citizen who came to the U.S. in 2015 on a tourist visa and then applied for asylum.

B1 visas are generally issued for business trips and B2 visas are generally issued for tourism, family visits or medical care. It was not immediately clear from the documents or the officials how many of these visa holders are seeking or have sought asylum in the United States and would be affected by the revocations.

Current applicants for B1 and B2 visas are asked to affirm that they will not apply for asylum in the United States and prove that they intend to return to their home countries.

In the past 18 months, the State Department has revoked about 175,000 visas for people who have been convicted or accused of crimes ranging from drunken driving to rape and robbery, as well as for people who have spoken out publicly against U.S. policies, particularly in the Middle East.

The administration has also moved to crack down on so-called birth tourism, a practice the administration claims is used by foreign pregnant women to come to the United States to give birth so that their child will benefit from birthright citizenship. Trump has tried several times to end birthright citizenship, but those challenges have been rejected by courts, including the Supreme Court.

The State Department documents obtained by the AP suggest screening of current B1 and B2 visa holders began after the State Department received information about asylum requests from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.