Planning The Perfect Winter Wedding
Spring and Summer are traditionally seen as peak wedding season, with three-quarters of weddings taking place between May and October. Summer weddings are all about the marquees, barefoot beach weddings, back garden weddings under a big flower arch, flower girls, and al-fresco cocktails.
But there’s also something romantic and atmospheric about a winter wedding. Think of a winter wedding and you’re thinking frost and faux fur, sparkles, and candlelight. Just 2.5% of weddings take place in December, even less in January, so not only are you more likely to find that your dream venue is available, but you might even get a bargain, meaning your wedding budget can stretch a bit further.
Weather is often a big worry for anyone planning a summer wedding, but if you get married in November you’re not expecting warm sunshine, so plan everything indoors and anything other than a grey, rainy day is a bonus. And who knows, you may even get some snow in those wedding pics!
Here at The Insurance Emporium, we love a good wedding, so we’ve put together a quick guide to planning your winter wonderland; so get wrapped up in a blanket, pour yourself a drink, and let’s get planning.
Winter Wedding Venues
When thinking about a wedding venue, think about the kind of theme you want. Are you thinking cosy and rustic, in a barn with lots of natural wood and greenery? Or do you want to channel Wham’s Last Christmas with some ski lodge vibes? As most of the day’s events will be taking place under cover you don’t need a venue with a great deal of outside space, although a marquee or tipi is still an option with a fire pit and some blankets. A banqueting hall in a stately home or country club would work well, you could even look at refurbished warehouses or old factory buildings; exposed brick and floor-to-ceiling windows lend themselves to a winter theme with great lighting.
Winter Wedding Decorations
Having a winter wedding means you can use Christmas to your advantage; Christmas decorations are often cheaper than traditional floral arrangements, and your venue may already have decorations up that you could incorporate into your decor. Things such as berries, pine cones, mistletoe, and evergreen wreaths would all look fantastic as table decorations.
Lighting is really important at a winter wedding, as much of the celebrations take place after dark. It might be a good idea to visit your venue after dark to see what the lighting is like and also talk to your photographer. Then you can go all out on the sparkle – we’re talking candles, chandeliers, helium balloons filled with glitter confetti, and velvet tablecloths with sequinned runners. And remember the rule about fairy lights – there is no such thing as too many.
You could swap the traditional bow-backed chairs in the ceremony for benches covered in sheepskin rugs and walk down a candle-lit aisle. Neon signs could light the way to the bar, or you could embrace the full snow palace theme and have an ice sculpture; if your venue has a fireplace then even better.
Outfit
A winter wedding is the perfect time to embrace velvet, fur, and sparkles and your options are endless. You might want to opt for a traditional wedding outfit and then layer up with feathery, sparkly shawls and faux fur boleros and stoles; maybe even throw on a tuxedo-style jacket over a traditional wedding dress. Or you might go for a long-sleeved dress or a velvet jumpsuit, or a tuxedo, in a rich Christmassy colour.
Sequins always look good against a snowy backdrop, and it often looks very effective to have bridesmaids in long sequinned gowns, or you might want to use festive jewel tones; purples, reds, teal, dark pink, ochre and dark green. Contrasting fabrics can look amazing; a tulle skirt with a cashmere wrap, or a velvet jacket over sequins.
You might also want to have a more relaxed dress code for your guests and remember, if you’re planning on having photos taken outdoors remember to have a change of footwear ready; nobody will notice your fleecy ankle boots in the wedding album and your sparkly heels will stay dry for the dance floor.
Flowers
Mistletoe and holly look great in a winter bouquet (or in buttonholes) and using seasonal flowers will be much cheaper than paying for out-of-season flowers, as well as being more environmentally friendly; think berries and feathers, pomegranates, thistles, poinsettias and pampas grass.
You could have an all-white bouquet tied with a cream-coloured velvet ribbon or go for festive red with a bit of sparkle. You could even use dried flowers in a mix of different bright colours. Whatever you decide to go for, you’ll have as much choice as if you were planning a summer wedding.
Food
Winter wedding food needs to be different to summer wedding food; on a dark November day when you’re wrapped up in velvet and fur, surrounded by candlelight, you don’t want to be eating little fiddly bits of prawn wrapped in filo pastry. Winter weddings lend themselves to comfort food, such as pie and mash, or a carvery, maybe a charcuterie board. You want soups, baked camembert, mini Yorkshire puddings with slices of roast beef, sticky toffee pudding and custard.
Instead of champagne you could offer a cranberry champagne cocktail to your guests, or spiced mulled cider/wine, sloe gin or a classic espresso martini.
You could ditch the traditional fruit cake and instead try a festive gingerbread with eggnog crème, or a spiced apple cake, or even a chocolate yule log. The cake could be decorated with pine cones and holly and berries, or gold wedding toppers, you could even use edible gold paint.
A Few Added Extras
- You could give Christmas tree decorations as wedding favors.
- Remember to send invites out early, at least a year in advance. People get very booked up (and stressed!) over Christmas so the more notice the better.
- Remember it gets dark early when planning photos.
- If your wedding is before Christmas you could organise a Santa to come along for the kids (although we can think of a few adults who would love that too!)
- Biodegradable snow confetti would look great in photos, as would sparklers.
This is a great time of year to get wrapped up in front of the fire and plan your winter wedding, but often one of the things that gets pushed down the list is wedding insurance, particularly at a time when we’re all trying to keep an eye on what we spend.
But if the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that you never know what’s around the corner, and with so much time, money and effort invested in planning the big day it makes sense to take that extra step to make sure you’re covered.
With 7 policy types to choose from, that you can tweak with our Optional Benefits, there’ll be a policy that suits both your big day and your budget so get in touch and get a free, no-obligation quote. Who wouldn’t want to say I do to that?
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