Winter Wedding

If you want a picturesque wedding to remember with a magical white wonderland as your back drop then winter is the perfect season to have your carefully planned special day. With the Christmas holiday season buzzing and love in the air, a beautiful white wedding dusted with a little snow would make the perfect Christmas gift.

Planning your wedding:

The reception is traditionally one of the most expensive aspects of a wedding. However, by combining personal creativity and ingenuity, with inexpensive, ready-made items available at discount retailers, brides-to-be and cash-strapped parents can host a beautiful wedding reception without blowing through the entire bridal budget. A winter wedding can be terribly glamorous, cinematic and magical and with the right elements, your winter wedding will be a fairytale wonderland.

For a traditional, elegant look have the groom in tails and the bride in a long white silk dress. 90% of wedding dresses are strapless so during this cold season the bride may wish to accessorise with a wrap, shrug or shawl, which complements the gown as well as stop the bride going blue.

When deciding on a location for your wedding and reception you should consider selecting somewhere with an open fire that boasts intimate warmth. Always remember to ask about heating, during the winter months it can get very chilly- and we all know that weddings are times to put your glad rag’s on, but don’t always fit the winter season very well. So choosing an old church with plenty of unwelcome drafts might not be the best idea.

You can incorporate the winter feeling into anything with a little bit of forward planning. Warm soup will be sure to warm your guests up, but if that doesn’t work serve up some spiced mulled wine or hot chocolate. You can also opt for a white chocolate cake to fit in with the white winter theme, which can also be decorated with snowflake patterns- just to add the icing on the cake.

Special Touches:

A winter wedding isn’t complete without having a horse and carriage carry the bride and groom to the reception, complete with a fur throw to keep them warm while taking in the beautiful festive surroundings.

To add a festive feel the reception you could decorate the room with miniature Christmas trees, adding a splash of colour as well as keeping in touch with the season. No winter wonderland reception is complete without a beautiful ice sculpture to catch the guest’s eyes as they arrive.

Seen as it is the most wonderful time of the year, Christmas can be incorporated in the theme by using colours such as red and green or if that is a little too bold you could go for silver and white or even gold and glamorous.

Since flowers can be more expensive at this time of year, think creatively. A mirrored platter with pillar candles and sprigs of holly is both elegant and romantic. Set candles or small flower arrangements in the middle of snow. And for an extra special touch, use fake snow instead of an aisle runner. Or, you can always hire a snow-making machine to really make your Christmas wedding a winter wonderland.

- K.J.N -