Anyone having/had a winter wedding - tips needed!

We are having a winter wedding!!! next year 23rd dec.

I'm having a pink/white/silver snowflake theme

The ceremony is at 5pm so we are going to have big outdoor candles for the photos - weather dependant!!

Im having fur/feather wraps for me and the bridesmaids and probably white pumps as warm comfy wedding shoes!!

My venue will already have xmas decs up (saves me a few quid!) - so if you're having yours near xmas check with the venue about their decs!!!!

Having mince pies and yule logs with the buffet

Thinking about crackers/baubles/chocs for favours and hanging them in the christmas tree

Not having flowers personally but poinsettias/ivy/holly are great seasonal flowers - cream pink or red

May be having an arch with mistletoe incorporated into it at the ceremony.

Reading that back sounds so tacky lol but it really wont be. Winter lets you get away with all sorts of glittery sparkles!!!

Thanks for those, I don't think it sounds tacky at all, it sounds lovely and cosy! Problem I think its going to be mid Jan so couldn't do the Christmas touches unfortunately. Are you having everyone to the ceromony and then a buffett to follow rather than a sit down meal?

Make sure the venue has enough seating areas for guests to wait around while you have photos as if it's freezing/bad weather they won't want to be mingling outside.

Make sure your photographer/videographer knows the venue and can compensate for the bad light.

Have alternative plans for indoor photos if the weather is bad.

Have hot soup in styro cups at the end of the evening as guests are leaving - we did this at our wedding in the North of Scotland in March and they all appreciated having something warm in their tummies for the road home ? it didn't cost much extra ?

I'm planning a winter wedding too, so any more pointers would be very helpful! I'm not sure what to do colour wise, i suppose red is appropriate for that time of year but i'm not really keen on it. But then at the same time i want it to be quite traditional. Confused!

Love the hot chocolate idea, might pinch that one! x

We got married on 17th Dec 05 (where does the time go to!?) but I would be super aware of how cold other people will get waiting around and posing for photos outside!! You will be glowing and not notice but when you look back at the photos there will be some rosy nosed, grumpy looking relatives!! Hot chocolates all round I think!!

We had a gorgeous crisp winters day, and have got some super photos but lots of chilly looking ones too!! Also be aware that if you chose to have you photos outside alot of people will have big dark overcoats on, so the effect of their outfits will be lost? HTH

I am having a January 29th 2011 wedding and my winter theme touches are:

Snowflake Ice blue, silver and white theme with dashes of turqouise

Silver glittery twigs with hanging crystals for table decs

Fairy light archway

Candles everywhere!

Snowflakes subtly incoroprated- cufflinks for example

Snowflake marshmallows with coffee

Lots of mirror and sparkle

I find winter so inspiring!

An artifical snow machine? I was looking at these and theyre only about £50 now...

Thanks all - great tips, loving them!!

jandr I'm not sure about colour scheme either? I don't fancy red/gold which seems most apt, but then again I'm not sure about silver/blue as its striking me as quite 'cold'. I want a cosy winter wedding.

Ooh please post the pics jules40!

Hugo Bramles...have i missed something? Are you getting married?

I remember the Altomation thread on OT a while ago....i am assuming thats all sorted now? Update me!

Hi ya

I love planning winter weddings, there are so many things you can do to ensure that your guests have a great time. Warm drinks are a must, so for your pre reception drinks, ask your caterer if they are able to offer hot cocktails like a warm ginger and rum drink or even a shot of whisky/baileys into a hot chocolate. You could even arrange for a hot chestnut seller to be there to provide your guests with a warm winter snack and works brilliantly for keeping hands warm.

If you are having a church wedding, ask the vicar about the heating and when it comes on before the wedding. If you are worried about the church being cold, purchase lots of winter blankets from charity shops and have them on the pews for your guests to cover their laps. You can then donate them to an animal shelter afterwards. You could also provide heart shaped hand warmers that warm up when you squeeze them. Perfect to keep your guests warm if you are having outdoor photos at the church.

With regard to colours, for a winter wedding you can choose either warm or cool colours. I love both but if you prefer warmer colours and would like to avoid the traditional red and gold, think about jewel like colours, sapphire blue, emerald green, amethyst purple, ruby reds, amber oranges. Any combination of colour would work and a great way of making a dramatic yeteffect is to use coloured lighting to completely transform the room and to make it feel really warm. It isn't actually very expensive to do.

I have a wedding in December where we are using large silver candelabras and then placing wreaths of willow sprayed silver on the top with purple baubles interspersed into them, they are having a 'winter wonderland' theme. You could do something similar but get the wreaths sprayed in a co-ordinating colour with eg green/purple/blue and have co--ordinating jewels placed into the arrangments with coloured votives with tealights at the base to add more colour onto the table.

One thing to make sure is that there is a cloakroom for your guests coats. If your venue doesn't have one, ask them to provide a clothes rail and hangers, if worst comes to the worst, you'll have to provide one. Also, think about somewhere for ladies to put their hats. Maybe tie some co-ordinated ribbon between two posts or attach somewhere and have nice pegs for them to peg their hats to (don't use painted pegs though!)

I hope that gives you some ideas to get the ideas flowing!

Ruth

x

Shoegal, lol. I've not done any announcements yet as we've not told people IRL so I thought no-one would notice if I came on here for a few sneaky posts whilst I get planning!!! Between you and me yes it's been sorted with knobs on it and suffice to say, I am planning a wedding!!

Wowee thanks Ruth, that's brill! Purple was a colour I had been wondering about, a rich cadburys colour almost. The other colour I like is Black with diamontees, only because I've seen some lovely classic invitations that are black with a diamonte 'buckle' on a ribbon. Not sure if black is a bit too somber and boring and not sure how it would fit in regards other touches on the day (not that I want to get obsessed about the bridesmaids knickers matching the napkins but some continuity would be good).

You would be surprised, matching knickers and napkins can come high on some bride's lists!!!

I do like black and white, but you need to be very careful with it. Your colour scheme basically comes down to your reception room. If you have a neutral brown and cream colour scheme in the room, you would at first think, great nice and neutral, however, putting a high contrast solour scheme such as black and white wouldn't work.

Black and white weddings work with grey/white and black rooms even red and white

When it hasn't worked so well

Ruth

x

We got married on 15th December 2007 and I am so pleased we chose that time of year, it was lovely!!

We had a cosy venue with open fires, choice of white wine and mulled wine. We were prepared to have photos inside if it rained but instead it was cold and frosty - Husband and I had photos of the two of us outside before it got dark and I really couldn't feel the cold to be honest!! Didn't even wear a shrug or bolero, just strapless dress!! We had close family group shots outside and then got everyone out for a shot of us all, taken from 1st floor window of our suite. I think guests were a bit chilly but were outside for only a few minutes and absolutely fine! They warmed up near the open fires afterwards!

We got married around 12:30 but had tall candelabras with lots of winter greenery, fir cones, berries as out table centrepieces, plus a tall floor standing one near the top table. As it got dark during the meal and speaches the candles looked lovely! Really pleased we included lots of candles. We managed to get roses at that time of year for our bouquets and buttonholes. Nice deep red ones for b'maids and a lovely cream variety for my bouquet and buttonholes (sorry, can't remember the name of them now).

Choose a hearty winter meal if you are having a sit down meal, we had roast beef and the guests loved it!!

I wore a cream/light gold dress and the bridesmaids were in deep red with sparkle on their dresses. The men wore choc brown suits. I also fancied the idea of choc brown or latte bridesmaids dresses (bridesmaids were horrified by the idea so didnt go with that!!!!) or cadbury purple. The bridesmaids got little cardigans from monsoon for outside.

The only thing that didn't go quite to plan was the evening, the garden pavillion was supposed to be heated which it was, but it was still pretty cold, brrrrrr!! People seemed to leave a bit early and go back to their hotel rooms or the main building of the hotel to warm up. It was a bit disappointing. The room looked lovely though, with lots of xmas trees with white lights, tea lights on tables and all the candelabras from the daytime. We had white chair covers and white sashes.

It wasn't too difficult to organise a winter wedding, just be aware that guests won't want to be outside for long and offer nice warm hearty food and mulled wine, they'll be fine!!!

Flowers weren't a problem but perhaps a little more expensive at that time of year.

I'm sure you'll love having a winter wedding. x

Haven't got much to add after reading some of the fab ideas you've been given here, but was going to say that I love the idea of a deep purple for bridesmaid's dresses/winter colour scheme in general - in fact that is the only colour I really 100% love the idea of so would love to have it myself - but ours is in July so probably wouldn't work.

You could accent purple with hints of silver here and there too, to give a bit of that sparkley effect if you wanted it.

I think I would have loved a winter wedding actually, you could make it so warm and romantic <too late now icon> ?

Hi Stazzle

You absolutely can have cadbury purple for a summer wedding! Go For it!!!!

We got married on 28 February this year. There's a link to our draft album below (any excuse to flash the pictures!).

We had a cream, chocolate and gold colour scheme. Cream roses as flowers, but only button holes and bouquets, and MIL made a small arrangement for the registrars' table. On the tables at the meal, we had glass vases that were sort of boat-shaped, with gold gravel in the bottom and floating candles. There aren't any pictures of them on the link though and I don't know how to post my own pics.

I'd second the thing about guests being cold. We went outside because if wasn't raining (yay!), I didn't notice the cold, but some of our guests were freezing!

Also pick your venue carefully, we loved ours for the winter (cosy and log fires, etc), but for a summer wedding, I think we'd have gone somewhere else and we saw other venues that looked lovely for summer, but wouldn't have been as good in winter.

HTH

Sara

http://www.pixcellence.co.uk/html/sara-wedding-photography-09022.html

I'm getting married on the 18th February at Lake Bled in Slovenia. Colour scheme is all shades of purple. I thought about appropriate 'winter' colours and ruled out red/green (too christmassy) and just red (too Valentine-sy) and didn't want a cold colour.

I haven't thought much about making sure the guests are warm enough but I've told them to expect to be outside a lot as we are planning to go to the island on a rowing boat! It's up to them to wear suitable clothing, I'm not bothered about coats and scarves in photos.

I'm wearing a strapless dress with a matching short sleeve bolero and then putting on either a fur wrap or pashmina type thing for outside. I am wearing warm underwear and thermal socks though!

I also had the idea of providing those little 'hand warmers' that heat up instantly when removed from the packet or when the disc inside is 'clicked'.

In 10 weeks it will be my winter wedding!

We are having an early ceremony so we make the most of the daylight. Our venue will be decorated for Christmas and we are feasting on traditional Chritmas fare- it's exactly how I wanted it. Faux-fur wraps for me and BM! Have bought a stack of clear brollies from Primark in case the weather is a bit dodgy.

My BM is in cadbury purple, with the boys wearing ties in my family tartan. I am having artificial flowers so I can have exactly the bouquet I want without worrying about what's in season or the quality.

Our fabours are little tin buckets, handpainted with the guest's name, holly and the date, filled with minature Dairy Milks and finished with tartan ribbon.

Oooo I fancy a winter wedding now after reading all of these posts!!!!

Ruth those pics are gorgeous! ❤️

Would definitely love to at least look into purple - thank you! ?

Thanks all for your ideas, those photos are great! I wish I could post pics but there is a black and white one of the venue we like and it looks lovley. I think we'll go for black suits/invites/bm dresses/table touches but deep red tie for groom, and red flowers just to break it up a little? Mind you I like cadbury purple too so may swop red for that?

I'm having cadbury purple and getting married on the 5th Feb 2011 - Its snowed in Yorkshire for the last ten years nearly in the first week of Feb so fingers crossed for a little snow!! I'm trying to go for lots of candles. I'm hoping to get a ful lenght frock coat made to go over my dress for outdoors and pics - somethng I've always wanted but may push the budget a bit!

I woul love a candlelit ceremony but apparently its hard for the photographer to get decent pictures ( from a previous hitch post). Anyone got any ideas?

Hi, i am getting married on 18.12.11 in knutsford cheshire

i want it more 'winter' than xmas so i am totally avoiding red! my colours are silver and white - which can be really elegant and classy. to add a biut of colour im having teal bridesmaids who will be wearing fur bolero's.

my little flower girl has a gorgeous white hand muffler to keep her warm.

an ice scultpure and warm pimms on arrival is pretty cool too! x

Remember it gets dark quicker and less time for day time photos. Maybe consider an earlier ceremony? :-)