Winter Wedding ~ Yay or Nay?

If going for a winter wedding personally I would go for February rather then January for the simple reason that weddings are expensive thing for guests to attend unless everyone is local and your venue is local, most people are skint in January after Christmas and early December pay and really watching the pennies!

The other side is you don't know what weather conditions are going to be like more in Jan/Feb and risk of snow (well it is for me might not be the same elsewhere!)

I've been to some really good April weddings, they have been good because although cold you can get more light if the weather is ok you can get some good outdoor photos.

I wanted a winter wedding with lots of snow. I couldn't guarantee the snow so decided on Lapland. -37 on our wedding day so I'm biased to winter weddings. My photos are in my report listed below. I would say if you go with winter embrace the weather. Snow and rain make great pics. Give your guests blankets and got chocolate.

I got married two weeks ago!

We mainly did this because we weren't bothered about the season and would rather compromise on weather and be able to afford to have everyone we wanted there. We got a good deal with the venue as it was at its cheapest, and we also got a good discount on the band as it was out of season.

Hardly anybody RSVP'd no due to holidays or other commitments, and a few people said it was nice to have something to look forward to in January to brighten the month up. With a bit of notice people can plan to have money available, we didn't have any complaints on that front, although it did cross our minds.

You can also work with the theme - we had lots of fairy lights (cheap in the sales!), snowflakes, winter pimms for the reception drinks, sparklers in the evening. I had a lovely fur wrap which kept me warm.

I think you need to pick your venue carefully, make sure it's accessible as possible if the weather is bad, and it's good if you can have it all in one place so people aren't having to travel about in the cold/bad weather. Think about the timing of the ceremony -you might want it on the earlier side as the light can start to go from as early as 3pm, especially if the weather is bad, plus people won't want to hang around outside for photo's, so make sure there's plenty of indoor space or a back up at least. You might want to have indoor entertainment to keep people amused - we went for board games - as people won't be able to mill about outside. You might have to consider what colours/flowers you want - there's not much in season in January!

I don't regret having a January wedding and would definitely recommend them, but they won't be for everyone! We did worry a bit about the weather (not so bothered about rain, just hail/snow!) or about people being ill on the day, ourselves included! Also be prepared to not enjoy Christmas, as it was all just a blur to us as we were so busy with the last bits of wedding prep!

We got married on New Years Eve.

The weather wasn't perfect, it rained from about 11am until sometime during our service, and we had a bit of rain on the way to and during the photos. However, it was way better than the weather at an August wedding we went to, it bucketed down all day. Our weather in the evening was lovely, so much so that we did some more photos outside.

We got married in a church and had our reception in a hotel, only a short distance apart and in town so accessible if the weather had been icy or snowy. Once people got to the hotel, everything was indoors and many stayed over. We encouraged guests not staying or driving to pre-book taxis.

I had a bit of negativity from my family about our date but actually it was fantastic, everyone was in the party spirit and a good proportion of our guests stayed past midnight, with quite a lot still there at the end. Also handy was the church and reception venue were still decorated for Christmas, and looked fab, so we didn't have to add much.

We considered a January wedding but I find January such a depressing month - everyone is back to work, coming out of the Christmas bubble, and no one has any money or any inclination to do anything. We got in there just before the Christmas bubble burst! Our wedding was a Thursday and we paid the Saturday price, but it was the out of season Saturday price so I think we got a lot for our money. I'm suggesting NYE if you fancy that, it's the date of your engagement too, but if that doesn't rock your boat I would look at February, if March is a no no.

Congratulations!!

Winter yes yes yes! Then again I'm bias haha. We got married abroad and had our UK reception in January and it was perfect. The weather held out for us and everyone thought it looked really pretty. We avoided green and red as we didn't want to look like Christmas and everyone loved the fact we had a bbq buffet in January. The prices are dropped and even if it rains photos with uMorelos look lovely.

Im also voting for a winter wedding as I'm having one!! I would say January is a perfectly good month, as has been said above, if you give people plenty of notice they can factor in the cost and their post-christmas finances. I get married in December this year but will have to wait until January next year for my honeymoon as we still want to spend Christmas with family (and the cost of the honeymoon would be almost double...)! February is nice too but with Valentine's day in Feb it might alter the prices a bit (I don't know as we never looked at those dates but it stands to reason....).

I photograph a lot of weddings over the winter months. You can't guarantee the weather in summer anyway, so I'd be prepared to have a winter wedding. I chose 25th Aug many years ago... it was the august bank holiday Saturday and the hottest day of the year. It was far too hot to be outside for the group photos, I was melting!

If I were booking my wedding now I'd go for mid-late March on a weekday. As you don't want March then try April. Or October can be surprisingly nice.

We're getting married on 27th Feb- not long to go now!

We were thinking about NYE initially, but as we are having a child free wedding from initial conversations with some family and friends we found it impossible to do because a) they wanted to stay as a family on NYE or b) child care costs plus travel costs too expensive.

We opted for Winter as so many of our friends got married from May- Sept in the last few years we wanted something a little different.

Its also saved us a minimum of £5k on venue hire and catering!

We're all set for it to be wet, windy. If it snows then we might be a little stuck as the venue is in the middle of nowhere but positive thoughts!!!!

Also by doing it at the end of February it meant we could stagger the final payments of everything, TOGs, caterers, transport etc after Christmas and some after the first pay check of the new year!

Thanks everyone! Your comments have been reaaaaally helpful to us ?

I've now added holidays into the mix - we are thinking about doing our proper big luxury honeymoon for our 1st anniversary, and no doubt would like to go on holiday for anniversaries in the future, so I'm also thinking about the best time of year for the wedding day to give us the best options for travel. So all in all at the moment, I think we're narrowing down to late January, May and June. Easter often being in April puts me off slightly (i.e. more expensive holidays due to school break!).

I got married in January and really can't think of any cons except the risk of snow preventing people from travelling (or getting stuck en route). It was very cold but I love cold weather.