Ah, the winter wedding and the holiday wedding. Pros: It’s much easier to remember your anniversary when your wedding date corresponds with Christmas, the first day of Hanukkah, New Year’s Day, or the onset of winter. Cons: Your loved ones are far more likely to combine your anniversary and its corresponding holiday when giving gifts.
But how to decorate for a holiday wedding without becoming too dependent on holiday decor? How to wear one’s winter wedding dress without freezing to death? How to cope with a holiday wedding while also stressing over gifts?
The first step is to ask yourself why you’re planning a theme wedding in the first place. Do you love snowflakes falling or building snowmen? Do you have fond memories of leaving cookies for Santa as a young child? Does the sparkle of the Hanukkah lights make you teary eyed each year? Consider your treasured memories when choosing wedding reception decor, invitations, favors, and so on. BellaOnline recommends:
Send wedding invitations of winter scenes (snowflakes, snowmen, a snow lodge, sleigh rides, snowy mountains). Decorate your ceremony venue using pine, ice, snow and seasonal flowers…Wedding favors can include a snowflake or icicle ornament, snow globes with winter scenes, personalized tins of hot cocoa or cookies, a personalized bottle of apple cider or egg nog, maybe even tins of your favorite cookie mix or holiday tea or coffee blend….icicle candy, sugar cookies, a gift certificate for a linen store (white sales are abundant in January!), tea lights, and a camera to capture New Year’s Eve memories they spend with you.
As for preventing frostbite on one’s bare arms, consider the oft forgotten wedding cloak. If you want to feel like a princess on your special day, this garment can really do the trick. Plus, it’ll keep you toasty as you dash between the car and the church or the car and the hall or the car or the office of the justice of the peace!
Finally, the holiday season can be stressful enough without dealing with wedding stress on top of it all! American Bridal offers some great winter wedding and holiday wedding tips, including:
Let someone else deck the halls for you. Take advantage of venues already decorated for the holidays. If you’re going for a Christmas decor, you’ll save big on flowers and decorations. Some couples were able to get by with just bouquets for the wedding party. Also look for reception halls with fireplaces and other cozy features.
Take advantage of foods, desserts, decorations and music that come around only at this time of year. Serve festive cocktails like spiced cider, spiked eggnog and hot chocolate with Bailey’s. From turkey and ham with cranberry sauce to roast goose and Yorkshire pudding, go the whole nine yards with your reception feast. Instead of a wedding cake, consider the traditional wedding cake: an iced fruit cake. Ask your musicians to add some romantic holiday songs, such as “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and “Let It Snow” to their repertoire. For a New Year’s Eve wedding, give guests top hats and tiaras, and pass out flutes of champagne for the big countdown.
All in all, a holiday wedding or winter wedding can be great fun… however, when you’re planning a theme wedding, remember that your guests may be out of town visiting family or simply want to spend the holidays sitting in front of a cozy fire. Not getting ready for yet another huge gifty party.
The fur cloak is lovely, but the poor girl underneath it looks as if she’s about to perish—like they took the picture in Georgia in August. That look on her face says, “Too hot…need water…’just three more shots,’ but that was an hour ago…must, not, faint…”
The dresses remind me of the clothes of the Witch of Narnia. No black house dresses for her!
I think that not everyone can pull off a cloak, even in wintertime. It’s definitely Narnia-ish. Depending on one’s dress and hair, one might come off looking like a Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast without meaning to!
Heh, clearly, Never teh Bride, you aren’t Jewish. The first night of Chanukah changes on the regular calendar from year to year 😉
The cloak is a lovely option, however. Of course, it’s easy for me to say this, as I – ahem – have several. It is certainly a better option than a down parka over a wedding dress, or, as happened to one December bride (as she recounted to me), the only thing they could fit over her wedding dress on a cold drizzly December day was a Hefty bag, with holes in the sides for her arms. Most brides really don’t take into account the possibility of cold, rain, or snow on the wedding day.
I have often daydreamed about the possibility of having a business which dealt only in cover-ups for brides … appropriate cover-ups of all different kinds, some for sale, and some for rent … I would enjoy the heck out of designing them.
You should do it, La BellaDonna! All of the brides in the northern US and Canada and other chilly places would thank you!
If i want to where somethign to cover me up on a cold maine winter day(wedding day. whta do u recomend
A winter wedding can be terribly glamorous, cinematic and magical. With the right elements, your winter wedding will be a wonderland.