10 Tips for Your Winter Wedding

By Vintage Hotels
10 Tips for Your Winter Wedding

1. Design a Menu of Comfort Foods

Image courtesy of Afterglow Images

Winter weddings provide the perfect opportunity to serve delicious comfort food that everyone will love! Encourage your guests to come in from the cold with a steaming mug of hot cocoa or hot buttered rum and design your dinner menu around seasonal items like hot cider, soups, roasts, and more. Alongside your cake, consider warm, homestyle desserts like sticky toffee pudding or apple pie.

The talented culinary staff at our hotels are happy to work with you to create a delectable winter menu using fresh, local ingredients that your guests will rave about.

2. Work with an Experienced Planner

Image courtesy of Frances Morency Photography

Finding a wedding planner who understands your vision and has the skills and know-how to make it happen is important to any wedding planning process. When shopping for your planner, it may be a good idea to ask them about their experience with planning winter weddings, ensuring they have a good grasp of how to tackle challenges like weather, ensuring guest comfort, and winter-appropriate décor.

3. Embrace Winter Décor

Image courtesy of Josh Bellingham Photography

Transform your wedding venue into a winter wonderland with inspiring winter décor! Incorporate rich, festive colours like crimson, burgundy, navy blue, or forest green for a beautiful contrast to a snowy backdrop. If a neutral colour scheme is more your style, try focusing on shades of cream, grey, and silver.

Candles and twinkling fairy lights add a mystical, intimate feel to any event space, helping you create the magical ambience of a cozy night in the dead of winter.

4. Select a Cozy Venue

Image courtesy of Gemini Photography

Choose a venue that matches your winter theme. Mood lighting, chandeliers, wood features, and fireplaces are all popular features of winter-themed venues.

Our hotels embrace a vintage-chic aesthetic, and with beautiful wainscotting, fireplaces, and classic styling, you’ll feel equally elegant and cozy at your winter wedding celebration.

5. Incorporate Bold Colour in Your Bouquets

Image courtesy of Haskell Photos

Most florists will still have all the most popular blooms in stock, but they may be pricier since they’re out of season. However, winter weddings are a great opportunity to explore the beauty of seasonal flowers like anemones, narcissus, amaryllis, and snowberries. Use their bold hues to add a burst of colour to your palette, especially if your colour scheme is otherwise mostly neutral.

6. Plan for the Weather

Image courtesy of Afterglow Images

Weather can be unpredictable at the best of times, and that’s especially true during the winter season. Be sure that you’ve planned for inclement weather with appropriate clothing and have an indoor ceremony space ready in case a blizzard nixes your courtyard ceremony plans.

7. Ensure Guest Comfort

Image courtesy of Frances Morency Photography

Winter brings chilly temperatures, and you want to ensure that your guests aren’t too busy shivering to celebrate with you!

Providing guests with a hot drink on arrival and strategically placing space heaters are simple and effective ways to provide some extra warmth against cooler temperatures. Or, if the weather gets too cold outside, bring the party indoors to your cozy reception venue!

8. Host Your Ceremony and Reception Together

Image courtesy of Morning Light

Having your ceremony and reception together at the same venue cuts down on travel time in the winter. It’s much easier (and safer!) to take a short walk to another space than it is to drive in a blizzard.

Our hotels feature multiple event spaces, making for a simple, stress-free transition from ceremony to reception while still including all the beauty and charm you expect from your ideal wedding venue.

9. Provide Warm Outerwear

Image courtesy of Frances Morency Photography

One of the biggest challenges with a winter wedding is keeping your guests and wedding party warm! Be prepared for the temperature drop with warm outerwear like winter boots, wraps, long sleeves, and thick tights under long dresses (no one will notice!).

10. Gift Wintry Wedding Favours

Wedding favours are always a nice touch to show your guests you appreciate them, and edible favours are by far the most popular choice. Gift wintry wedding favours like seasonal cookies, candy canes, maple syrup, or mini bottles of Bailey’s. Other winter-themed favourites include blankets, pashminas, or candles.

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