Snowflakes, Holidays and Weddings: Tips for Planning a Winter Wedding

Planning your winter wedding offers you a unique panoply of options. From the favors to the flowers to the attire, winter weddings can incorporate your personalities, your backgrounds and your individual tastes easily.

If you start by choosing your wedding colors, you can focus on the winter hues found in nature with pure whites, pine greens and icy blues. These shades bring the elegance and simplicity of earth’s splendor to your wedding. Or, you can select festive shades of red and gold, combined with the green of holly leaves to make your wedding an event celebrating the joy of the season and bringing families together.

Once your color palette is chosen, you can start selecting attire and favors that coordinate with it. For a winter wedding, warmth is obviously a priority in both gowns and suits. The winter bride will be beautiful in a gown with long sleeves, fur trim or winter accents. The current trend of strapless gowns lends itself well to accessories such as shawls or capelets and, of course, classically tailored jackets. For the groom, scarves offer colorful accents and a way to bring his personality or interests into the wedding. Many grooms choose subtle tributes to their favorite teams or movies and, by matching these accessories with other members of the wedding party, you can create a truly memorable wedding day.

Winter wedding favors are traditionally décor items such as candles, holiday tree ornaments or photo frames. Any of these can be easily personalized with the couple’s initials, the wedding date or even a photograph of the couple themselves. If you prefer to give more modern favors, winter wonderland wine bottle stoppers, snowflake key chains, or winter flurry place card holders are good choices.

Your winter wedding flowers may not offer the options of a June ceremony but, even in the coldest of days, you can find beautiful poinsettias, ivy, crocus, orchids, or snowberries. Incorporating pine cones and holly can bring more natural tones in without detracting from your colors and add texture to bouquets.

Winter weddings are truly a celebration at the time of year most in need of them. With the cold outdoors, your ceremony and reception will draw your loved ones together, reminding them of the importance of love and gathering. Make choices that help reinforce that and you’ll have a wonderful time whether your day is in the middle of a winter wonderland or not.