Planning a Christmas Wedding

If you choose to get married around Christmas there are plenty of ways to make sure your special day goes the way you want it while still not clashing with the season. Do you like carols? You can choose all your favourites at a church wedding at this time of year! But even if you’re having a civil ceremony there is no reason you can’t incorporate Christmas-style theming even if you can’t involve the festival directly since it is religious in nature.

Don’t forget that a lot of people make plans over Christmas so you might want to send invitations extra early, even as much as three or four months in advance if you can. To stand the best chance of getting all your guests, consider sending out “save the date” cards as soon as you have booked your venue.

Hanging the Stockings

While we wouldn’t recommend curly-toed elf costumes or jolly red santa outfits, there is still no reason why you can’t incorporate a bit of Christmas spirit into your wedding outfits. You could go for a bolero or wrap to keep the chill off, and add some fake fur embellishments for a really luxurious feel. Don’t be tempted to go for a very warm dress though, as you might need to cool down a bit once you start dancing at the reception so having the option to take off your winter warming clothes will be preferable.

Traditional Christmas colours are reds, golds and rich greens. These can be used as is or for spot colours on plainer outfits; ribbons and flowers for bridesmaids, ties or waistcoats for groomsmen or pageboys. If you’re worried about the weather, go prepared with a nice parasol-style umbrella in matching colours!

Decking the Halls

Winter and Christmas weddings are greatly complemented by decorations of ivy and berries, and plenty of candles in rich, warm colours. Don’t forget to check with your venue to make sure you’ll be allowed to have candles, though.

That said, make sure you work with the existing colour schemes of your venues to make sure your wedding doesn’t clash. If the reception hall has pink carpet, you probably want to steer clear of a heavy red theme as it will end up looking strange! You can work both with and around colours for your reception. If the venue has hints of rich colours like reds, golds or deep greens then it will complement a traditional yuletide theme easily. But you can just as easily go for a “winter wonderland” style snow and ice theme if the venue is decorated with cooler blues, purples or whites.

Stuffing the Turkey

Ideally you will probably be serving a roast turkey or goose with all the normal trimmings for a Christmas wedding dinner, followed by either a Christmas pudding or an iced fruit cake, perhaps with some brandy butter sauce. There’s nothing to stop you from going for something a little more unusual, however. For a slightly different spin, how about having a separate turkey on each table so guests can help themselves, or serving mince pies instead of mints, or serving mulled wine and eggnog rather than champagne and coffee? You can even break entirely with traditional foodstuffs and go for a party-style buffet; theme the tables and plates with your main colour scheme and serve the right finger foods and there’s no reason why people won’t tuck in – just don’t forget to have a vegetarian option on offer.

While fruit cake is normally associated with Christmas, there is nothing wrong with having a decorated sponge cake (you can even ice it to the same theme) or a chocolate cake (how about a giant chocolate log wedding cake?) so don’t feel constrained if you don’t like fruit cake. A croque-en-bouche presented to match your wedding theme can make a breathtaking centrepiece, and for the truly unconventional you can even have savoury fillings in the profiteroles.

Choosing the Tree

Your florist can advise you on flowers in the colours you want which will be available during the Christmas season. Why not have a Christmas tree decorated with the same colours as your main theme (or several, if your venue is large)? Don’t forget that prices can go up as flowers become more popular over the holiday season, so if budget is an issue you could consider an alternative such as poinsettias (normally red, but you can get them in cream and pink), mistletoe and of course holly branches. Gypsophila in particular makes a lovely “garnish” style flower, especially in a bouquet.