Winter weddings are truly something magical, but how do you even begin planning a winter wedding? What color scheme should you use? What decor should you use? While most of those questions are completely up to you as a couple, I'm here to walk you through some winter wedding ideas to show you what other couples have done, and what you can do to make your winter wedding stand out, and stay true to the theme.

1.) Consider Your Venue

Outdoor Winter Wedding Ceremony — Photo By: Eleven Eleven Imagery

When it comes to winter weddings, your venue is VERY important, because more than likely you won't be getting married outside, so you'll want to ensure your ceremony space has room for an indoor ceremony.

Most venues have indoor and outdoor space, so it's not normally a problem when it comes to having an indoor wedding. However, you'll want to ask your venue how they set up for an indoor ceremony. Some venues offer rows of ceremony seating, while others ask that guests sit at their dinner tables to watch the ceremony. Regardless of which option you go for, you'll want to ensure you like the space before you book.

An outdoor winter ceremony is not that unheard of though, and is truly stunning! However, you'll want to communicate with your guests ahead of time so they dress appropriately for your outdoor ceremony. Most outdoor winter weddings offer blankets or shawls for guests to use to help keep them warm during the ceremony, along with a hot beverage like cocoa or hot apple cider. It's also pretty standard for the bride and bridesmaids to wear shawls during the ceremony to help keep warm. Afterall, you don't want to get sick after your wedding day, right?!

2.) Your Color Scheme Matters

Winter Wedding Bridal Party Color Scheme — Photo By: TFD Photo

If you want your winter wedding to fir that winter theme, you'll want your color scheme to match. Luckily for you, almost every color scheme matches with a winter wedding! You can opt to go light and choose colors like ivory, baby blue, sage, light grey, etc. or choose darker and more bold colors like burgundy, emerald, or navy. By picking a color scheme that will match your winter vibes, your ensuring that all your photos will match with your theme.

To include your colors in your wedding, you can have it match your florals, bridesmaid dresses and groomsmen suits, your table decor, and even your wedding invitations. This helps ensure that all your wedding details match, and are consistent throughout all your photos. If you're having trouble picking a color scheme you like, check out Pinterest! There are a ton of color scheme ideas on there that can help you get started. Whatever you decide to pick though, make sure it represents you as a couple. For example, you're not going to pick a color scheme with black if thats not a color you like. More than likely, you'd go for a color scheme that includes colors you use often, like this bride did.

3.) Let's Talk Floral

Your wedding bouquet will be in 90% of your wedding photos, so you'll want to make sure it fits your winter wonderland theme! But how do you ensure your florals give off a winter vibe? You can either include wintery colors like ivory, sage, and blues OR you can use winter inspired florals like chrysanthemums, holly, and pine. You can include your florals in your bridal and bridesmaid bouquets, in the groom and groomsmen boutonnieres, in your centerpieces, or even in your ceremony floral arrangements.

The easiest way to ensure your floral give off the winter vibe you're looking for, is to talk to your florist. By explaining to them your vision, you're ensuring that your florist understands the assignment and will help to create stunning arrangements that fit your theme! One thing I always reccommend to couples when it comes to picking florals, is to create a moodboard using Pinterest. Go onto Pinterest and save photos of florals and bouquets that you like. That way when you meet with your florist, you can show them exactly what you're going for, rather than just explaining it to them. Tell your florist the colors you're looking for, what types of flowers you like, as well as any other descriptions you can think of like loose bouquets or tight arrangements. The more descriptions you can give to your florist, the better!

4.) Dress Details

Colorado Mountain Winter Wedding — Photo By: Alexandra M Thompson

Lets be honest, winter weddings are COLD! So you'll want to make sure you do everything you can to stay warm, which could mean having your dress and bridesmaid dresses be long sleeved, having special shawls to go over your dresses, and making sure the groomsmen have hefty suits. Although you may not want your ceremony itself to be outside, it's always a good idea to have warm clothing options, because chances are you'll still want some photos outside, right?!

Investing in shalls is one of the best and most common ways brides keep warm on their wedding day. While I've seen white and brown fur shawls, I've also seen colored fabric shawls that match the wedding color scheme and look great in photos. However one of the BEST shawl ideas I've seen is from this bride; she bought an ugg tree skirt (that's right, a tree skirt) and used that as her shawl. It was perfect! It was large enough to keep her entire body warm unlike some shawls that just keep your upper arms warm, it was incredibly soft, inexpensive, and beautiful!

5.) Take Advantage of The Weather

There are many reasons why couples book a winter wedding, but whatever your reasoning is, you DEFINITELY need to take advantage of the weather! Snow makes for stunning wedding photos, and although I know it's cold, trust me, it'll be so worth it to take outside wedding photos when you get your wedding gallery back!

Winter weddings are so unique and feel truly magical with all the falling snow, it'd be a total shame not to take advantage of that- just make sure you have the proper attire to stay warm during your outdoor photos!

6.) Incorporate Your Vision In Your Stationary

Your invitations and other stationary set the tone for your wedding theme.

Afterall, you're not going to have a rustic themed wedding and not have your invitations match the theme, right?! That's like having a woodsy outdoor wedding theme, but sending out ivory with gold accented luxory invites; that wouldn't match at all! So why not incorporate your winter theme into your invites? This is also a great opportunity to incorporate your color scheme!

If you get stuck when creating your invites, check out Pinterest for some cool winter inspired stationary, it'll really help you to see all your options and pick out a color scheme/theme that will help to match your vision.

7.) Looking Into Decor

Walker Homestead Iowa Wedding Decor — Photo By: Emily Crall

On average, decor for winter weddings is pretty simple and normally has quite a bit of candle light. Average guest tables have greenery garlands, few florals, along with pillar candles, taper candles, votive candles, or a mix of all three! Some venues however have a no open flame policy, meaning you can't have real candles. In that case, you can switch over to LED or instead use twinkle lights, which are equally just as beautiful!

When it comes to your wedding decor, most winter weddings opt for a lot of candles because it gives off a warm and comforting feeling, while still being romantic. Along with lots of greenery such as pine, eucalyptus, spruce, and lambs ear which can even be paired with pinecones to really give off that evergreen feel which is closely related to winter weddings (plus it makes your venue smell incredible).

To add in pops of color to your decor I reccommend adding in table runners, colored napkins, charger plates, even colored candlesticks to help tie in your color scheme with the table decor. You can also opt to include dinner menus that tie in with your other stationary to really bring all the elements together! If you include dinner menus though I also recommend you include full place setings which include flatware, glassware, and dinnerware since adding a dinner menu is considered a more upscale placesetting.

8.) Consider Your Food and Drinks

Wedding Coffee Camper — Photo By: Photograph By Corinne

To incorporate the winter vibe into your wedding day, you can add special winter themed food into your day like gingerbread, mac and cheese, anything fig, etc. along with special drinks like hot cocoa, eggnog, or even winter themed specialty his and her cocktails. Adding in specialty food and drinks is such a fun an unique addition to your wedding that your guests are sure to love and remember for years to come.

When it comes to winter themed food you want something warm and comforting, so you can opt for wood fired pizzas, grilled cheese and tomato bisque shooters, beef wellington, mac and cheese, even a ramen bar!

Some winter themed desserts can include gingerbread, cheesecake shooters, a s'mores bar, jar desserts, and different kinds of cookies and flavors.

For winter themed drinks you can go for hot chocolate, a coffee bar, infused eggnog, or even a specialty cocktail! Winter wedding cocktails make your guests feel all warm and fuzzy, and it's not just because you spiked the hot cocoa! Winter cocktails mostly use liquor such as brandy, aged rum, and bourbon because they are a bit darker compared to vodka and other liquor choices. You can also spruce up your cocktails by using garnishes such as rosemary, cranberries, apple slices, oranges, and obviously candy canes. To take a peek at some fall inspired cocktails, click here.

9.) The Use of Candle Light

Iowa Wedding Venue The Harmac — Photo By: Grace T. Photography

Candles are used for all types of weddings no matter the season, but there’s something magical about the use of candles during a winter wedding! They help to create a romantic yet warm and cozy feeling, especially when the lights turn low and the reception kicks off.

There are so many different kinds of candles you can use like pillar candles, floating candles, taper candles, and votive candles. Or you can just skip the open flame and opt for twinkle lights instead, which give off the same warm and cozy feeling to the space.

Candles are very simple wedding decor, and they help to give off a very clean look no matter where you use them. You can place them on guest tables, at the gift and entry table, or even for your ceremony!

10.) Have Winter Themed Favors

Winter Wedding Guest Favors — Photo By: Eleven Eleven Imagery

When you have a winter wedding, you want to be considerate of your guests while also including the idea of a chilly winter wedding into your day. With that being said, you can incorporate special favors for your guests to take like blankets, hand warmers, and even customized fuzzy socks or hats!

You can also incorporate special winter food and drinks into your favors like hot cocoa mix, take home gingerbread cookies, even personalized mugs for your guests to put their own hot drinks into.

Then you have the tangible favors such as customized Christmas tree ornaments, pine tree saplings, candles, etc.