10 Ways To Make Your Wedding Day Festive
When planning a winter wedding it can be hard to think of ways of incorporating Christmas themed elements, whilst still maintaining an air of sophistication and class. So here are 10 ways to make your wedding day more festive, whilst also being wonderfully personal and elegant.
1. Bespoke Christmas Cocktails
Asking your venue or caterer to create a Christmassy cocktail is an easy way of adding a festive flourish to your wedding day.
Think spiced and warming, with notes of citrus or cranberry. Alternatively, swap the after-ceremony champagne for hot cups of mulled wine or festive punch. You can also ask for non alcoholic versions to be created for little ones and non alcohol drinking guests.
2. Christmas themed wedding favours
This is a great way to add a little something extra for your guests. Consider giving out bespoke glass ornaments, scented candles or even have your own Christmas cookies created. For example, Biscuiteers offer a bespoke wedding favour services, allowing couples to design their own beautiful biscuits that truly capture the theme of their wedding day.
3. S’mores
Take advantage of your venues outside firepit by allowing guests to cosy up under blankets, toast marshmallows and make their own s’mores. Could there be anything more delicious?
4. Choose a Festive Colour Palette
For a sophisticated colour palette, swap the traditional Christmas reds and greens by opting for more muted tones. From deep forest and olive greens, to rich berry reds and burgundy’s. Navy can also be an elegant addition to a Christmas wedding scheme, as well as very subtle hints of gold or silver.
5. Plant a Christmas Tree
Planting a tree is a popular unity ritual included in wedding ceremonies, as it symbolises planting a new life together. If you are having a December wedding, why not choose a festive fir as your tree of choice. The tree can then be nurtured at home and year on year become a part of your festivities to remind you of your wedding day.
6. Include a Wreath Ceremony
When it comes to symbolic elements, you never have to stick with tradition. One of the many advantages of choosing a celebrant is that there is always the option to create your own rituals, and a Christmas wedding is the perfect opportunity to do so.
Something like a wreath ceremony, where members of your family tie ribbons or small decorations onto a wreath as symbols of their love and wishes, would be a beautifully festive way of adding a symbolic element to your ceremony. It also doubles as a gift for the couple, which they can hang on their door after their wedding.
7. Choose a Festive Ceremony Location
From ice rinks, Christmas markets, winter forests and castles. One of the wonders of a celebrant ceremony is that your ceremony can take place anywhere. So why not make things really atmospheric and choose somewhere that truly says “Christmas” to you.
8. Have Your First Kiss Under the Mistletoe
A subtle festive addition to your wedding day is to conduct your ceremony under the mistletoe. You can then take your first kiss in the most atmospheric of moments, like a scene from a Christmas movie. It will also make for a beautiful photograph!
9. Design a Winter Wedding Scent
It is becoming increasingly popular to have a bespoke scent specially designed for your wedding day. This can be translated in the form of perfumes worn by the bride and groom, as well as candles and room sprays which are used to scent the ceremony room and reception spaces.
For example, Floris London offers a number of bespoke fragrance services, allowing couples to create fragrances that are entirely personal to them.
Alternatively, Jo Malone offers a complementary “Scent Your Wedding” service, by which couples are taken on an interactive experience to finding a fragrance that truly reflects the atmosphere they want to create on their wedding day.
Either way, this unique fragrance will be a lasting reminder of your big day, and it’s a great way to personalise your wedding. The scent of log fires and fir trees anyone?
10. Include a Christmas Reading
If you’re looking for a really special way of sprinkling some festivity into your wedding, why not consider including a Christmas reading as part of your ceremony?
This is a really magical way of involving any young children at your wedding, as well close friends and relatives. Your loved one can read from a classic Christmas story or poem such as “A Visit from St. Nicholas” or, you can have someone read a more modern story or quote from a Christmas movie or song that has special meaning to you and your spouse.