Tips for Planning the Perfect Winter Wedding

While winter weddings can be beautiful snowy wonderlands if everything goes well, it requires a lot of planning to deal with the potential pitfalls that come with cold weather. In order to plan a winter wedding that goes off flawlessly, there are some preparations you should make in advance. In the winter, the wedding off-season, couples have many wedding venues to choose from. Set yourself apart by demonstrating that your venue is prepared with the know-how to make their dream winter wedding a reality.

Keep Guests Safe and Warm 

It can be hard for guests to stay cheery in their formal clothes when it’s cold and wet, so make sure you to guests warm! It’s thoughtful to offer hot beverages to guests as they’re arriving after they’ve been walking through the cold. Unless the weather is unseasonably warm, the ceremony and reception should be held inside and with plenty of heaters. Make sure the venue doesn’t get too warm, though – the heaters might need to be turned down once the dancing starts. 

Make sure that all walkways into and around the wedding venue are maintained so that guests don’t fall. This is especially important as many women will be wearing heels. All sidewalks and walkways need to be shoveled and scraped so that they’re free of all ice and snow, and they should be maintained throughout the event.

Prepare for Winter Travel

With winter weddings, it’s possible that the weather will not cooperate with plans. Because of this, it’s convenient for couples when wedding venues provide a space for both the ceremony and reception. When the entire wedding is held in the same venue, guests and the wedding party won’t face delays and dangerous road conditions when traveling between the ceremony and reception. Recommend that everyone allow for extra travel time to the wedding so that the event can start and end on time. 

Don’t Forget the Coat Check!

In the winter, guests will be arriving with heavy coats, scarves, and hats, and they’ll need somewhere to take them off and store them immediately after they arrive. The venue should be prepared for this with a coat check for valuables and space for guests to queue out of the cold. 

Prepare a Space for Indoor Photography

Winter can be unpredictable, and while the goal may be for wedding photos to be shot outside, the weather may not cooperate. Even if it isn’t snowing or raining on the day of the wedding, snowy or muddy grounds might make it messy or even dangerous to take photos outside in high heels. Venues should be prepared with a location to shoot photos indoors in case of bad weather. 

If a couple really wants their photos to take place outside even in the case of precipitation, be prepared with simple, chic umbrellas. A simple, classy black umbrella often works best. Since it gets dark early in the winter, the photos might need to be taken before the ceremony.