So you’ve decided to marry the love of your life and are willing to spend a lot of money, but here’s the thing: you really don’t have to! You can have the greatest wedding ever if you choose to get married during winter instead of spring and we’ll show you exactly what that means!
Stick around, your life and finances are about to change for good! Here’s why winter weddings will save you a fortune:
1. Cheaper Venue
As you can imagine, the lowest demand is during winter, which means you can get your venue for half the price!! Of course, there are a few things you need to take into consideration when choosing a venue, like accessibility (close to the road), whether they have heaters or not, storage room, extra rooms for you to change, etc.
Once a venue fits all your requirements, you can go ahead and negotiate your price. If you want to get it really cheap, set your wedding date during the week, but make sure your guests can make it to the big ceremony. If not, go for a Friday or a Monday to save money.
Choose a venue with a great view to impress all your guests!
2. A Cheaper Wedding Dress
Just think about the fact that you can purchase your dress on Thanksgiving sales, Black Friday haul, Cyber Monday and so on! Plus, if you decide to buy it after Cyber Monday, you might get even better deals since it’s not the wedding season and everybody’s trying to get rid of their old merchandise.
The appropriate wedding dress for a winter ceremony is a long, romantic one. You can wear sleeves and a lovely faux fur cape if you want. Also, go for a natural makeup, something that says Snow Princess and not Club Diva.
Go for a fairytale-like wedding dress and add an opulent cape to keep you warm!
3. The Element of Surprise
As you probably know, most weddings take place during spring, which means that spring is the worst season to save money when you have a lot of friends getting married. But if you go for a winter wedding, no one will expect it, people will have enough money to come to your wedding and bring a nice gift with them, and everyone will look forward to experiencing this kind of event with you.
A winter wedding will also make your guests more generous with their gift, especially since the holiday season is just around the corner!
Let your imagination run wild and your guests will be amazed!
4. Cheaper Food
Believe it or not, catering money will not be a problem during winter. Most events happen during the warm season, and that’s when most catering businesses make their money. However, if you decide on a winter wedding, you can negotiate your price because business is slow for caterers.
You can serve cute cookies and milk as appetizers, pork and beef steak as a main course and a delicious cake to top it all up and it will still be cheaper than serving regular menus during summer, for example. Choose medium-sized portions and a diversity of side dishes to please all your guests.
When it comes to food, every detail matters, so choose diversity over quantity!
5. Cheaper Favors
Instead of offering cheap shampoo bottles (which by the way, are tacky and have the feel of an old hotel room), you can offer your guests personalized gloves, decorated pinecones, acorn crafts that you can make yourself or pine tree branches.
Try to reduce your costs as much as possible by creating favors and other cute details instead of buying them. Also, don’t forget to add hand-written thank you notes and a beautiful backdrop where people can take photos. Ask your guests to use a specific hashtag when taking and posting pictures on social media (like #winterweddingsarajake). This way, it will be easier for you to keep track of all the pictures from your wedding.
Related: 20 Best Pinecone Crafts from the Internet
Offer your guests something to remember you by, like a pair of warm gloves! See the entire tutorials here and here!
6. Cheaper Décor
Flowers are expensive, and the good news is that they are not mandatory! You can create your centerpieces with pinecones, faux pearls, tree branches and some glue. If you have some Christmas lights around the house, use them to wrap the poles and beams from your location.
Also, don’t think too much about your guests’ comfort: as long as you offer slippers and warm blankets, they will have a blast! And you don’t need to buy the blankets: ask your friends and family to loan them to you!
Related: 10 Fun and Affordable Acorn Crafts Anyone Can Make
Your decor should be simple, yet eye-catchy. Consider adding chandeliers and dramatic backdrops to make your pictures shine!
7. Cheaper Photos
Business is slow for everybody during winter, including photographers. See if you can negotiate a lower price by offering free transportation and an assistant to help him/her (ask a niece or nephew to provide the assistance). Also, make your photographer feel welcome and appreciated.
It may not save you money, but it will definitely make the photographer take better pictures. If you have a friend interested in photography, offer him/her half the price you would offer a stranger and tell them that they are still invited to the wedding; they just have to snap a picture here and there. The pictures look better when the one taking them likes you very much!
If you want great photos, be yourself and goof around if you want. Those pictures will make great memories someday!
8. The World Is Your Canvas
With the beautiful snow covering the trees, pretty much any spot is good for pictures, so you don’t have to rent a castle or private property just to make sure your pictures look great. And be creative: if there’s a forest close to your wedding venue, you can ask your photographer to take pictures there.
By a frozen lake, in front of an old cabin, under snowy trees- you have so many options! And try to make everything as fun as possible, even if the weather is bad. And here’s the great thing about winter weddings: no matter the weather, the pictures will still look like a dream. If it snows, you have snow in your pictures. If the sky is clear, you can nice sharp pictures. Win win win!
Choose a stunning background for your photos! It will really make your love shine through!
9. A Cheaper Honeymoon
A winter wedding is the best excuse to spend your honeymoon in a warm place, like the Caribbean! Plus, this type of trips is even cheaper during winter, which means that you will also save money on your honeymoon! If you like the cold weather, why not spend your honeymoon on the sky slopes or inside a remote cabin, far from the civilization and into your spouse’s arms?
Whatever you choose, stay true to who you are as a couple and make sure to save money, but still have fun! After all, you only get married once (in theory, anyway!).
Remember to bring your comfy socks on your honeymoon. Pair them with a glass of wine and the warm smile of your spouse and you’ll see what we mean!
10. A Cheap and Cute Get-Away Car
Here’s a great idea: instead of renting a limousine for the church and the get-away ride, how about you hang that “just Married” sign to a sleigh? Yes, you heard me! If you live in the countryside, you can ask around who has a sleigh and horse, and if you’re in the city, you can look it up online (there are many horse and carriages in big cities that can be rented by the hour).
Just think about how great the sleight will look in your pictures! Plus, your guests will definitely be blown away! If you live in the country, a sleigh won’t cost much, which is worth thinking about!
Jingle bells rock, that’s what they say! Attach them to your sleigh and enjoy the beautiful ride!
We hope you have a great and wonderful wedding no matter when you decide to get married, but for what is worth, winter seems like the best time to say I Do. Would you get married in winter? We sure would!
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