If you cherish to turn your wedding into a real fairy-tale, plan it on Christmas or New Year holidays. What are the advantages of a New Year’s or Christmas wedding?

Firstly, it is the marvelous mood that grips all the people without exception during this wonderful period. This means that the invited will come to the ceremony joyfully and ready to have fun.

Secondly, organizing a New Year’s nuptial you can save money a little bit. To hold a bridal festival, you can hire a restaurant previously decorated in a New Year style – thus, you will not have to spend money on setting. The celebration will release you from the necessity to gather a large number of relatives at the traditional New Year or Christmas banquet; after all you will all meet at the wedding.

This will also reduce your costs, especially if your wedding is on December 31. You can buy strong drinks directly before the festival – the use of this product significantly increases on holidays, therefore prices drop.

Nevertheless the main goal is not to save money, but to turn a nuptial into a fairy-tail!

Wedding Venue

You can choose a banquet room of any restaurant. Doesn’t matter what style it has as New Year’s setting will make any place fabulous. However, more appealing variants are possible. For instance, you can rent a banquet room in a hotel out-of-town. What is the advantage of this decision? You will have an opportunity to come outside, organize fireworks, play snowballs and just admire pure snow.

Choose venue with a fireplace, which you will be able to light. This will make an atmosphere more comfortable. One more variant is to rent a country estate with a huge hall or a country cottage with a fireplace and a big reception-room, where you will be able not only to locate your guests but also arrange a dance floor.

A bride’s attire

Most modern wedding dresses are sleeveless and with cut-away shoulders. If the bride is afraid of chilling, she may choose original velvet dress or brocade with sleeves, or give her preference to a dress without shoulder-straps, but to provide herself with a beautiful shawl. Besides, there are special models of so-called winter bridal gowns. They are accompanied by a shawl, pelerine or mini jacket with sleeves.

Sometimes dresses are trimmed with fur or its imitation. If you would like to lay emphasis on the New Year’s theme, you should pay attention to shining outfits, decorated with embroidery, pastes, sequins etc.

As to the color of a wedding gown, traditional pristine white dress will suit to the snowy season nuptial just at the right time. However, tint emphasis can be added, for instance, a belt and a frill on a dress can be red or green (the colors of New Year and Christmas). A colorful trimming of a gown must correspond to the shades that dominate in the wedding festival design.

The bride will need a nuptial fur coat (a wrapper, a bolero), gloves or muff for moving outside. You can even assort an original fur hat.

It is worth noting about jewelry for a fiancée. Ideal would be diamonds those look like a piece of ice. Other decorations that arouse the same associations will fit as well.

A bridegroom’s suit

A fiancé should choose a three-piece suit for a winter nuptial. If a bride is dressed in white, a bridegroom can opt for a black or gray suit. A colorful buttonhole will support a colorful trimming of a wedding gown.

The clothing of bridesmaids

If a ceremony is organized in special colors, maids of honor attires usually correspond to them. So if your New Year’s wedding will be arranged, for instance, in blue or silver tints, a maid of honor can choose a blue dress with a silver trimming, and the best man will put on a suit with a silver tint in this case.

Certainly, a large number of a maid’s of honor obligations during the wedding will not allow her to sit still for a long time, although the girl can freeze, and thus a great decision will be a dress with a jacket, pelerine or shawl.

The clothing for flower girls

Children at a nuptial are a fortune. In addition to this, girls are great helpers. In particular they can act the part of flower girls, scattering rose petals from a beautifully designed basket.

You should use white or red petals for scattering at a New Year’s or Christmas wedding, as well as confetti, tiny snowflakes and sequins.

A beautiful dress for a girl at a wedding can be assorted for a flower girl, but if the bridal is in December or January, one can choose a fancy dress, for example, a costume of a snowflake or an elf. It will be really fabulous: small cute snowflakes, scattering white rose petals and sequins on a bridegroom and a bride!

Guests

Relatives and guests will of course come well-dressed. However, a groom and a bride can denote a dress-code, presenting it in invitations. For instance, they can announce wedding colors and ask to come in corresponding clothing.

Alternatively they can suggest coming at a New Year’s nuptial in fancy clothing at will. Still one can only ask to do this, but by no means insist on it. A different matter is significant people. It will be nice if next of kin and close friends will support a color wedding decision with the help of their attire. By the way, the clothing of bride’s mother and groom’s mother at a winter ceremony can be supplied by fur boas.

At the event hall entrance the guests can be distributed with masks at option, caps of Santa Clause, the Snow Maiden, Christmas deer horns etc.

Christmas and New Year’s wedding setting
The following color combinations will perfectly suit it:

• green and red;
• green and golden;
• vinous and golden;
• green, vinous and golden;
• silver and blue;
• blue and golden;
• golden and creamy.

Combination of white and silver is very wintry, but dull enough.

Wedding Invitations

Certainly, it’s design should include a wintry, New Year’s or Christmas elements. Likely, these cards are to be ordered, but there is an advantage – your wedding invitation will be unique. One can make it in a shape of a snowflake, Christmas ball or a bottle of champagne. Don’t forget to mention that your party will combine two festivals in it.

New Year’s wedding cortege

You will definitely have to go by car in the city. However, wedding cars’ decoration can be special: use tinsel instead of ribbons, and a wreath twisted with fir branches instead of flower composition. Decorate the car with bells, pendants with plastic snowflakes, snowy cones.

In short, one may pick any New Year setting – in such a way the style of the bridal will be emphasized, and the cortege will attract a great attention. Prepare a play list of Christmas and New Year’s songs and melodies – let exactly this music accompany your journeys in the wedding day. Drivers can put on hats of Santa Clause.

You can drive up on a sleigh directly to the banquet venue that is very symbolic, certainly. One will hardly get some deer, but three horses with bells will fit in the style quite well. A coachman can be dressed in a costume of Santa Clause.

Banquet venue decoration

You can use any New Year’s setting: tinsel, garland, illumination. Walls and doors can be ornamented with wreaths made of fir branches, cones and ribbons. If you have already chosen the colors for your nuptial design, keep to them in all ways – starting with tinsel and ribbons, and finishing with napkins and bonbonnieres.

One should use tissues design as well: white and silver dorsal will create an association with an icy palace of the Snow Queen; vinous, golden and green tissues and ribbons will allow to make the Christmas spirit.

You can even set a big Christmas tree or several small ones. An interesting decision will be to decorate the tree not with usual decorations, but with souvenirs (for instance, small hearts with a photo of a newly wedded couple) and sweets.

By the end of the celebration let the guests “undress” a fir tree – children will take sweets, and adults will be pleased to get something as a memento. By the way, guests can lay their presents under the Christmas tree. Aroma design should be used as well. Fragrance of needles and citrus will fit for this bridal.

If there is a patio with bushes and trees in the banquet venue, they can also be decorated with illuminations. Icy sculptures will look beautifully in the entrance or in the hall.

Wedding table decoration

Prefer white table-cloth with toppers or travelers of additional nuptial colors. Ornament the table with candles. Set flat plates with artificial snow, fir branches and Christmas balls. Service is preferably white or transparent (snow and ice). Flower compositions can be completed with pine branches, cones, fir decorations.

Food and Beverages

You can choose any dishes based on your tastes, but one ought to think about the fasting. Order delicious fast dishes. You should include in the menu 1-2 traditional New Year and Christmas dishes: baked duck, desserts with tangerines and oranges etc.

Order thematic cake in a winter, New Year’s or Christmas style: it can still be traditional wedding cake decorated not with flowers and angels but snowflakes, icicles and perhaps figures of a groom and a bride in the image of Santa Clause and the Snow Maiden.

In addition to traditional nuptial cold beverages, you should think about hot ones. Even if there will be warm enough in the banquet room, hot drinks will be at the guests’ taste and will emphasize the style of your winter bridal. It can be grog, mulled wine and hot chocolate. Hot drinks are served in the end of the banquet.

Bonbonniers for guests

Think of preparing various theme bonbonniers for guests. What can you put in them at a New Year’s or Christmas wedding? For example, a small snowball, nice Christmas ball, thematic candles etc. Sweets are usually put in the bonbonniers too: for instance, chocolate in the shape of heart. One may present guests with chocolate in the shape of a fir tree or the Snow Maiden etc.

An important nuance. You are better to remember that people can have their own plans on the holidays, thus you are to invite people long before – at least a month and a half, and even earlier.

A piece of advice. If you plan your nuptial day on December 31 or January 1, and offices of civil registration have the day-off at that time, it is no problem: you can officially register your marriage in the last days of the expiring year, and arrange a symbolic ceremony at the appointed date in any beautiful place, and then directly a party.

In the next article “Wedding on New Year and at Christmas entertainment” we will give consideration to an approximate script of the event: its conception, games, contests etc.