Winter weddings can be cinematic, magical, and if you’re very lucky; sprinkled with the fairy dust known as snow! A winter wedding in the beautiful setting of the Cotswolds can be a spectacular event of Hollywood elegance.

Take the chocolate box setting of Bibury (www.bibury.com) or the more contemporary setting of the Cheltenham Pump Rooms (www.cheltenhamtownhall.org.uk/pittville-geninfo.asp)  and imagine the bride in a floor length silk dress with a white winter wedding coat or wrap walking to meet her smiling husband in his top hat and tails. A rich red rose in his top pocket.

From ice like diamond grandeur to homely crackling log fires and warmth; the choices are endless to create a wedding during the most dramatic of all the seasons.

For an intimate wedding look for an old inn or country pub (check out the Green Dragon at Cowley: www.green-dragon-inn.co.uk), or for a larger wedding think about a historic mansion or private club that will still provide you with a cosy feel on a grander scale (check out the Manor House at Castle Coombe: www.manorhouse.co.uk).

Wedding decor

Seasonal decorations are also sure to be up from November – this is where you can save a little bit on that all important wedding budget!

Table decorations can be created on a budget and kept simple with poinsettias, or you could flood the room with soft light by arranging pillar candles on a bed of seasonal cranberries. If you’ve got time to do so, work the January sales to your advantage and stock up on discounted fairy lights that can then be strung around doorways and arches. For a top table feature how about a gingerbread house centred on a bed of winter leaves and berries.

Winter wedding food

Winter food, heart warming menus and comfort puddings to whet all palates! How about having your favourite foods but adding some winter touches to the dishes, perhaps a butternut squash or pumpkin soup for starters. Think about serving mulled wine, non/alcoholic hot chocolate with marshmallows, and how about a magical winter landscape snow globe for the top of your wedding cake.

Winter Wedding Flowers

Celebrate the season of extremes and compliment the arctic weather with silver and white or cosy up with deep red roses the colour of a fine glass of claret. Seasonal flowers provide a wealth of options including holly and pine-tree greenery. Flowers for the winter season are those such as tulips, ornamental berries, roses, winter jasmine, snow drops, orchids, freesias and forsythia.  Add crystals to your bouquets for that magical sparkle under the lights. Check out: www.oopsadaisy.co.uk in Cirencester or www.bumblebeez.co.uk in Cheltenham.

Finishing touches

A Christmas ornament as a favour for each of your guests is a perfect and very festive reminder of your special day – an idea my little sister used for her magical winter wedding. Or how about a small tin of hot chocolate with marshmallows, a snow globe with your wedding date, even some cookie dough with a recipe of love for cookies that are ‘truly cut out for each other’!

And a final thought… if you’re travelling by horse and carriage remember to have a faux fur throw to keep you warm!

Cotswold Beauty marries in the unique wedding venue of the Grade 1 listed Notley Abbey on the Oxfordshire/ Buckinghamshire border

Above are pictures of the wedding of Miss Melissa Brown to Mr Stuart Cockburn

The yourcotswoldwedding.co.uk team were honoured to be guests last weekend at the wedding of Miss Melissa Brown (a true Cotswold beauty) to Mr Stuart Cockburn.

Set in the unique wedding venue of the Grade 1 listed Notley Abbey on the Oxfordshire/ Buckinghamshire border, with the river Thame running through the grounds, the weather was glorious, the bride breathtaking, and the day an unmitigated success.

Melissa wore a floor length ivory gown and carried wedding flowers of a hand tied bouquet of cream roses, complimenting the autumnal setting as the leaves turned a beautiful shade of red, orange, and yellow.

The civil ceremony was followed by a champagne reception and wedding breakfast in the 13th century stone barn (originally the Monks’ Refectory) which is now a high ceilinged banqueting hall.

The speeches were the perfect mix of classic wedding anecdotes and entertaining stories, even the bride made her own speech, Stuart – remember she is still waiting for that Mulberry handbag!

A tower of cup cakes were eagerly eyed by the mini bridesmaids and page boy, one of the little bridesmaids couldn’t wait and was caught licking one of the cakes when she thought no one was looking! Of course the wedding photographer was able to capture this moment!

We then danced until late in an atmosphere of happiness and togetherness at one of the most elegant weddings I have attended.

From the team at yourcotswoldwedding.co.uk we wish them every happiness for their life together as Mr and Mrs.

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