Christmas Weddings

Echoing some common sentiments, I must say that Christmas weddings are the most romantic of weddings conducted in other seasons of the year. And if you are lucky enough to have a white Christmas wedding, your small nuptial affair will be the talk of town for years to come. We (I and my wife) had a Christmas wedding, and everyone enjoyed it (or at least they didn't tell us if they didn't!). So, out of my experience, I write this brief guide on how to arrange a Christmas wedding.

Even thinking practically, planning a wedding in the Christmas season makes good sense. The festive cheer has already caught on, so you will find even the most laidback of your guests hitting the dance floor and generally making merry, just because it is the Noel! Also, churches and reception halls will be better prepared to service you. You will find most of these places already decorated for the season, and so you can even save some money.

Planning a Christmas Wedding – Church Bookings

But planning a wedding in the heart of the Christmas season takes some planning. For starters, all churches will be busy with their festive services. Many churches have their other ceremonies like communions, confirmations and even many baptisms in the days leading to Christmas. In addition, many churches will not allow weddings in the days immediately before and after either Christmas or New Year. A good time to have a Christmas wedding, therefore, is on the Saturday or Sunday (Saturday is better, it gives your guests the Sunday morning to relax) before Christmas. Ideally, there about a week's gap. You will have to book the church much in advance – even a couple of months, depending on the total strength of the parish – if you want to make sure you will get the date you want.

Booking the church is the first thing you must accomplish. Once that is done, look into other church-related things. You will have to speak with the priests, arrange a choir for the mass, write the mass itself, write speeches for the bride, groom and some relatives, arrange for a videographer and a photographer, arrange for the nuptial car, arrange for the decorations, etc. Just keep in mind that it is Christmas, and start well in advance. Once the church booking is done, go ahead and book the reception hall. Never make the mistake of booking the reception hall before booking the church service.

Planning a Christmas Wedding – Church and Reception Decorations

The church will already be decorated and you might only need to add your touch to it. An unforeseen problem here is, you will not know how the church will be decorating itself in advance. The church decorations could be up just a few days before Christmas, and if you want to put your own touch at that time, it will be cutting too close. Also, you will not find any decorator free to do the job. That is why, you must make contact with the church decorators and ask them in advance how they are going to decorate the church. Points you must ask are – where will the tree be kept, if there is a tree; how will it be decorated; what colors will be used; what will the decorations be on the altar; how will the entrance doors be decorated, etc. Based on these, make your plans. It is best to stick with red, green and white, the original Christmassy colors, since these will also be the colors the church decorators will use. But make sure. If you are adding anything to it, book a decorator well in advance and let him or her have an idea of what you are looking for. Also let them know how you want to decorate the bridal seat in the church. The church will not do that; that is up to you.

You can go the whole way with your reception hall decorations. It is convenient to hire your church decorator to look after your reception hall decorations too, so that you can work with the same theme. Also, there will be less wastage and more savings, because some of the leftover decorations can be used between the church and the reception hall.

There is one more very significant thing to be decorated – that is your bridal car. Do not ignore it! If you are hiring a car, they might insist on getting their own decorator. If you are fine with it, OK, but if you are not, let them know. The best bet is to keep a common decorator for everything. You will have much less liaising to do that way, and explaining your wedding concept to so many people is always a pain.

Planning a Christmas Wedding – The Invitations

Your invitations for the Christmas wedding should be ready by Halloween and distributed by Thanksgiving. Remember that Christmastime is holiday season all over, and that's why people are busier. They will be vacationing, meeting up with their relatives, etc. Let them know in advance that your big day is arriving. Make sure to put in a 'save this date' card and a Répondez s'il vous plaît below the invitation.

Your invitation card should emphasize it that it's Christmas, so that people can plan accordingly. I said emphasize it's Christmas, don't say so in words! Put a Christmas theme on the card – like use some golden poinsettias, or a motif of holly, or something like that. Or you could get a card that has a pattern of snow on it. Do not keep a red and green card though; it will look like a greeting card. Stick to the traditional white cards, and decorate in golden or silver. You could use delicate blues and pinks, depending on which side of the bridal couple you are on!

Planning a Christmas Wedding – Decking up the Couple and Their Helpers

What's a Christmas wedding without proper bridal attire? Let's speak of the center of attraction, the bride, first. It is sacrilege, I think, to keep the bridal costume in anything else but white. But then trends are changing and we see brides in all kinds of colors. However, I would suggest going with white, because it represents snow, and is very good to reflect the purity of the season. Even for esthetic reasons, white makes for a good choice. Accentuate a pristine snowy white bridal gown with a red stole, and you get a very properly Christmassy bride. For the bridesmaids, shimmering colors will do. Now you can think of reversing the bride's color – like making it red gowns with white stoles – or you could think of some other color suitable to the colors you have used in the decoration. A good idea if you are having many bridesmaids is to alternate between two colors, like pale blue and peach for example. Trust me, it will make for a very good picture when they surround the white-attired bride.

The groom could be traditionally dressed in proper wedding suit in a dark color. I advise people to avoid black, and settle for navy blue or dark brown. Lighter colors, in my opinion, do not suit grooms. They need to have colors to offset the brightness that the bride will be radiating. As it is Christmas, the groom could put mistletoe in his buttonhole, which could be put to various uses as the ceremony proceeds!

An array of flower girls and pageboys is a good sight, especially during the bridal march when they teeter along in front. Keep the flower girls in bright colors – pinks work best in any season. And the pageboy could be dressed as Santa's helper. Just think about this. It's a great Christmas touch, and will look excellent in the photographs!

Planning a Christmas Wedding – The Small Things That Matter Much

With all the big things out of the way, we can get down to thinking about the smaller things – comparatively smaller, but in fact nothing can be small in a real Christmas wedding. One of the most important things is arranging for the conductors of your wedding. These include a host of people actually. There's the emcee, the toast raiser, the person who will say the grace before meals and, not to forget, the deejay.

Make sure the emcee speaks about Christmas things, and even keeps his or her jokes in the flavor of the season. An emcee dressed like Santa Claus, and acting like one, could be a good idea, especially if there are lots of kids in the congregation. But, you have to work this out in advance, or the plan might backfire. The deejay has to be told to keep with soft romance and Christmassy tracks, at least as the guests are entering. Of course, later on, the raunchier tracks can be played.

I will not say anything about the centerpiece, because I think no one but the bridal couple has the right to decide what that should be. Your centerpiece is a very personal bridal choice, and you must spend time thinking what you want there. We had doves.

The arrangement of tables will depend on the shape of your hall and the size of the congregation. Make sure you leave good enough space for the wedding march (most people will join in the wedding march, just because it will seem to be a very interesting Christmas wedding to them!) and for the dances that come later. Do check up on your jiving skills with your partner a few days in advance.

Speak with the emcee to organize some Christmas themed games. Don't bother your head too much about it. It's the job of the emcee to decide suitable Christmas games for the wedding. Just make sure there are a good number of young men and women to help the emcee out while setting up the game at the hall.

Finally, people will want to take away something from your lovely Christmas wedding. Your Christmas wedding favors should be Christmas-themed, of course, but you must also make sure that they are unique. They must not look like cheap gifts you get in card shops when the season comes. Customize your party favors, and if you can manage it, print thank you cards in the name of the family that will be getting the favor.

That must prepare you well for your Christmas wedding. I do hope you are able to plan it well, because a good Christmas wedding will be remembered every year Christmas comes again, and you are sure to get several cards – both for the holidays as well as for your wedding anniversary!