Inexpensive Winter Wedding Ideas

[aywilkes]

I need some ideas. I am PG and due in Feb. My fiance is in Colombia and will be coming here for good hopefully sometime this fall. Because of immigration red tape, it is not a good idea to just have a j.o.p. wedding because we need pix, friends/family with us, celebration pix. I want to have something small - no more than 30 guests, but I just don't know how to do this wedding location/reception place cheaply. If it were spring, we would be able to marry in a rose garden or park of some sort for really cheap and have a nice picnic. But, we only have 90 days from the tiem he gets here to marry and that willdefinitely be in the winter. Anyone have any ideas? I'm in the DC metro area by the way.

[fek&fuzz]

My sister got married at a B&B in Maine last February. They had a beautiful ceremony in a room at the B&B, I think there were about 30 people there. She had assigned us all dishes to bring, and it worked out really well. There was such yummy food there - I made pizzas, someone made moose chili, there were cookies, salads, appetizers, etc. Even a wedding cake that my DP had made. Between the ceremony & dinner, we went on sleighrides at a nearby farm, then the groom's father had the afterparty at his garage, which was really just a like a great big airport hanger with a band.

It was such a nice thing, the owners of the B&B helped out by heating the food while we were all out, most of us stayed there, some lived nearby, others stayed at nearby hotels.

The potluck worked out really well, except the B&B owners threw out the leftovers, : .

[mosesface]

i second the pot luck! we asked all of our family members to make traditional family dishes and desserts from both sides. it was kind of a family tree of foods. our close friends were assigned dishes from our favorite restaurants around town and we served it all family style.

my dh and i were married in a little church with an adjoining "fellowship hall". we got married the weekend after thanksgiving so it had more of a harvest theme, but the only decorations we used were tree branches, candles, and a few flowers.

all cost included (invitations, dress, decorations, food, etc.) we came in under $3000 and it felt like a million bucks.

a couple of tips:
the church was just about to decorate for christmas. if we had waited one more weekend, the whole church would have candles, poinsettias, etc and wouldn't have needed decoration at all!

we did purchase some decorations the day before (candle holders, vases, bowls, etc) at a local store and they assured us that we could return them all for a full refund the day after the wedding as long as there was no damage and price tags were still there.

make your own invitations and programs (if you need them at all). it's really not hard and so much cheaper than paying for someone else to do it. the most expensive part is the postage and taking them to kinkos to get printed/copied.

never underestimate the power of candles and cleverly placed "christmas lights"!!! wherever you are, church, reception hall, house, someone's lawn...a TON of candles and twinkle lights can make all the difference for really, really cheap. and it doesn't have to look tacky.

go for a dessert table instead of a traditional wedding cake. have all of your friends and family make cookies etc. it's free! and people love it. you can also put little baggies by the table for people to take home extra and skip wedding favors all together.

[Lil'M]

We went to a great wedding once on New Year's Eve at a location that has beautiful decorations up for Christmastime and the bride and groom spent very little on flowers, etc. because it already looked great! I'm sure there are some suitable B & B's (I love that idea!) that are beautifully decorated for the holidays already so you won't have to spend money on that.

Oops! I just read the previous post! Oh well, good ideas have many proponents!

[Herausgeber]

There are lots of great B&Bs in the metro D.C. area, and many have conference-type space that could work for a small wedding. There's one in particular that I am thinking of in Savage, Md., that could just be lovely. Are you on the Va. side or the Md. side?

[LEAW]

My BIL had a cookies and punch reception (ok finger foods too) after a late morning wedding in a local non-denominational chapel. It was really nice, pretty quick... a 30 min. ceremony and then we just hung out in the social room (a neat OLD bar) in the basement of the chapel.

[annettemarie]

We had a December wedding on a budget. We got married in a church that was already decorated for Christmas. That, I think, saved us tons of money. I've been to weddings with a potluck or cookies and punch reception, and they were lovely. Our reception was in the church basement (pretty inexpensive!) with a buffet, no dancing.

[pumpkin]

My winter wedding for 30 people was not cheap, but it very well could have been - we simply chose to have it at a very expensive restaurant that we both loved- but we could have had something very nice and much cheaper at home.

Find someplace that you love, even if its just your house or the home of a friend or family member. Decorate with lots and lots of Christmas lights - personally I like white lights for this sort of thing. Maybe light some candles. Wear a pretty dress - it doesn't need to be a wedding gown, I wore an ice blue gown that I got for a great price. Have a ceremony with your loved ones in attendance and then have a nice meal. Potluck is perfectly ok. Make a meal yourself - something like chili is easy to have made in advance and ready in a crock-pot - Or just have cake and cocoa. Its about getting the people you love to help celebrate your day - not about spending a lot off money or being overly fancy. It will be meaningful, provide you with lots of pictures for your own mementos and anything that you need to keep the government off your back.

[Lilcrunchie]

I think a brunch wedding or a pot luck would both be beautiful.

I would have loved a Bed and Breakfast wedding, but when we were considering it we had too many guests to go that route (we were close but over the amount of guests most places could accomodate). Very classy, and affordable if you can bring your own food in. Any place where you can supply the food and/or alcohol (if you'll be serving alcohol, not a necessity obviously) will save substantially IME.

We had an early December wedding and our reception site had quite a few decorations we could use. We had more notice but we were able to buy things on clearance a year in advance (just after Christmas the year prior) which saved a bundle. Craft places like AC Moore and Michaels often have great stuff to use for decorations...start finding/saving their 40 percent off coupons and buying decorations in advance once you have an idea of what you'll need/want. They also have bridal things, so you could conceivably buy things like a tiara/headpiece, ribbon, etc. in advance.

Our favors were glass Christmas balls with our names and wedding date hand written on them with a glass marker, hung from a tree at the reception site. Favors obviously aren't a necessity but we were able to get the Christmas balls for 75 percent off a year in advance, and I hand wrote the info on them.

[aywilkes]

Originally Posted by Herausgeber

There are lots of great B&Bs in the metro D.C. area, and many have conference-type space that could work for a small wedding. There's one in particular that I am thinking of in Savage, Md., that could just be lovely. Are you on the Va. side or the Md. side?

I am moving to DC proper next month but right now am in VA. I would be willing to go to MD or VA. I will search for B&Bs in Savage. thanks

[aywilkes]

Thank you guys! I've definitely decided on the potluck now. It had only crossed my mind before but it sounds doable and a lot less expensive.

[aprons_and_acorns]

Originally Posted by mosesface

a couple of tips:
the church was just about to decorate for christmas. if we had waited one more weekend, the whole church would have candles, poinsettias, etc and wouldn't have needed decoration at all!

This is so true. Dh and I were married on December 21 at beautiful Victorian Inn. The whole place was already decorated for the holdidays with greenery garlands, poinsettias, candles, trees, etc. There was a roaring fire in the fireplace. We were married at 11:00 am and had a champaign brunch immediately following. It was much cheaper than serving dinner and drinks. It was a very nice wedding and not too expensive!

Best wishes to you

[Fay]

DH and I had a Christmas wedding on a tight budget in a church. We had about 45 guests. The church was already filled with evergreen and poinsettias. Our wedding was actually Dec. 27, so on Dec. 26, I bought red velvet ribbons on clearance (to decorate cars and tables at the reception), and my matron of honor found half price poinsettias at a greenhouse (for centerpieces at the reception). You can ask at a church if you can use their social hall, usually at a very reasonable rate, and decorate it with your clearance items. You can get trays of veggies and dip from your local grocery for a reasonable price, too, just made sure your reception is not scheduled during a dinner hour -- mid-afternoon is perfect. Unitarian Universalist churches are usually very accommodating for this type of wedding. I always recommend the week after Christmas as the best time of year for a budget wedding -- so many bargains, you can keep the guest list short without offending anyone (because most people have other holiday committments anyway), and most people are in a really happy mood -- ready to celebrate.

[Herausgeber]

The place in Savage:

http://www.joshuabarneyhouse.com/index.htm

Not sure what she would charge you for the wedding, but the innkeeper is awesome and she decorates the place beautifully in the fall and winter.

[seeing_stars]

Our wedding was done in December for 250 people and we came in at about $3600 total. We used our church's reception hall which saved a ton of $$# and we decorated it with pine trees (borrowed from our neighbors after Christmas) with white lights. We used cranberries and other fresh fruit (freecycled to us) and got the vases for the centerpieces at a floral supply store.

We made our own food- cream puffs with chicken salad, marinated meatballs, coctail sausages with bacon. The wedding was beautiful, perfect. You can do it, just be creative!

We could have spent even less had we not splurged on the cake ($600) and the dress ($600)

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...nch=imgAnch247
food table

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...nch=imgAnch261
entrance/gift area

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...nch=imgAnch262
Centerpieces. These were filled with water before the reception.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...gAnch=imgAnch1
The trees. We had a few "forests" that we used to anchor the large room and used behind the arch that the ceremony was done in front of.

Good luck!

[truelife]

I got married on December 20th and had such a beautiful wedding that didn't cost us hardly anything. We found a manor that was decorated BEAUTIFULLY for Christmas and rented it for 4 hours for $200. We didn't have to spend anything on decorations. We rented a small banquet room (that was also decorated for the holidays) for 2 hours and paid another $200. I ordered a very simple cake and had a florist decorate it for me as well as my bouquet. The florist also did my bridemaids bouquets with fake lilies, snow flake branches and ribbon that I bought at Hobby Lobby for 1/2 price. The florist and the cake together came to $200. I found my dress for $109 and had it reconstructed for $75 from a seamstress I found in the phone book. This was the FUN part that everyone LOVED. We had a variety of hot beverages (Coffee, Tea, Cocoa, and homemade Apple Cider) and a HUGE selection of cookies and breads that my female friends/family helped me bake. It was so much fun to bond with the women like that and it made a really special wedding memory. For centerpieces I went to Dollar Tree and bought their entire selection of white pillar candles in different sizes and put them on mirrors that the banquet room had. I looped ribbon in various ways around and through the candles and it looked stunning. For gifts I bought different candles from Dollar Tree that had been rolled in Gold Tiny Beads, printed out little pieces of paper with our names and wedding date on them, tied them up and had them for the guests. We had 50 people at our wedding and the whole thing costed us around $1500.

Side Note: My very wealthy cousin got married 6 months before I did (they spent $60,000 on the wedding - yeah) and my aunt -same cousin's Mom- came up to me after my wedding and told me that I had had the most beautiful and intimate wedding that she had ever seen.

[sahmama]

We were married in November but I would have loved a winter wedding - only reason we didn't was b/c we live in a bad area for snow, and wanted our guests (and us!) to be able to get there safely. I got almost everything on eBay - even my wedding dress, which came to $300.00 with shipping, brand new. Of course, the material wasn't top quality, but no one but I knew that! If you don't want white, gold, silver or burgandy would be gorgeous, or ice blue as mentioned above - anything but summer colors would work. You could get that cotton stuff they use for snow in window displays, and put little topiary trees or even little fir trees in them, and place them in corners or along the wall, decorated with tiny lights. Dollar stores will be stocking those tinsel things you hang from the ceiling, after Halloween - they come in snowflake designs, bells, etc., and a bunch of those all hanging from the ceiling would reflect tiny lights if you use them. There's a website that has ideas for weddings in every season/theme you can think of - let me see if I can find it.

[sahmama]

Here it is, along with a couple others I found.

http://www.askginka.com/themes/winte...stmastheme.htm

http://www.foreverwed1.com/articles/themes/index.html
http://www.wedthemes.com/

[quantumleap]

Oooo, winter wedding! If it hadn't been for our impatience, we would have had a night-time wedding at a farm/log cabin resort type place near our homes. The plan was for sleigh rides, hot cocoa, champagne and desserts after a ceremony mostly light by candles and mini lights on the already positioned pine trees. It would have cost us very little, especially since we didn't plan on meal food for our 50 (ish) guests. You can have a great day without spending your "millions". In the end, it's the people who are important. Oh, and don't hesitate to ask people to do specific things - they will jump at the opportunity to help out someone they love, especially for something as romantic as a wedding!
Felicidades!
Katia

[Fiestabeth]

I once attended a winter wedding and they had a "soup bar." It was so yummy! They had 3 different soups, then various toppings/garnishes, and bread. It was so simple but so delicious. Then they had cake, of course, plus beverages. It was one of the best weddings I've been too. They took advantage of the Christmas decorations that were already up in their church, and the reception was also at the church. I love simple, intimate weddings!