If you’ve planned your wedding in a winter month then you need to embrace the season and make it part of your theme.
That’s exactly what Sophie and Jules did when they got married on New Year’s Eve in Somerset. They decided to give their big day a luxurious Ski Lodge makeover. An interesting idea that came to mind because Jules the groom and his family are complete skiing fanatics.
If you marry on New Year’s Eve then you’ve chosen a big party day on which to wed. After the couple’s service there was a quick stop off at the local pub before going to Sophie’s parents’ house for the themed reception. Also, because it got dark early, much of this wedding took place under a starlit sky, which really added to the atmosphere.
Big day outfits
We adore the way Sophie chose to reflect the time of year in her bridesmaids’ dresses, which were in classic black velvet. They were elegant, warm too and worked well for both adult bridesmaids and the younger girls.
In fact, originally Sophie hadn’t wanted the bridesmaids to all wear the same dress at all but apparently the girls all insisted they were dressed identically so Sophie followed their wishes and found their outfits in Cos. She gave each of the bridesmaids a different vintage brooch to wear and personalised the dresses’ neckline with Peter Pan collars, which Sophie tracked down in all sorts of vintage shops in both London and Somerset.
Sophie dressed her flowergirls as little winter faeries for her big day! Complete with gorgeous silver crowns and fairy wand accessories, we bet these little girls loved being dressed up like this!
Sophie wore a Cymbeline wedding dress, which she found from the Mirror Mirror wedding boutique in Islington. She wrapped up against the chill in a feather cape from Miss Selfridge and instead of a veil she wore a hooded cape!
Reception styling
Sophie chose to marry at her family home because she knew that she could make the day completely personal to her and could decorate as she wanted. She could also choose her own logistics like where the dance floor should be and where the band should play.
Sophie’s mum also has an artistic streak, which you can see by the way she styled all the flowers and greenery that covered the archways and table runners. Everything was picked from Sophie’s parents’ garden and the bride’s bouquet and the bridesmaids’ corsages were all created by the local florist Trug in Wrington, Somerset.
“The greenery was a big part of the styling,” says Sophie. “We tried to hang greenery around all the doorways and added pine cones that Jules’ dad picked from the woods. Then, in place of flowers, we used an abundance of candles. In the church, we turned off the lights and filled the spaces with lit candles. At dinner, there were also no lights, just candles. We collected hundreds of jam jars and painted them with glitter and lit candles in these too.”
The tables at the wedding reception look so pretty and seasonal and the hanging white paper pom poms and stars reflect the wintry look. Also, check the rugs on the back of every guest’s chair – put to good use later on when guests wrapped themselves up cosily to go outside in the garden at midnight to sing Auld Lang Syne and bring in the New Year.
Sophie is a designer so details like tables, chairs and décor were very important to her. She discovered some amazing props to pull the look together. Old wooden skis were hung on the walls and Jules’s ski medals were shown off.
Wintery stationery
Remember that your wedding stationery sets off your theme immediately, from the moment your guests receive that first save the date card. “As a graphic designer, I was able to design everything,” says Sophie. I have a studio called Deer & Co Stationer who creates beautiful bespoke invitations, at any budget the client has. I also design order of service, favours, table names etc.”
We love the silver, black and white theming of the invitations with the pocket watch and the ribbon embellishment. They also included postcards for couples to reply on.
The table plan was created from different photographs of the couple on their skiing holidays. We particularly like the table numbers which were in snow globes, so that it ‘snowed’ on the numbers. A memorable touch!
Gorgeous photography here by Mark Tattersall. We think has really captured the specialness of this winter wedding.
