Themed weddings are a great way to make your big day even more magical, and what’s a more magical time of year than Christmas? Whether you’re dreaming of a winter wonderland wedding, complete with snowflakes and twinkling lights, or a cosy celebration with festive decor and warming holiday treats, a Christmas-themed wedding is full of endless possibilities. To help inspire you, check out Jesse and Andy’s enchanting Christmas-themed wedding. Their festive celebrations made for a joyful and unforgettable day with their friends and family.
We decided to get married in winter around Christmas because we both love that time of year. We have both always loved spending the festive season with our families, and since we started dating it became an important part of our relationship to spend the Christmas season with each other. We made an annual mini-break trip to the Manchester Christmas markets, and it’s something we really bonded over. Christmas is a season of spending time with family and friends, appreciating each other and spreading love, so it just made sense to have our wedding fit into our Christmas celebrations, since it’s something so important to us.
We had quite a long time to plan, as we got engaged in May 2020. We set a date that was over 2 years away as we obviously didn’t know when the lockdown was going to end.
We used the Bridebook articles for all sorts of advice, from budgeting to guest lists, and most importantly, used the Bridebook app to find our beautiful venue, The Villa Levens!
We (let’s be honest, Jesse) spent a lot of time online, looking on Instagram and Pinterest for visual inspiration for the floral decorations etc., all of which we made ourselves, with help from our family.
We actually made a physical scrapbook of visual inspiration so that we could have a clear vision for what we wanted for our day which we really enjoyed making, and is now a nice keepsake from our time wedding planning.
We decided we wanted to do as much as we could ourselves and have a very handmade wedding. All of the invitations and stationery were hand-painted and hand-written, and even the printed stationary for the seat reservations and Order of the Day were designed by Jesse and printed at home.
The bouquets and buttonholes were made by Jesse using artificial flowers from craft stores and online, and she included a set of fairy lights in the bride’s bouquet to add a touch of festive magic!
The cake was made by Jesse’s sister and bridesmaid, Hannah McNaughton-Hussain, who runs a small baking business in her spare time, and the favours were ceramic tree decorations made by the mother of the bride, artist Annie McNaughton.
Jesse’s wedding shoes were also Christmas-themed, from her favourite shoe company, Irregular Choice, who specialise in creating unique, show-stopping shoes for special occasions. Top tip: I bought them in the summer, and they were half-price in the sale because they were out of season!
As Jesse and Andy have shown, a Christmas-themed wedding doesn’t have to be tacky or cliché. With some thoughtful planning and a little DIY, you can make your fairytale wedding dreams come true with a winter wonderland celebration that’s both elegant and enchanting.