If you're engaged and you're thinking about the possibility of scheduling an "off-season" wedding, I'd encourage you to give it some serious consideration. There are many advantages to scheduling when there aren't multiple brides clamoring for the same summer date as you.
We scheduled my sister's wedding in January. The primary reason for planning a January wedding was due to the fact that our entire family is very busy in the summer months. Plus I wanted to have plenty of time to design some magnificent pieces for her wedding; and I had to be in the wedding and wanted to be relaxed and have a great time...not a feat easily accomplished during my busy season.
So January it was...and the wedding was FANTASTIC! Here's some reasons why you may want to consider an off peak wedding:
Most wedding venues offer discounted rates in their slower season. You may not be required to meet a food and beverage minimum and the room fee may be lower than during peak times. In addition to having lower minimums and pricing, your on-site coordinator is likely to be "all yours". That is, there's less a chance you'll have to compete with other weddings scheduled on the same day.
Just as your venue and on-site coordinator will have fewer weddings on their schedule, so will your guests! We received several compliments regarding the timing of my sister's wedding. So many attendees were excited to have an event to anticipate after Christmas in the lull of winter. Great food, great music, cocktails, and dancing (and fabulous flowers!) were very warmly received.
Speaking from a florist's perspective - we love off-season weddings! It's great when couples go out of the box and are willing to think independently. Oftentimes it means we get to create some really marvelous designs and have the opportunity to work with flowers we may not usually be able to because of availability restrictions. Plus it keeps us doing the best part of our job...designing. Which beats dusting the shop and washing the windows any day!
Other vendors - photographers, pastry chefs, entertainment, etc. will be just as excited about your unique wedding as I am as a florist.
If you're concerned about not being able to get photographs of you and your wedding party outside, just think of the possibilities for pictures inside. The Lake Geneva area is fortunate to host many architecturally significant beauties not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. Your photographer will be able to assist you with many options for photographs taken inside four warm walls, and you can always brave the chilly weather for a few outdoor shots.
There are certainly several great reasons to consider a wedding in the months commonly overlooked. I'm going to close out this entry today with a few more - The following pictures are of one of the winter weddings I've had the pleasure of designing for. We wanted to achieve a wintery crisp look and bring some of the outdoors in with birch twigs. The colors for the wedding were rich silvers and golds. We used gold and silver Italian ruscus, dendrobium orchids, and calla lilies in these designs. Enjoy!
The place cards were displayed on these large birch trees as seen below:
The event took place in the Abbey Resort's Harbor Ballroom. The flowers and lighting really created a fabulous wintery ambiance.
We are fortunate to have another fantastic wedding scheduled in the Abbey Resort's Harbor Ballroom for this upcoming December. Stay tuned for that one -- it's going to be marvelous!
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