Crazy Winter Brides!!

rhodesign · November 2009

Hi all!I saw in the poll below that I'm not the only one insane enough to get married in the winter in Chicago!!Tell me--do people stare at you in disbelief when you tell them your wedding date? I wish I had quarter for every time I tell someone my date and they say incredulously "Here in Chicago? In December? Really?" yes, really. =)I also get--"are you doing red and green"? Nope, not a shred of Christmas will be incorporated into my decor. Oh and my favorite "Are the bridesmaids wearing velvet?" NONONONO!! This is not 1985, nor will they be wearing long sleeves. It's all indoors--nobody's going outside! =)Anyway, tell me about your experiences planning a winter Chicago wedding!Why did you choose your date?What are your colors?Crazy things people say (said) to you regarding your choice of season?

eastecich · November 2009

Thank you for posting. I just told my fiance how tired I am of explaining why we chose January! Also, "You better hope there's no blizzard!". No kidding!We got engaged in February. We originally wanted a fall wedding, but thought this fall was too soon and fall of 2010 is too far away. We picked the middle and decided January. Not to mention my curly hair does not do well in the heat/humidity.My colors are ivory and black with a very light hint of purple.My Gram keeps asking if we are going to change the date. I can't do anything to get it through to her that's the wedding is going to happen in January!

kthame · November 2009

That made me laugh...someone actually asked you if your theme is "red and green" and if your girls are wearing velvet. LOL. I would totally f*ck with people. Tell them your girls are all wearing sleigh bells when they walk down the aisle, and Santa will be at your reception.People can really be silly with the questions they ask. If I knew I would have been back from Australia sooner, we would be having a winter wedding. They're beautiful!!!

GradeSchoolSweethearts · November 2009

Yikes! I actually haven't had any of those questions! Our date is 12.4.10, and we chose it because we love the Christmas season. Our colors are Bordeaux and ivory And we haven't heard any things yet! We've actually only received compliments. People have said how much they love winter weddings because they are always so beautiful.

Noron · November 2009

Great post! Yeah, we got a lot of side-eye when people first heard our date. My favorite is when someone hears the wedding is at Victoria in the Park and they ask us if it's going to be outside. Why YES! Please come to our outdoor wedding in January!We actually chose our date because we couldn't afford to feed our huge Irish families in summer. Hooray for January discounts!Our colors are ivory, black and hints of red.

lilpsi59 · November 2009

Excellent post! People ask the funiest questions! I think I would totally have fun and give them ridiculous answers, like, 'Yes, the bridesmaids are wearing floor length velvet dresses! I don't want them be cold!' LOL We haven't gotten any of those questions though. When people asked for our date we explained that its a meaningful date for us. We're getting married on March 13th. It will be our 9 year anniversary! We also got engaged on March 13th two years ago. I know, I know, Nerd Alert!! LOL Our colors are burgundy and ivory with gold accents. Because I still consider March winter time, we want the huge room to still feel warm so we want lots of candlelight and flowers. We're having the ceremony and reception in the same place, so people don't brave the cold too long. The discounts that vendors use during this time are a huge plus! I don't think we'd be able to pull this off during the summer since it's peak wedding season.:)

WoodsSeltzer09 · November 2009

Ohhh great post Why did you choose your date? I really wanted Jan. 5th but the church was booked so we went a weekend early and I’m so glad we did. Life won’t be overly Christmassy yet.What are your colors? Red and silver – it has nothing to do with Christmas just my favorite two colors. Your comment about people asking about velvet made me laugh though. My FMIL just made floor length velvet capes for me and my girls.Crazy things people say (said) to you regarding your choice of season? “You do know it could snow” ß Really I had no clue it could also be in the 70’s But my favorite from my brother in FL. “ You really expect us to come to Chicago in November” ß yes because you’re my brother and mom will kill you if you don’t .

ChicagoG&A09 · November 2009

Oh I got those ALL time time. It didn't help that half the girls on the January boards all did snowflake themes and such so I didn't have a lot of resources for inspiration. We did brown and ice blue and had NO winter theme things. We chose winter b/c it is my favorite time of year and we got engaged the December before and I didn't want to have any more or less then about a year to plan! People said some crazy stuff about how sad it would be for us to not have pictures outside. (my husband and I are not nature people and we also managed to get some great outside pictures without freezing). People were also very concerned about flying in as 70% of our wedding was OOT's, there were no problems though. It was perfect and I loved having my wedding in January! Someone asked me if I was going to have Christmas Trees!!!!! 1. my husband is Jewish 2. Christmas is in December not the end of January!! LOL The only thing that I found disapointing was that I thought I would get more discounts and I did not.

mbuhpathi · November 2009

Awesome post. I get similar questions regarding my indian wedding. "are you having a million people?""is it a week long affair?"and so many more countless generalized, stereotypical questions.

rhodesign · November 2009

Great posts, ladies!!I have gotten some good comments--lots of people have said that winter weddings are beautiful. But yeah--no 'winter wonderland', snowflakes, Christmas themes, etc. But yeah at first, people just acted kinda weirded out! Our colors are plum wine, eggplant, cream and chocolate. (PIB)We chose our date because the venue gave us a discount for the minimum--big help!! We also got a few hundred off of the DJ (who's a friend of ours--just a coincidence!) and I'm not doing floral centerpieces (candles, etc. are more 'warm' and appropriate for winter), so we're saving money that way, too. Also, I didn't want to be overly hot doing a summer wedding, and winter time makes for a more fun time to go somewhere warm and tropical for anniversary trips! I bet people didn't think of that!

alliebaran · November 2009

Hilarious! And FOR SURE I get the "what, a February wedding in Chicago???"....We get asked a lot if we're doing a Valentine's Day theme, which we definitely ARE NOT doing! I guess that's better than being asked if the BMs are wearing velvet. Ick.In a nutshell how we choose our date: We got engaged August of '08. FI said no to fall (because of football), I said no to summer (we had 5 wedding this summer), and we didn't want to make our LONG engagement even longer by waiting to summer 2010, so we settled on February. We figured no one had anything better to do after Valentine's day and the superbowl!!Our colors are black and white (super simple). People keep joking that all of our OOT guests are going to have to travel through a blizzard to get here. Joke away I tell them (and have already started praying that this doesn't actually happen!)...

Sparkette19 · November 2009

Ok, so our wedding isn't in the winter....but my FMIL's first wedding was...and her BM's wore red velvet dresses. I had to chuckle b/c it was in the late 70's. Our wedding is in June, but I'm thinking that I'm going to be stiffling hot in my dress...which has a big poofy bottom. I have to say though that the winter would have been my choice for our wedding.

January Bride · November 2009

I also did nothing related to snowflakes or Christmas. Sorry to post and run, I'll respond more later, but for now feel free to check out my bio for photos!

rhodesign · November 2009

sparkette--it was FIs aunt who asked me about the velvet, because she was in a wedding with velvet dresses or something like that back in the day! Same with a co-worker of mine.

Zello · November 2009

Hello! I'm totally late to this train, but yes, we've gotten just a few comments regarding winter, snow, christmas, colors, etc. But most comments have been positive. We decided on December because this past summer was too soon, and we didn't want to wait another whole year. As teachers, winter break made the most sense. And the date...well that is all because of the discount we got at our hall. December 27th....couldn't pass up the package and the price!! Our colors are chocolate and red with hints of gold. The only "christmasy" thing is our placecard holders...little gold christmas trees from Crate and Barrel. Other then that, the theme is "warmth". We are doing luminaries for our centerpieces, surrounded by 3 votive candles and red rose petals. Each table will have a small gold basket with cinnamon scented pine cones and more roses. I am also having chocolate organza overlays on the table to warm up the atmosphere, and having red napkins! I've gotten so much more into decorating then I thought I would. The overlays are a totally splurge, and totally not necessary, but I was having a vision, and I liked it! Val

SaraAndrew2010 · November 2009

I just got engaged a couple weeks ago and my fiance and I are planning our wedding for Dec. 18, 2010. I never pictured myself as a winter bride, but this ended up making the most sense since I am in graduate school and we will have our wedding during my winter break. So far our immediate families have been very supportive. Our reception site, my fiance's parents' country club, is going to be decorated inside and out for the holidays, so that will really cut down on the ammount of decorating that we need to do. I know December can be cold, but I'm hoping that in mid-December the chance of a major blizzard is still relatively small. For my colors I'm planning on eggplant and cream, with accents of gold. The bridesmaids dresses will be eggplant. I'm thinking that the flowers will mostly be white, with eggplant ribbons around the vases. I think the cream and gold accents will help tie into the Christmas decorations that will be around and not clash.

2010 Novia · November 2009

My big day is only 2 months away - 01.02.2010. Like some of the others posters, we chose this date because of timing. We got engaged in early May of this year. Ideally we would have had a fall wedding but fall 2009 was too soon and fall 2010 was too far away. We didn't want to be one of the many spring and summer weddings so we ended up with January. Now we love the fact that we're having a winter wedding.Family and friends were incredulous about the date and location and some continue making comments (my mom said I'd better have a helicopter on standby to come pick her up if there's a big snowstorm the night before), but despite that we've got a great turnout - even OOT guests coming from warm and sunny Florida and Puerto Rico.My colors are navy and white. We did incorporate a snowflake into our monogram and the guest gifts are these really nice metal snowflake ornaments from Crate & Barrel, but I think it's really nicely done. Not over the top or cheesy. The bridemaids are wearing short, thin strap silk dresses, not long sleeved heavy velvet (although I did buy them faux black fur coats so they won't freeze during the outdoor pictures). We did get some discounts from vendors because it's a winter wedding, but they're still making a killing off of us.

Crazy Winter Brides!!

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