Winter weddings have a magic all their own. It’s the season for frosty temps and warm hearts, a time for gathering family, indulging in cozy treats, and so much more. If you’re planning on getting married during the chilliest months of the year, you’re probably on the hunt for the perfect wedding theme and winter wedding colors. Fortunately, there are plenty of great wedding colors for winter. From festive holiday-inspired color schemes to winter wedding decor inspired by a serene snowy landscape, our inclusive list is sure to inspire. Read on for some of our favorite color pairings, our best tips on choosing the perfect color palette, plus some ideas for wedding themes that’ll make your event one of the season’s most memorable.
Photo: Heather Payne Photography
Top Wedding Colors for Winter 2021
NORDIC WINTER
Cool grey + Ivory + Charcoal
"Torrone" wedding invitation by Lori Wemple
"Burnished" wedding invitation by Susan Brown
WINTER ROMANCE
Blush + Spruce + Ice Blue
"Winterelle" foil-pressed wedding invitation by Petra Kern
"Gilded Woods" wedding invitation by Robert and Stella
"Banded Arch" foil-pressed wedding invitation by Baumbirdy
CHOOSE THE PERFECT WINTER WEDDING THEME
Picking the perfect wedding theme before you start wedding planning can help guide and inspire your event so the entire celebration feels stylish, cohesive, and magical. Your wedding theme can be as simple or as broad as you like, just choose whatever feels right to you, but it’s important to have one. Not only does having a well-thought- out winter wedding theme provide guidance when it comes to choosing decor, it can also prove extremely useful when it comes to making practical decisions. As anybody who’s ever planned a wedding for the first time knows, there are a lot of little decisions to make, often right up to the very last minute.
Not sure which flowers are a good fit for a January wedding? Pick the blooms that best suit the wedding theme. Stumped on wedding favor ideas, photo booth props, or maybe you’re still deciding on your wedding colors? If your theme is strong and feels true to you, all the details should fall into place.
And, of course, your theme will be the primary factor in determining your winter wedding color scheme. In some cases it’ll be obvious: For example, if you're tying the knot around Christmas, it makes a lot of sense to embrace a red-and-green color palette. In other cases, the color scheme will be less obvious. Opt for something more abstract, like a Winter Wonderland theme, and you’ll have a little bit more room to explore a variety of winter wedding color ideas that you can really make your own. So it’s important to not only determine what sort of theme you want, but how extensive and prescriptive you want it to be. Some people work better when they have more structure, while others prefer to do their wedding planning with minimal guidelines and more room to let their imaginations run wild.
LET YOUR WEDDING DATE INFORM YOUR WINTER WEDDING COLORS
Having a winter wedding has a lot of advantages, like more venue availability, better rates, and stunning snowy backdrops for wedding photos, just to name a few. But wintertime is also a busy time of the year, with many folks juggling holiday travel, more social obligations than usual, and cramming in extra work or school before a short winter break. It's important to keep those factors in mind as you select a date for your winter wedding. If you can help it, try to avoid hosting your wedding during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. And if you know you’ll be getting married during a period when most kids are home from school, you’ll want to consider whether you'll be inviting kids to the wedding, or whether there's a way to provide childcare and/or kids' activities during the reception so their parents can have a bit of a break.
Each winter month is different and brings its own set of holidays, activities, and energy. Here are some of our favorite wedding colors and themes for December, January, and February winter weddings.
Photo: Henry + Mac
DECEMBER WEDDING COLORS & THEMES
Winter Harvest
For most folks, autumn ends after the Thanksgiving weekend, so an early-December wedding is the perfect moment to honor the transition from fall to winter. The season's bounty of fruits and vegetables can provide a vibrant palette for a stylish winter wedding color scheme. Think rich pinks, warm golds, and deep purples and greens inspired by plums, pomegranates, apples, pears, and, of course, pine trees. Incorporate this winter harvest theme into the dinner menu, craft textural bouquets, garlands, and centerpieces, and display a bountiful sweets table piled high with winter fruits.
Happy Holidays
If your wedding is toward the middle of the month and you’re one of those people who just loves Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Hanukkah, go ahead and use those holidays as your inspiration. After all, everyone will have the holidays on the brain already, and even if you and your guests aren’t particularly religious, established holidays come with their own color schemes and iconography, which can be useful. Also, many event spaces will already have some holiday decor going on, so why not embrace it, and save money at the same time? A few bold holiday wedding colors for winter are: red, green, gold, black, and navy blue.
Winter Wonderland
There’s nothing quite like the fantasy of a cozy sleigh ride through the snow-covered countryside. Can you picture it? Gentle hills blanketed in snowdrifts, a thermos of hot chocolate in your mittened hands, and the wintry hush broken only by jingling sleigh bells. Pretty romantic, right?
While sleigh rides might be hard to come by nowadays, you can capture a little bit of this frosty yet fabulous vibe by decking out your wedding venue in serene shades of white, silver, and powder blue. If silver feels like a little bit much, go for sparkly white or iridescent crystal accents. Dust your desserts and rim your cocktail glasses with edible white glitter, have guests toss faux snow instead of rice, pass out tiny silver bells for guests to jingle during your reception send-off, and provide mugs of hot chocolate for the kids and hot toddies for the grown-ups.
Photo: Brumley & Wells
JANUARY WEDDING COLORS & THEMES
Black and White
For January weddings, a black-and-white winter wedding color scheme is a classic and stylish choice. It’s a traditional palette for New Year’s Eve parties, of course, which makes it a perfect option to celebrate embarking on a new stage of your lives together. Plus, black and white are the perfect base colors. Enjoy the freedom to add any accent color you like. If you’re in the mood for some serious party time pizzazz, add in some shiny gold or silver highlights for extra sparkle. Want to soften up the look? Add pops of soft blush to give your black and white palette a more romantic vibe.
Keep the black-and-white theme going throughout the rest of the wedding. Project romantic old movies on a wall, serve a cookies-and-cream–themed dessert spread, rent a black-and-white checkerboard dance floor, and have an old-school black-and-white photo booth to keep guests entertained during the reception.
Shop black and white wedding invitations
Hygge
Hygge, the Danish winter ritual devoted to total coziness and relaxation, has been having a moment for quite some time now. The word itself, though it can’t be translated literally, roughly means “a feeling of coziness and comfort.” Scandinavian winters can be rough, so while some people like to start the year with a rigorous routine of resolutions and cleanses, hygge is all about embracing our desire to hibernate, snuggle, and indulge in warm, delicious treats. Which is why it's also an absolutely perfect theme for a January wedding and a wonderful guideline for choosing winter wedding colors.
If Scandinavian hygge style is your vibe, choose pale neutrals like white, grey, and oatmeal, with a tiny dash of red, blue, or cinnamon as an accent color. Emphasize all things hygge at the wedding. Choose a venue with a fireplace, offer mulled wine at the bar, highlight your favorite comfort foods on the dinner menu, and provide your bridesmaids with cozy faux-fur wraps as well as fleece blankets for your guests in case they need to warm up.
Photo: Sarah Beth Photography
FEBRUARY WEDDING COLORS & THEMES
Valentine's Day
February is a short month and Valentine’s Day falls right in the middle, which can inspire some unique winter wedding color themes. February also means the end of winter is near, which means folks will be craving a welcome change of scenery. If your wedding falls before V-Day, that’s an easy winter wedding color scheme to work with. Highlight varying shades of pinks and reds, mixed with crisp white. Choose wedding decor details that highlight your favorite parts of Valentine's Day. Some ideas include conversation hearts customized with your names as wedding favors, custom cocktails in shades of pink (prickly pear margaritas, anyone?), a valentine-making station for the kids and/or crafty adults, or a stack of your favorite love stories displayed on the table next to the guest book.
Jewel Tones
If your February wedding falls after Valentine’s Day, or you’d just prefer something more subtle, we always love the luxe look of jewel tones. Rich hues like emerald, merlot, amethyst, and sapphire are elegant and sophisticated—perfect for a winter wedding. Jewel tones make a gorgeous statement in everything from bridesmaids dresses to table linens and lounge furniture. Can you picture velvet-upholstered sofas and armchairs at the reception where guests can mix and mingle?
Take the jewel-tone theme even further with more literal interpretations. After all, true love is a treasure, right? During the ceremony, have a basket of ring pops to help keep the kiddos preoccupied. During cocktail hour, garnish cocktails with cheeky drink stirrers shaped like diamond-ring emojis. Rent colorful glassware in matching jewel-toned colors, add foil-pressed menus at every place setting, go all-out with a massive champagne tower after the cake cutting, suspend twinkle lights overhead, and be sure to pass out sparklers at the end of the reception for a celebratory send-off.
Photo: Sarah Beth Photography
HOW TO INCORPORATE YOUR WINTER WEDDING COLORS
Once you've figured out your winter wedding colors, then comes the fun part: figuring out ways to carry the color palette through the entire celebration. Here are some of our favorite ideas.
- Flowers: Share your wedding palette with your florist and ask them to incorporate blooms in complementary colors into the floral arrangements. Is one of your wedding colors a metallic hue, like silver or gold? Ask your florist to use silver or gold vases and containers for the reception centerpieces to keep with the color theme.
- Stationery: Find the perfect Minted wedding invitation by filtering by color. Select a color in your wedding palette and the site will instantly pull up invitations that are available in that hue. You can also shop for additional Minted wedding stationery options such as save the dates, ceremony programs, place cards, menus, etc. by filtering according to color.
- Wedding Party Attire: For the bridesmaids, choose a dress that matches your wedding colors. Or, embrace the mix-and-match bridal party trend by choosing a specific color palette for everyone's outfits and letting your attendants choose a style they want to wear in that colorway. For the men in the wedding party, add a subtle pop of color with a coordinating tie and/or pocket square.
- Decor: The reception table linens are a great opportunity to reinforce the wedding colors. Opt for a solid or patterned table linen that's on theme. Or, alternatively, you could always go for a neutral-colored linen in ivory or cream, and then add colorful napkins for a pop of color on the table.
It’s important to remember that while winter weddings can come with their own unique challenges like blizzards, holiday schedules, and travel advisories, they’re also incredibly meaningful and memorable. And don't be daunted by the weather forecast. When the weather outside is frightful, there’s nothing to stop you from planning an unforgettable wedding. Whether you go with a sleek, white-on-white color-scheme or jazzy jewel tones, winter wedding color themes offer plentiful opportunities to get creative. And remember, whatever theme you choose, nothing keeps you warm like a room full of people you love.
Photo: Leila Brewster
