When – and where – you choose to get married is very much dependent on your wedding budget and your vision for the day. Are you imagining fresh snow, fireplaces, candles and dimmed lights? Or an outdoor ceremony in the sun? Which of the wedding seasons would you choose?
“There’s nothing prettier than a spring wedding”
As a December baby, every single one of my birthdays has evolved – in some way or another – around Christmas activities and competing with everyone else’s busy Christmastime diaries. I’ve always been so envious of summer babies – those who get to celebrate their birthday in the sunshine, on the beach or with a picnic in the park, Aperol on tap.
Plus, I’m a summer girl at heart. As soon as the sun is out, I’m noticeably happier. The days are longer, warmer and brighter – perfect for getting outdoors, travelling and living an active lifestyle. So, for me, there was never any question about when my wedding might be – it had to be a spring-summer wedding.
The only issue? Wedding venues often get booked up years in advance during peak wedding season (May-September) especially if you want a Saturday. Which I, of course, did. So when it came to picking our wedding date, our hands were actually forced a little, since the wedding venue we both loved only had one Saturday available for the whole of May, June and July the following year. And that date was in May.
May weddings sometimes get a bad rep since the weather in England can be a tad unpredictable. But, in all honestly, I’d much prefer a bit of cloud coverage (or dare I say it… rain) than a scorching 35-degree day in August – no one wants to spend hundreds of pounds on their hair and make-up, only to sweat it all off 10 minutes later.
In my opinion, May is possibly the best of the wedding seasons to get married. It’s not as expensive as August, it’s not during the school holidays when people might be away, and the sun doesn’t set nearly as early as it does in the winter (so you can be sure you’ll get those #goldenhour shots). In fact, the sunniest month of the year is actually May.
What’s more, spring weddings are often associated with pretty floral and pastel colours (my favourite) and all the best flowers bloom in spring (yes, including peonies, roses and lily of the valley) so you’re not paying double for out-of-season flowers. And since May is right at the beginning of peak wedding season, those of your friends with a jam-packed wedding calendar are unlikely to have wedding fatigue and be moaning about spending their weekend at “yet another wedding”. It’s a win, win.
“A winter wedding just felt right”
Though I always knew that one day I wanted to get married, I didn’t grow up with a vision in mind of what that day would look like, where it would be or which of the wedding seasons it might fall within. Call me naive but I guess I just assumed that I would get married in the summer simply because that’s what the majority of couples do.
Now, that said, I’m not a person that thrives in the heat and my perfect day, weather-wise, would be sub-10 degrees, the sun shining but a chill in the air.
Coincidentally, that was almost exactly the weather forecast when we viewed Middleton Lodge back in January. Post-Christmas and NYE, on paper, it really ought to have looked at its “worst” given that all the decorations had been removed, the wind was howling and the walled gardens were bare. And yet, inside the Main House, the open fires were roaring and it didn’t take much imagination to picture it a mere week before dressed with festoon lighting and a garland or two. At this point in our wedding planning journey then, a winter wedding was well and firmly on the cards.
Venue aside, another factor we considered when making the decision was the dress code. My fiancé is half-Scottish and will most likely don his kilt on our wedding day. Having worn it enough times as a wedding guest, he knows better than I how uncomfortable that can get in the heat of summer.
Getting married in North Yorkshire, betting on sunshine for an outdoor wedding is something of a gamble. That’s not to say that miracles don’t happen but heatwaves are fewer and farther between than in the South. And, with this in mind, we decided we would rather remove the risk entirely by getting married in a venue that does not need the sunshine to look its “best” and will take place almost entirely indoors.
If the sun does come out, we’ll consider it a bonus but removing any additional stress of checking the weather forecast in the lead-up to the big day already makes me feel calmer. Of course, December is often jam-packed and so, narrowing down a date, we looked to the very start of the festive season. The upside is that our guest’s Christmases are uninterrupted and that we’ll be back from our honeymoon just in time for Christmas and NYE with our loved ones. A strategic way to extend the celebrations!
So it is that we came to the decision to tie the knot in December 2024. In hindsight, every significant milestone of our 10-year relationship has fallen in that month and so, whether you call it fate or the stars aligning, we’re due to marry next December and it already feels like magic.
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