Winter Weddings at Wotton House...

Lots of couples choose to get married in the summertime. There’s always a hope for glorious long sunny days, Pimms on the lawn and having the opportunity to be outside for lots of photos. But if you’re like me and LOVE the romance, intimacy and cosiness of a winter wedding, it’s a great time to start looking for inspiration on how to achieve a beautifully styled celebration that reflects your personality and makes the most out of the season of giving.

We are the exclusive recommended bridal boutique for Wotton House in Surrey and we’re celebrating that with ‘Wotton Week’ on the blog and on social media. Therefore, we have chosen to take Wotton House under the microscope and pick out some of the key features of this exquisite Surrey wedding venue and suggest some options on how to create an effortlessly magical winter wedding at one of Surrey’s most popular wedding venue.

The Old Library

One of Surrey’s most enchanting ceremony spaces that truly defies belief. In itself, the deep wooden floors, dramatic pillars and vaulted stone ceilings already create a feeling of warmth and cosiness. We recommend accentuating this with an abundance of oversized candles lining the aisle with lots of fake snow sitting beneath. Not big on candles? How about large hurricane vases filed with bundles of fairy lights? Or even tall water filled lily vases with a small LED light in the bottom that changes colour and a floating candle on top?

Photography by Be Unveiled

Dress and Cape by BRIDE by Aster

Atmospheric lighting on the pillars and fairy lights is always a great way of really adding depth and atmosphere to a space and you could even add some moving lights to the ceiling and walls to project the illusion of falling snowflakes!

Make people feel as if they walked into a winter wedding and instead of chiavari chairs, why not hire in wooden benches and dress with faux fur throws and blankets. Instead of fresh and structured floral arrangements, opt for loose and wild foliage with hardy winter flowers and pops of dark burgundy, navy blue and shots of ivory for crispness.

The Dress

A winter wedding doesn’t mean you need to dress as if you’re going on an exploration of the arctic. But it does mean that you might want to consider a sleeve or some sort of warm accessory to your ensemble to ensure that when you do go outside for photographs, you’re nice and toasty. Thankfully, we‘ve got you covered (get it?)

Choose from our unique collection of stunning dresses including full length and tea length wedding dresses in our Surrey bridal shop. We have dresses with long sleeves and short sleeves, fur wraps and long sleeve lace boleros. We also have our gorgeous capelets that can be added to a lot of different dresses for a little variety.

Photography by Donald Wales

The Evelyn Suite

This beautiful wedding suite is light, bright, classy and elegant. It lends itself perfectly to icy blue and snowy silver colour palettes with injections of gold and pastel pinks. However, as the room itself is fairly neutral, it could certainly take a darker and stronger colour palette such as burgundy and navy or forest green and copper. Flowers by Elaine are partially included in Wotton House wedding packages and they have such an amazing variety of centrepieces to choose from to create your signature look.

Whichever colour palette you settle for, accentuate with lots of candles and soft lighting. Turn the lights down in the ceiling and add extra lighting to the tables and uplight the walls in soft shades and warm tones. This brings in the atmosphere and makes everything feel so much cosier.

Photography by Hayley Bray

Wedding Theme Advice - your ‘theme’ is not the same as your colour scheme. For example, your ‘theme’ cannot be ‘blue’. That means, that anything that is blue could feature in your wedding and this can lead to a very confused and non-cohesive style. Choose a few words that best describe the look and feel you are trying to achieve AND choose a colour palette. You will find that you eliminate or include things based on these titles and end up with something far more cohesive. An example of this would be ‘enchanted winter woodland’ and ‘copper, ivory, navy blue’. Taking these into consideration, you will begin to avoid anything that does not fit the brief of a woodland themed wedding and in turn, you will end up with a very clear and finished decorative look.

The Roman Temple

Let’s be honest. You’re probably not going to have your reception outside between the months of October and March. However, that doesn’t mean that you should avoid the stunning grounds at Wotton. On the contrary! Winter creates some of the most emotive lighting, the most dramatic and tempestuous skies and the most turbulent winds. Get your welly boots and/or umbrella and get outside for some unforgettable photos! The Roman Temple, also known as the Turtle House, is simply magnificent and should be frequented for photos all year round as well as Wotton’s stunning grade II listed Italian gardens.

Photography by Kevin Watkins

Whatever the weather at your winter wedding, embrace the dwindling light, the endless possible alcoholic hot chocolate combinations you can create on your bespoke hot choc station (Bailey’s for me) and the romance and ‘togetherness’ that the season so effortlessly commands. We can’t wait to see more of our brides winter wedding photos at this stunning Surrey venue.

Hannah & Team x