Another Friday, another chance to Ask Ms Polka Dot (it feels a bit strange talking about myself in the third person, so let’s just say ask me!) about your wedding plans and brainstorm together to help you pull all the things you love into a wedding that you love! Stumped? Have a question? Want some help? Email me!

Today’s Ask Ms Polka Dot (or Ask Me!) is all about pulling together a winter wedding!

My husband and I eloped when we got married but wanted to have a celebration dinner wedding reception for our family and friends. The date we have set will be in winter in 2013 ( the day of our first ever date ) We live in Adelaide and its already really cold and its only May. The venue we have booked is an amazing place we love to have our lunch dates and we love the old feel of the place.

I have always dreamed of a DIY vintage meets picnic / country rustic type feel. We were thinking of having the dinner in spring as it would fit our theme better but the date is so very important to us. I just don’t know how to make it work for a winter wedding. We want a home made feel so we are going to make my Mums homemade jam in masons jar / mugs as gifts. We want to have a table filled with sweet treats like macaroons cupcakes etc. I just need a few colours that will work well for winter and some ideas on how to pull it all together. I hope you can help and thank you for your time.
Hi There,

What a lovely idea a party is to celebrate your elopement!

Your venue looks like the perfect spot to have your DIY vintage rustic party. Because there is lots of wood in the building and stone pillars, the winter theme would be perfect, although I can see that the gardens are beautiful too.

You don’t give me any indication of you colour preferences, so one suggestion is to go into our Creative Colour book and choose a colour that appeals to you. Once you open that colour, you will see all sorts of suggestions as to how to use each colour.

Look at Antique Rose, the coffee colours or chocolate colours. Dusky Pink also is a lovely warm colour for winter. All these colours give you suggestions as to what other colours you can team with them, and decoration suggestions. Choose a colour to be your main colour and use the most of this colour in fabrics, candles, beading, napkins etc. Then a secondary colour and perhaps a third colour – so for example one of the colour suggestions with Dusky Pink is burnished gold, cream and Pewter Grey. So tablecloths and the majority of your candles in dusky pink, gold edged cream dinner plates, gold beading on your tablecloths, cream napkins tied with gold cord, pewter dishes/jugs to hold your floral arrangements. Your Mum’s jam tied with twine or gold cord and some of your chosen coloured fabric.

Or placemats/tablecloths/napkins could be made in vintage style fabrics. You could also use plain tablecloths scattered with old embroidered and crocheted doilies – it just depends on how vintage you want to go! Cut glass vases would look good with this look. You can collect all these things from markets and op shops. Even old buttons piled in dishes with old look hankies would look cute. Carry the button theme into fastenings for your napkins, or fastened to a ripped fabric strip that you have tied around piles of old books.

Berries and twigs, bare branches, seed pods, pine cones, baskets, winter fruits piled into pewter bowls – all look wintery and rustic. Bell jars filled with lichen covered twigs, birds nests, feathers, or perhaps old postcards, letters, photographs – something that means something to you and your families.

Think richer coloured and textured fabrics – velvet, fabrics with a woven texture, coffee coloured linen.

Use lots of candle light – group your candles on every available surface. The candles could be varying heights and thicknesses, with one colour dominating the arrangements. Strings of fairy lights might also work.

Because it is winter, you could imagine a picnic feel as if you are going on a winter picnic. You could serve each person’s food in individual baskets – with a fabric napkin and lots of bites of food crammed into the basket. You might even be able to find metal containers like the tiffin containers Indians use to serve the meal in. I remember thermos’s of soup, homemade bread, great cheeses as well at winter picnics – perhaps a small mug of soup to start with. Is there some local food that the area is particularly well known for, that you could incorporate into your menu?

Your dessert table sounds yummy – add homemade cakes – or perhaps you have a famous family favourite like chocolate steamed pudding, or golden syrup steamed dumplings, a super apple pie – all homely fare and a bit rustic.

For the end of the evening, before guests leave, consider toasted marshmallows and a mug of hot chocolate, little (chipolata) sausages in bread with tomato sauce/mustard, donuts with hot apple cider.

Hope these suggestions start the ideas mulling over in your head. Have a wonderful celebration!

 

PS We removed our bride’s venue and wedding date so she can still surprise her guests!