A Stunning Christmas Wedding

When a bride loves winter as much as Michelle, a Christmas wedding was an absolute must-have for this gorgeous couple. This stunning festive celebration was certainly the winter wonderland that they planned.

The perfect winter wedding venue

With a list of wedding must-haves that include a big Christmas tree and a venue with the wow-factor, Michelle and Chris started the search for the perfect winter wedding venue. They knew they’d found their dream location as soon as they arrived at Rivervale Barn.

“We knew as soon as we pulled into the drive that we’d book Rivervale Barn for our wedding. The barn is very impressive to look at and when we viewed it over the Christmas period in 2015, we saw the massive Christmas tree – this sealed the deal for us! We could instantly see our vision, how we wanted the barn to look on our wedding day, come alive and we booked our date there and then.”

Creating a winter wonderland

Michelle had always wanted a winter wedding and, in honour of her favourite time of year, the couple planned to transform Rivervale into a winter wonderland to really impress their guests. Michelle and Chris also decided to make as much as possible so that their decorations felt as personal as possible.

“We spent hours with our florist, Gabi from The Fine Flowers Company, designing how the rooms were going to look, and we used Pinterest for lots of ideas too. We worked to a grey and white theme as this fitted with the winter look and coordinated so well with everything.”

Among the amazing decorations were stunning white flowers in the Ceremony Barn, white manzanita trees with glass baubles and candles in the Dining Barn, a wish tree with silver garlands, LOVE light up letter, pink and blue uplighters, sprinkle gems and masses of candles. Large flower trees also framed the entrance to the ceremony and the lanterns and tea lights looked spectacular.

The couple and their friends definitely indulged with lots of wedding DIY and there were so many personal details throughout the day. Michelle made a card box, her sister made cards to go with the selfie sticks on each table and Michele and her mum filled sweetie bags and finished them with a personalised ‘Mr & Mrs Wright’ tie. There were also table names featuring places where the couple have been on holiday with the newlyweds sitting at the top table which was named after the city where they got engaged, Prague.

“We really wanted to create the wow factor for our guests and we wanted to make the venue look even more stunning. We wanted the venue to look beautiful and for all the decorations and flowers to complement each other, it was very important to us that everything matched and fitted in with the colour scheme.”

The perfect look for a winter wedding

Michelle looked absolutely amazing on her big day, wearing a gorgeous Pronovias gown from Windsor & Eton Brides that absolutely worked with the look of the wedding.

“My sister picked this dress for me – I didn’t even want to try it on! Once I put it on, I knew instantly that it was the dress for me. It was absolutely stunning and I felt like a million dollars on my wedding day.”

Michelle accessorised her look with a beautiful hair clip and bracelet from Ivory & Co and a fabulous Monica Vinader bracelet that Chris gave his bride as a wedding day gift. Michelle’s short veil made sure that every inch of her stunning dress was on show whilst looking brilliantly bridal.

“I wore plain white court shoes from Rainbow Club for the ceremony and I also had pale blue Hunter wellies for outside plus a pair of personalised white ‘Mrs Wright’ Converse for the evening so that I could dance the night away!”

Michelle’s bridesmaids wore light grey dresses from David’s Bridal and sparkling silver belts. They accessorised with white scarves, silver heeled sandals and also wore gypsophilia in their hair.

Chris wore a blue suit, hired from Ashworth and Bird. His handmade grey tweed waistcoat finished his look along with cedar and blue brogues and a personalised pocket watch, which was a very special gift from his parent. His groomsmen and the fathers of the bride and groom wore the same suit with blue waistcoats with handmade ties and pocket squares which were gifts from the happy couple.

A seasonal feast to enjoy

After a beautiful and emotional ceremony, the celebrations started in style. The couple chose warm winter Pimms and warm mulled wine for their guests along with elderflower sparklers and a keg of local beer. There were also delicious canapes for everyone to enjoy including chicken and lentil tarts, spiced lamb koftas, crispy risotto balls and the incredibly popular combination of grilled sirloin of beef and duck fat chips.

“We also had a live singer, James Deane, who played the guitar during the reception. He had a super chilled-out vibe and kept everyone entertained while we had our photos taken.”

After the drinks reception, it was time to move into the Dining Barn for the wedding breakfast and guests enjoyed a sumptuous winter feast featuring warm Scotch egg starters followed by steak and chocolate brownies.

“All our guests loved the steak and couldn’t speak highly enough about the overall standard of the food at Rivervale and everyone commented on how talented the chefs must be to be able to prepare so many perfect steaks and serve them all, piping hot.”

For a sweet treat, the couple’s winter wonderland cake from Dolly Dew Drops was just outstanding! 100 cupcakes, 200 gingerbread snowflake cookies and one 6-inch cake really made a statement. Guests loved the flavours too – vanilla, salted caramel and chocolate orange plus Christmassy gingerbread.

A Christmas party for the newlyweds!

Michelle and Chris kicked off the evening reception with their first dance to James Arthur’s ‘Say You Won’t Let Go” which they chose for meaningful the lyrics. From then on their band, The Shapers, made sure that the dancefloor was packed all night long.

“We spent a long time researching bands and we absolutely chose the right one. They played a variety of songs from different eras, which kept the older guests happy! They were amazing and performed three 40-minute sets.”

When they weren’t dancing the night away, guests had another treat to look forward too – freshly made pizza!

“The pizza oven was absolutely epic! It was the best pizza we’d ever tasted and again, all our guests loved it – we thought we’d ordered too much but it was all eaten! It was great that the pizza was served outside too so guests could escape the music if they wanted to.”

Looking back on the big day…

“I’d say to all couples – enjoy the planning process as it goes far too quickly and remember there’s no need for stress if you give yourself enough time to get everything done.”

“We did let time run away with us a bit in the morning though and in the end, it was a rush to get ready so we missed out on some key photos before the ceremony. In hindsight, I should have got ready first so that I could have had pictures taken with my parents. while the bridesmaids got dressed.”

“I can’t recommend Rivervale Barn highly enough. Our wedding coordinator, Michaela, was an amazing help and support and our families were very impressed with the organisation on the day. The staff were all wonderful and professional but it was lovely to see them showing emotion too with tears and laughter. We didn’t just feel like another wedding and there’s nothing we could have improved on. Our wedding was perfect in every way.”