Winter Weddings

Welcome to our first blog post of the new year! OK, we get it, it’s already April, but here at Olive & Thistle we’ve been working hard behind the scenes preparing for the upcoming wedding season - cleaning our cameras, polishing the drone and ironing our dress shirts, while at the same time getting out to film a few weddings during these past winter months - and we just love them! Lightly falling snow, the mist in the air, the drama of the trees, winter is quickly becoming a season to recon with when it comes to your big day!

Traditionally, wedding season generally lasts from about May until September in this fine country of ours, which may sound like a long time until you break down the numbers. There were almost 30,000 weddings in Scotland last year, and with only about 20 Saturdays available during those peak summer months, that often sees your favourite venue and vendor booked up rather quickly! What’s the solution then? Well why not consider a winter wedding? Here’s just a few reasons to consider having your nuptials from November to February!

“Your next availability is in 2022?!”

As we’ve just mentioned, one of the biggest reasons is the availability of your vendors, from florists to photographers, caterers to Ceilidh bands, and everything in between - the most popular and sought after vendors will generally be booked up to 2 years in advance (us included!) for those busy summer months from May-September. Winter weddings can generally be booked much closer to your date, and some venues and vendors even offer off-season discounts!

“Bring in the snow machines!!”

Dreaming of a winter wonderland wedding? You may not be aware, but a lot of venues (particularly hotels and dedicated wedding spaces) will already come decorated for the holidays, which translates into big savings and bigger atmosphere for our lovely cinematic wedding films! Once your scene has

already been set (at no cost to you!), it’s easy to embrace the chill in the air, the steam on your breath, and the necessity for a snuggle to keep warm on your special day.

“Which one is it this week, Stuart?”

How many invites do you have this year? A bunch? Weddings can be fantastic (we love them!) but having your wedding during the winter season means that it’s less likely your guests will suffer from that wedding fatigue that often comes with back-to-back parties all summer long! By the time the colder months roll around they’ll be itching to get out of the house and strut their stuff! Also - dancing warms you up quite nicely!

“Do you like saving money, cause I like saving money!”

As the sun sets lower in the sky, so does the cost of travel! Flights, accommodation, rental cars, overall they are MUCH cheaper during the winter season, making it more feasible for your guests to come on over from abroad to share in your special day. Even those guests that are local may be more inclined to book a stay at a local B&B to keep the party going long into the night.

Here at Olive & Thistle, we love weddings, and we love making wedding films, and whether it’s at the height of heat in July or the depths of cold in December, we’ll be there to make your film shine! We have actually seen a trend in recent years towards couples stepping out from wedding season to say their nuptials during the winter season, and we are all about it! Mainly, because of that gorgeous natural light, just take a look at one of our winter weddings below and you’ll exactly what we’re talking about!

Caroline & Jim - Winter Wedding