Winter Wedding, Seasonal Style - Emily Katherine Events %

Raleigh Winter Wedding with Seasonal Flair

When you’re thinking about having a more sustainable wedding, the two biggest areas of wedding waste are often food and flowers. One of the simplest ways to make your wedding a bit more eco-friendly is just to approach both of these areas with seasonal awareness and flexibility. This can be tricky (but not impossible) with a winter wedding.

With catering, creating a seasonal menu will allow you (and your caterer) to work with local farmers to provide fresh ingredients without shipping these in from afar. The benefits of this are numerous (I mean besides reducing your carbon footprint). Local ingredients are fresher, tastier, and support your local economy. Talk to your caterer about where they source their ingredients, and see what menus they recommend for the time of year you are planning your wedding.

More about tasty seasonal catering in another post… right now I want to talk about winter florals and the beautiful arrangements from Kathleen and Matt’s winter wedding!

Local Flora and Fauna

Of course we live in a world where you can choose just about any flower at any time of the year, and your florist will have them shipped in from across the country (or even overseas in some cases). But if a specific bloom is not important to you, ask your florist what will be in season when you get married and find out what can be sourced locally. Of course in the spring, summer, and even fall there will be a variety of things growing locally (dependent of course on your region), but don’t assume everything must be shipped from afar just because you’ve chosen a winter wedding. Kathleen chose a wintry evergreen style for her elegant December wedding, and Springwell Gardens was able to source the greenery from local farms. Plenty of pine here in North Carolina! By going heavy on the greens and lighter on the actual floral blooms, Kathleen was able to cut down on the carbon footprint of her wedding flowers. And she didn’t have to skimp on style, quality, or quantity! Check out the details of her beautiful winter wedding:

Evergreen and pinecones popping up everywhere! The perfect winter accents you can source locally.

Classy black robes, classy black dresses! A little swanky flair for this bride tribe.

Sharp black tuxes for the gentlemen. So suave.

The Bridal Party traveled in style via this sweet trolley!

Back at Merrimon Wynne, the Carriage House glistening with silver linens and a delightful aroma of pine wafting off the centerpieces.

Kathleen and Matt were not afraid to do things a little differently. They used Jenga pieces as their guest book, so they’ll read messages from their guests every time they play! And in lieu of favors, they made a donation to Communities in Schools, a local nonprofit.