If you have always dreamed of a convivial wedding with soft lighting, decorated with a variety of candles and torch-lit paths, and to offer your guests a cozy atmosphere, from our professional point of view, getting married in autumn or winter is a great idea.
In this article, six of our professional wedding partners: venue, caterer, scenographer, florist, tableware and photographer have agreed to share with you, as a preview, our ideas for one of our next fall weddings.
Discover in detail the proposals of each service provider as well as our recommendations.
Planning a winter wedding
Unlike summer weddings, the organization of a wedding in the autumn-winter season is much more flexible with regard to the dates and availability of the different providers. One can thus plan a wedding with a much shorter organization time.
Apart from the usual criteria of choice, the first thing is to find a place adapted to the season. For example, it must have a large, bright and well-heated reception room for the dinner and a sheltered place suitable for the organization of a secular ceremony.
It may also be noted that reception venues offer advantageous rates during this period.
With regard to the scenography, the general idea is to create a warm atmosphere for all aspects of the wedding.
It will be adapted to the season: warm colours, seasonal flowers and all the details to create a cosy atmosphere. We can even imagine outdoor lounges for smokers, with braziers or nomadic torches.
For cocktails, a spicy mulled wine atmosphere around a brazier can be proposed, conducive to discussions between guests.
The dinner reception will of course be prepared with seasonal products.
For the dance evening, in addition to the night bar, we can imagine, why not, a gustative world tour around a tea bar.
Finally, the course of the day will be established according to the light, among other things, for the photos of the bride and groom. The glowing autumn colours will give a particularly aesthetic photographic rendering.
Autumn or winter lights can be advantageous for obtaining beautiful images and should be used wisely and at specific times.
My partners and I have built a fall/winter wedding project that I am showing you here, with all the details I mentioned earlier:
- For the venue, the Château Gassies in Latresne, particularly suited to this type of event.
→ Read the post : Se marier à Bordeaux : Les lieux incontournables - The catering by Maison Dulou
- La scenography created by Pastel Créatif
→ Read the post : L’art de la décoration de mariage ou ‘Wedding Design- The floral art proposed by Les Petits Bourgeons.
- The tableware by Maison Option
- Photography by Seb Photo
→ Read the post : 3 Photographes
The Venue
The Château Gassies – Latresne
Château Gassies offers valuable advantages for a wedding in autumn-winter.
It is located in a quiet and refined environment, 10 minutes from Bordeaux.
Guests will be accommodated in luxurious rooms and tastefully decorated cottages.
The orangery and the courtyard are perfectly adapted for cocktail parties and secular ceremonies.
It has a beautiful and large room, bright, ideal for a dinner and a dance until the end of the night.
To relax on the eve of the wedding, a wellness area with fitness room, sauna, hammam, and a massage room are also available.
For more details follow that link.
The Caterer

AUTUMN & WINTER COLLECTION
THE SPIRIT
« In the service of the preservation of our territory, seasonality and taste.»
For many years, Maison Dulou Traiteur has been aware of common sense, ecological responsibility and the enhancement of our territory, a resolutely forward-looking approach, honouring reasoned and responsible gastronomy, while offering a festive evening to your guests.

THE CEREMONY
Winter Sweetness for a fairy tale ceremony
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Cosy cocooning atmosphere with a welcome hot wine and spices around the brazier.
Candlelight alley…moss carpet and wooden logs replace the small wild flowers for an enchanting decor.
Plaids and chapka will warm up your guests while accessorizing the moment.
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THE GASTRONOMY
Your menu will be reinvented while promoting our beautiful regional products:
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Oysters from Cap Ferret are excellent in this period
A semi-cooked IGP Landes foie gras workshop can also be proposed fried by the minute.
The traditional summer ham slicing gives way to the home-made gravlax salmon slicing.
And a multitude of cocktail pieces from the undergrowth
And if you want to impress your guests and bring a touch of originality:
And if you want to impress your guests and add a touch of originality:
Succumb to the animations, Cornetto, Risotto cooked in its Pyrenean ewe’s cheese millstone or à la plancha de Bazas.
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We’re trading the melon for pumpkin.
Et on sublime l’œuf par une version « parfait 64 °C », croustille de pain aux fruits et champignons
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We ensure conviviality & sharing around a generous cocotte in the centrepiece.
Let your guests become table chef for a moment.
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Finally, the dessert is dressed in its winter clothes and metamorphoses into frosted flakes
Accompanied, if you wish, by the traditional mounted piece.
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A WARM DECORATION & ICE CREAM
The atmosphere of your wedding will be convivial.
Synonymous with rapprochement and long discussions by the fireplace, but can also be the opportunity to work on the icy effect.
Transform your venue into a cosy and comfy space with soft armchairs and sofas, plaids and chapkas, candle and lantern aisles…
But why refuse an ice buffet to arrange the Cap Ferret Oysters?
Add also iced basins to surprise and amaze your guests on the open bar.
We finish with the “Dulou Touch” with the luminous ice cube.

The scenography
By Pastel créatif (Read the Post: Pastel Créatif Wedding Designer)
with the contribution of:
Warm colours, seasonal flowers and nomadic torches, to warm the atmosphere and create a beautiful cosy atmosphere, are the few elements that can make up a beautiful scenography for a wedding in autumn-winter.
We can imagine almost anything, Laura from Pastel Créatif created this atmosphere through these boards and sketches.

Secular ceramony

The Venue
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The Photography
By Seb Photo
Light is the main element for photographers. Summer weddings obviously offer ideal light, but it is essential to choose your time slot carefully, because during 3/4 of the day the light is much too strong to make flattering photos for the subjects.
The big advantage at an autumn or winter wedding is that the light is fairly even. This gives more possibilities throughout the day to have a more flattering look. However, there is one important point to take into account in autumn or winter: the time of sunset.
In June we don’t take into account this kind of question, we can work with natural light until 10 pm. In autumn or winter, in general the light becomes weak or even absent around 6:00 pm. It is therefore necessary to take this variable into account in the course of the day.
I will therefore recommend couple and family photos between 4:00 pm and 5:30 pm to have the softest light. While in summer I never take this kind of photos before the end of the day.
If the weather allows it, I will continue to propose outdoor couple photos and I will also try to propose mixed semi-covered areas to play with light and shadows and create contrast.
Concerning the colours, the sun being lower and the light being lower, it produces nice effects. The backgrounds are generally coloured in an autumnal way and the usual dominant colours of green and yellow are replaced by orange and brown tones.
The rendering will therefore necessarily be different, which does not mean uninteresting, but quite the opposite!
You can therefore get married all year round, the whole thing being to adapt your outfit and your schedule and let yourself be guided by the professionals.
