Another option for a fun winter wedding is a New Year’s Eve wedding. Many couples love the idea of being married at midnight on New Year’s Eve or throwing a huge New Year’s Eve bash for their wedding reception. After all, you are entering a new life, what better time to celebrate that than the New Year?

A New Year’s Eve wedding can be a lot of fun, and if you have a bigger than life personality, a New Year’s Eve wedding is the way to really show it off! New Year’s can also be a more practical time than Christmas to have a holiday wedding because family and friends generally won’t have as many family commitments or other obligations for New Year’s as they have for Christmas. Plus, nearly everyone has New Year’s Day off so that people won’t have to miss the reception or the wedding because they need to work the next day.

It may be hard to find someone to officiate the wedding if you want the ceremony to take place at midnight, and many couples choose to have an early evening ceremony followed by a New Year’s Eve black tie reception. There are many different themes that you can choose for a fun New Year’s Eve wedding but the most popular ones are the traditional New Year’s Eve wedding and the Costume Ball New Year’s Eve wedding.

A Traditional New Year’s Eve Wedding is a glamorous affair

Black tie for the men, formal gowns for the women; glitz and glamour everywhere is the hallmark of a traditional New Year’s Eve wedding. Use lots of white lights and white satin to decorate the church, along with exotic flowers, such as orchids. Dress the groomsmen in tuxes with tails and top hats and dress the female attendants in glamorous gowns in black or in a deep jewel toned color like red or purple.

Book a ballroom for the reception and have a band playing classic 30’s and 40’s hits while your family and friends mill around. Consider renting a hotel ballroom for the reception and work out a discount for rooms with the hotel so that family and friends who may want to party harder than others won’t have to travel home but can just go to their rooms in the hotel at the end of the night. Book a couple of extra rooms just in case someone has too much to drink and needs a room at the last minute.

Keep the linens and china simple and elegant. Decorations should be lots of white, gold and black. Make sure to have plenty of disposable cameras on hand so guests can take candid photos. To decorate the tables use centerpieces of lilies and orchids surrounded by candles. For party favors, make up baskets for each guest containing a bottle of champagne with a personalized label on it, a champagne flute or two, a small bottle of bubbles that also have a personalized label, noisemakers and poppers, a party hat, a bottle of spring water with your personalized label on it, and a bottle of pain reliever for the next morning’s hangover.

To save money and to give the gifts a modern twist, use white Chinese takeout style boxes decorated with a gold bow on the top to hold all the party favors for the guests. Make sure to give everyone enough warning when it gets close to midnight so that they will have time to put on their party hats, pour their champagne, and get their bubbles and noisemakers ready to be used at the stroke of midnight. Depending on the time, the bride and groom might want to have their first dance after midnight as a way to really kick the party into high gear.

Give your friends and family an excuse to dress up with a Costume Ball New Year’s Eve wedding

Everyone loves a good costume party, and throwing a Costume Ball themed New Year’s Eve wedding is sure to make the evening a memorable one. Pull out all the stops for this theme and let your imagination run wild!

Choose a fantasy inspired ball gown style wedding dress for yourself and dress your attendants in beautiful corseted gowns or let them choose their favorite costume. “Lavish” is the key word to remember when decorating for a costume ball wedding theme but don’t worry; just because you want everything to look lavish and over the top doesn’t mean you need to spend a fortune doing it.

It’s only for one night, so consider renting the costume gowns for your attendants since chances are good that they won’t actually wear those dresses again. Consider carrying a small gold masquerade mask with the flowers in your bouquet. Decorate the church or wedding hall with cream colored tulle and gold trimmed ribbons with white candles and lights.

Decorate the reception hall with yards and yards of flowing fabric. Use long drapery panels on rods to create different areas in the reception hall and use ropes of beads to look like strings of jewels strung along the curtains. Hang bead curtains over cream colored drapery panels to create an exotic look and use ropes of pearls as swags.

In one of the curtained off areas have a fortune teller or tarot card reader to tell your guests’ fortunes. Ask your bridesmaids to help you create elaborate masquerade masks for all the guests; these are easy to make with supplies from any craft store. Buy small white or gold baskets for each guest, wrap them with strings of beads and pearls, and put into each basket a masquerade mask, some noisemakers, bubbles, and a fancy champagne flute.  Have plenty of bottles of champagne with a fancy personalized label on all the tables, and consider having a champagne fountain as well.  Encourage everyone to wear their masks throughout the evening.

No matter what type of New Year’s Eve wedding you decide to have, it’s important to give special consideration to making arrangements for family and friends to be safe after a night of celebrating. Whether that means having the reception at a hotel where the guests can book rooms or making sure that people who have been drinking have a ride home or will be staying with someone else, it is very important to remember that New Year’s Eve is a night when people are prone to celebrating a lot and drinking too much. The best idea for a New Year’s Eve wedding is to have the reception in a hotel ballroom and book a block of rooms for family and friends. Hold a special brunch the next day to encourage them to stay at the hotel overnight.