Winter weddings in France: pros and cons

I started writing this when I was on vacation in the mountains. I ate cheese (too much), drank coffee (way too much) and braved the downright hostile temperatures to go out and take photos. I ended up one meter deep in the snow because I was looking at my camera instead of where I was going - impressive how my stupidity just covers about any situation.

Ever since I (re)discovered shadows and the beauty of indoors portraits, my taste for winter weddings only increased. Though getting married in negative temperatures does impact the planning and the photos one might end up with.

The advantages of getting married in autumn or winter

Availability of vendors

If you're getting married on a date that's not very popular with other brides and grooms, there's a good chance that virtually all the vendors you love would be available, no matter how late you ask for them.

Looking for vendors usually is quite stressful for couples, especially if they don't have a planner to guide them trough it. You're under a lot of stress because you find yourself in the paradoxical situation of needing time to sort through the vast number of wedding vendors out there, while having to make a decision almost right away, as agendas fill up very quickly in spring and summer. In addition to the massive anxiety this can generate, going too fast can also lead you to hire a vendor who isn't the one who would have suited you best, not to mention the frustration you feel when vendors whose work you've fallen in love with are no longer available.

If you're getting married in December, none of the above applies to you. You'll be free to choose your vendors even at the last minute, you'll be relieved of the anxiety of having to make any decision in a hurry, and you'll have the certainty of being able to book most of your favorite vendors. This is all the more advantageous if you plan a wedding in a short time.

Side note: as far as photos are concerned, it's also possible that getting married in low season means you'll have them sooner. Deadlines may be the same on the contract, but if one photographer has less work at the moment you're getting married, he/she might be able to deliver your images sooner!

Prices

Some vendors - especially venues - charge low-season prices. This is quite simply due to lower demand in winter than in summer, and the desire to fill their diaries throughout the year. However, this varies from one vendor to another, because just as one photographer may consider it normal to charge a preferential rate in winter to land a contract he or she didn't expect to sign in the low season, another may similarly consider that since the provided work is the same, a change of rate would not make sense.

Not all vendors charge low-season rates, but if a few out of the dozen you are about to work with offer that option, you can still make substantial savings in the end or adjust to budget and invest more in your flowers, scenography, photography, get a planner, etc.

A low-season wedding will also make it easier for you to stick to your budget, since you won't have to rush any decisions based on the availability of some vendors. You'll be able to take the time to compare the prices, possibly benefiting from preferential options, and if you wish you can start your preparations later, which will give you a better vision of the budget for your event (it can be complicated to know how much you'll be able to allocate to your wedding when you start planning it one year or two before it actually takes place).

Wedding mood and theme

Getting married in autumn or winter offers possibilities that summer and spring weddings don't, especially in terms of atmosphere. Low-season weddings mean lots of indoor moments, muted scenography and pictures focusing on the details of the winter light through a steam-covered window, or the quiet atmosphere of a late sunrise in the morning.

It's an opportunity to design an event that's a little different from what we usually see. Of course, this doesn't have to be your main motivation: first and foremost, you have to imagine the wedding that suits you best and that's just like you. Nobody's asking you to do a Christmas wedding just because “it's nice to have a change”. Though I do feel there is something very timeless, grandiose and even theatrical about indoor portraits, dim light and semi-darkness couple photos. Yes, I live for chiaroscuro.

The weather

I know. When you read “winter wedding”, the first thing you think probably is that getting married in -2 degrees is a big no-no. So why on Earth would I consider the temperature to be an argument in favor of an end-of-year wedding ? Let's just say that, in my opinion, the popular belief that in August you take fewer risks than in December weather-wise doesn't necessarily hold true.

In France, the summer of 2022 was a scorcher. We hit 40 degrees and above all over France and it was not a good experience for neither vendors, couples or guests (I was pregnant back then, because good timing obviously is my strong suit). It got even worse when the wedding took place in a region where temperatures aren't usually so hot, because no one was prepared for it. I worked in a venue that simply had no air-conditioning, because we were on the border between France and Luxembourg, not Spain, so nobody had really considered the possibility of having to run the air-conditioning at full blast in the evening, even in the height of summer. I think quite a few of my 2022 brides and grooms would have happily swapped their 38°C cocktails for an hour of rain below 30°C (you might say: there can both be rain and warmth, but we'll just keep hoping that in France we won't have to go through a monsoon).

When getting married in the summer, the couple expects to enjoy the outdoors, and though they usually have a plan B, they mostly rely on the sun expected in that season. If you go for a winter wedding, there will be no surprise and last-minute changes due to the weather, because you'll have planned everything considering you may not be able to go outside.

The reign of chiaroscuro

During the 2024 season, I discovered and deeply fell in love with chiaroscuro. For a long time, I considered it had no place in my practice, as it didn't fit into what I believed at the time to be the codes of “Fine Art” wedding photography. In the end, these particular images crept into my reportages when I was shooting indoors, and couples started to ask for them, making them an unmissable part of my work (as long as the venue allows me to shoot indoors). It turns out that the particular atmosphere also perfectly matches the mood of winter weddings.

Chiaroscuro - at least in the way I personally aim to achieve it - means playing with light and shadow in a setting that's as minimalist and/or timeless as possible, to create images that seem ageless, inspired by both old photographs and paintings. These images are shot exclusively indoors. An ancient château, a Parisian hotel - all it takes is a little architecture, heavy curtains and a window to create that special atmosphere. In the high season, I set aside some sequences dedicated to this type of image for brides and grooms who wish to do so, but they are necessarily limited, as most of the day takes place outdoors. If you opt for a winter wedding that takes place exclusively indoors, you'll be able to get more shots of this type, giving your entire photo reportage a special, timeless vibe I simply adore.

The downsides of autumn and winter weddings (from a photographer's perspective)

The light

In France, it's during the low season that the winter solstice occurs, i.e. the shortest day of the year, when the length of the night is longest.

Simply put, the closer your wedding date is to the summer solstice, the longer you get to enjoy daylight. On the other side, if your wedding takes place shortly before or after the winter solstice, you'll have to deal with the darkness that falls in the late afternoon. This is obviously something to bear in mind, as most wedding photographers who promote their work on social networks (myself included) highlight shots taken during the day.

If you're getting married in winter, you'll have a majority of photos taken indoors (unless you and your guests are all highly motivated and determined to camp outside despite the hostile temperatures!) with, on the one hand, less light and, on the other, more constraining light.

Which brings me to a second very important point to consider:

The impact of the season on photo rendering

I've written several articles about different approaches and retouching in wedding photography. I've already mentioned chiaroscuro, but let's talk a little about the quality of the outside light and the possibilities you have - and don't have - depending on the season.

Winter light, that famous low-angled golden light favored by photographers, is by definition further removed from the soft-white-diffuse light found in Fine Art photos taken outdoors, because it creates stretched shadows and ochre and golden reflections. This particular light should be taken into account if you have a very precise idea of what you want to achieve in terms of photo rendering.

When looking for your photographer, do try to find images taken in the conditions you imagine for your wedding. Projecting yourself into a summer wedding in Italy, if you're planning to get married in December in a Parisian hotel wouldn't make sense: the light, the atmosphere, the outfits, the colors... You won't find anything like what you saw at your own wedding. You want to make sure the vibe you'd get with your pictures would match your dream-photos.

Not thinking about your images rendering before booking your photographer means you could actually make the wrong choice. We don't all have the same skills in such and such light conditions, because our tastes and experience push us towards what we like best. Winter weddings mean special, demanding shooting conditions: you want to make sure your photographer knows those conditions, understands them and can create the images you dream of.

The impact of the weather on the planning of your day

If you imagine your wedding as a hot summer's day, with people toasting barefoot as the sun goes down, then it's definitely best to avoid a December wedding (or one in the southern hemisphere at least).

The weather will naturally have to be taken into account, and you'll probably have to hold your cocktail in a covered or heated indoor space. Likewise, it's unlikely that you'll be able to hold a secular ceremony outdoors in the dead of winter... In short, you need to rethink your day's planning and adapt it to the weather you're expecting (nothing is never sure when it comes to the weather, but it is still safe to assume December and August won't allow the same outdoors activities).

The cold will also represent an additional constraint for you and your guests when it comes to outfits. God knows I love wedding dresses with sleeves, but you'll probably have to give up that pretty plunging halter top, or risk catching pneumonia.

I'll leave you on that very optimistic note, and I do hope I'll get more and more winter weddings in the upcoming years, so I can dive into my passion for chiaroscuro and soft lighting portraits.

You can contact me or see my portfolio on my website.

Manon