Christmas Wedding Themes: Christmas Inspirations

If you are looking for some inspiration to decide on a Christmas wedding theme that you can pull off with do-it-yourself Christmas decorations, put the book Christmas Inspirations: Practical ideas for creating beautiful gifts and decorations for the holiday season on your check-it-out list.

Unlike typical books on craft Christmas decorations, there aren’t any templates or step-by-step photos and the scant abbreviated instructions are lacking in sufficient detail in some cases so as to likely leave an inexperienced crafter scratching his or her head. Fortunately, many of the potential Christmas wedding theme decorations shown in Christmas Inspirations are also well treated in other books on craft Christmas decorations, a couple of which are listed at the end of this article.

The first four chapters cover different Christmas holiday decorating themes that can provide an adaptable thematic framework for a wedding ceremony and/or reception. These styles and inspirations include traditional style, Nordic style, contemporary whites and contemporary brights. Each of the first four chapters delivers a high-level examination of each style, presenting the basic look-and-feel concepts behind the different schemes.

Accompanying full-color photos, both overview and up-close detail, drive home the ideas and descriptions given in the text. Subsequent chapters deliver more specific focus on using handmade do-it-yourself Christmas decorations or craft Christmas decorations fashioned from store-bought items to bring the appropriate aesthetic details to every corner of the home. Of course, they also make terrific Christmas wedding decoration ideas.

For a Christmassy Victorian wedding theme, the traditional style Christmas decorating scheme will create the look you want. As explained on page 10, the traditional American Christmas with its focus on a palette of “rich reds, dark forest greens, and bold plaids” can be traced to the influence of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert when an December 1848 engraving depicted the couple in front of a Christmas tree adorned with “gilt gingerbread and on each tier there were at least 12 candles.” Alternatively, as noted by the authors on page 13: If a color scheme based on reds and greens seems too ordinary, you could replace them with rich jewel colors such as purples, deep berry pinks, and inky blues to lend the look a more contemporary edge.

One Christmas holiday decorating theme for a wedding you probably had not thought of – I know I did not – is the Nordic style, with reliance upon “candlelight and…sweetly scented flowers and simple red and white decorations.” By adopting the Nordic style’s tenor, you can come up with all sorts of ways to decorate for the wedding reception and/or a ceremony using a red and white theme.

The accompanying photo on page 16 provides ample do-it-yourself red and white wedding decorating ideas for wedding reception table decoration. For instance, it shows what would be wonderful wedding reception centerpieces consisting of classically elegant white vases containing “an arrangement of bare twigs and glossy red berries…decorated with wooden angels, stars, and hearts.”

For more of a purely white wedding theme that is still Christmassy, turn to page 22 where the chapter “contemporary whites” offers insight on how to successfully pull it off. The photos readily convey “the concept of a chic contemporary Christmas.” Many easy and inexpensive do-it-yourself ways to decorate for the wedding reception and/or a ceremony with an all-white scheme brings you fresh perspectives. As explained on page 25: Texture and variety of tone are the key to success of a one-color theme.

A couple of wedding reception table centerpiece decoration ideas of understated grace and elegance are found in this chapter. One – shown on page 22 - is an arrangement of white taper candles jammed into white sand along with iridescent glass baubles on a chic triangular pewter platter that sits on a bed of white-sprayed fir branches. The other – shown on page 24 – combines arrangements of whitened twigs protruding from beds of white feathers with arrangements of four white altar candles nestled amid iridescent glass baubles.

The final Christmas wedding theme inspiration proffered in the book is the “contemporary brights” scheme in which “vibrant colors can make Christmas stylish and funky as well as festive.” Vibrant colored decorations that mix bold stripes and solids as demonstrated in the accompanying photos can lead to a unique wedding theme for Christmastime nuptials.

One unique wedding reception centerpiece idea shown in the photo on page 28 is to arrange mini mincemeat pies on a plate, jam a pastel candle into each pie, and light up the candles. Another unique wedding reception decoration idea that is particularly artsy is the sculptural armature wire “tree” decorated with “a collection of multicolored baubles suspended on lengths of fine wire or bright ribbon” shown on page 29.

Recommended Supplemental Resources:

The Spirit of Christmas Book Twenty

The Ultimate Handcrafted Christmas: 200 decorations, gifts, cards and treats to make for a perfect Christmas