Cold hands, warm heart as wild winter wedding trend heats up

When you think of destination weddings, you might think about warmer climates — like Dominican Republic, Mexico, or Jamaica.

But it turns out Newfoundland is pretty popular. And in the winter, to boot.

Alex Stead is a St. John's-based wedding photographer who has thousands of followers on Facebook and Instagram, where she posts some of her stunning wedding shots.

In recent years, she's noticed an increase in the number of clients looking for a winter wedding.

"I think people are seeing the photos of the really romantic, cozy weddings and they just want the same thing," she said.

"Over the past, say, five years it's definitely become more of a trend."

One of those brides is Hilary Butler, who said "I do" on New Year's Eve.

A self-described winter person, Butler thought the Christmas season was a great time for a wedding, since so many people are already travelling home for the holidays.

Plus, it made for a truly special photo shoot.

"It was just really, really magical. The day that we got married it was this softly falling snow and walking around it felt like a bit of a fairy tale," she said.

"The weather in the summertime is beautiful and bright and it's a whole other look, but there's just something really … it was a fairy-tale-like quality that you get in the wintertime."

Challenges 'you just gotta roll with'

But there's no denying that winter weddings present specific weather-related challenges, says Andrea Hounsell, a wedding planner with Borrowed & Blu.

"You just need to make sure that everyone's kind of close-ish to the wedding venue on the day of in case there's crazy snow, and you keep an eye out for those things kind of ahead of the wedding day to make sure all the pertinent vendors are fairly close," said Hounsell.

"We just make sure we have backup generators on call. We've done weddings through DarkNL … it turned out great in the end, but there was lots of things that of course didn't go according to plan."

And of course, Newfoundland and Labrador weather is unpredictable all year round, warns photographer Stead.

"I shot a wedding on Lumsden Beach two years ago where it was –2 C in July and all the guests were wearing coats, and Hilary's wedding New Year's Eve was warmer," she said.

"So you really can't plan for heat or cold. You just plan for the day that you want to marry your love and you just gotta roll with whatever you get."

It isn't necessarily cheaper to book in the winter months, but you'll probably have more options and more flexible schedules of available vendors.

The biggest bit of advice for anyone planning nuptials in the winter months is to just roll with the punches, added Stead.

"Next month I'm going to Fogo Island for a wedding. It's a couple that are not from here, they want this really wild isolated winter wedding, so they have their date picked but it's super flexible," she said.

"I'm planning on going over for four days and they're gonna be there for four days, and they'll just get married on the nicest day, whereas if they were coming in July that would just not even be an option."