If you are planning a rustic winter wedding, you may be considering how to give the event a cozy, warm, and welcoming feel. Even with the most beautiful rustic lodge or barn, there are a few finishing touches you can use to make the space look the way you've envisioned it. Here are a few ideas you can use as you plan your rustic winter wedding.

Bathe The Room In Soft Light

Whether you use candles or strings of lights, adding plenty of soft light can help to give the space a more intimate and warm feel. Consider hanging strings of white lights across the head table, along any columns in the venue, and from the rafters. If your wedding venue allows candles, consider adding small votives to bowls of water at each table for a luminescent centerpiece option. You may even be able to bring in your own lighting fixtures, such as mini chandeliers. Talk to your wedding planner about your choice for lighting schemes to ensure your venue is bathed in the most beautiful light.

Decorate Naturally

Use seasonal items from nature to decorate the space and give it more of that rustic feel. Fill tall vases with pine cones and place them at each table instead of flowers for unique centerpieces. Consider sprinkling your buffet and cake table with more pine cones and some sprigs of holly. If your wedding will fall before Christmas, you can even decorate with Christmas trees for a beautiful finishing touch. This also gives you another way to bring more sparkling lights into the room.

Turn Favors Into Holiday Gifts

Take advantage of the holiday season and have each of your party favors wrapped and placed at each table setting. Use brown mailing paper and twine to give each gift more of a rustic feel, and use stamps with the initials of you and your spouse to add a decorative touch to each favor. You can extend this idea to the wedding cake as well by using gift boxes trimmed with red-and-green plaid ribbon to send leftover cake home with guests. Decorate the room with empty boxes wrapped in country-themed wrapping paper. This is a particularly fun idea if your rustic winter wedding has a Christmas theme to it as well. 

Work with your wedding planner to make sure you have the right venue for your rustic winter wedding, and then get started on adding all the decorations.