The Winter Wedding Feast - What to Serve in December, January and February

Every year a few couples ask me, half apologising, whether we do winter weddings. We do. I would go further: a wedding in January, with a fire the size of a car and a dark sky and a menu built for the cold, is one of the best things we do all year.

The trend reports for 2027 all say the same thing about food: the formal three-course wedding breakfast is giving way to something warmer and more generous, served to the table on boards, with an Italian feel to it. That style was invented for winter. Here is what it looks like from the fire, and the two practical things to know before you book.

The Larder in Winter

People assume winter is a thin time for ingredients. It is the opposite. The game season is at its peak. The roots and brassicas are sweetest after a frost. Citrus is in. And everything that has been preserved, cured, pickled and smoked through the autumn is ready.

• Venison: Red and fallow in the first half of winter, roe towards the end. Haunch over oak for the table, loin seared for the drinks reception
• Pheasant, partridge, wild duck: In season until the end of January. Cooked right, nothing is more wintry
• Beef: A whole rib of beef on the cross is a winter centrepiece that silences a room
• Roots and brassicas: Celeriac, parsnip, Jerusalem artichoke, sprouts on the stalk charred over embers, red cabbage braised in a pot at the fire's edge
• Citrus, quince, dried fruit, chestnuts: The sweet and sharp things that cut through the richness

A Winter Wedding Menu

This is from a wedding in a barn in Herefordshire in late January. Ninety guests, a fire outside under cover, the feast served at long tables inside.

Drinks reception, by the fire outside:

• Cups of venison and stout broth, hot, with a crust of bread
• Seared venison loin on toast with pickled blackberries
• Chestnut and sage arancini, fried at the fire
• Mulled cider from the pot

The feast, on boards to the table:

• Whole rib of beef, cooked over oak, carved at the fire and carried in
• Pheasant, the breasts pink and the legs slow-cooked in cider, on the same board
• Celeriac roasted whole in the embers, split and dressed with brown butter and hazelnut
• Charred sprouts with smoked bacon and chestnut
• Red cabbage braised with apple and juniper
• A potato and Jerusalem artichoke gratin from the fire
• Bread, salted butter, and a blackberry and sloe jus

Pudding:

• Sticky toffee pudding baked in cast iron in the embers, served hot with cold cream. In January there is no other answer

Look at what that menu is doing. Nothing cold. Nothing delicate. Everything is designed to be eaten in a barn in a coat, and to taste better for it. The autumn version of this is here; the difference is that winter leans heavier and darker.

The best drinks reception I have ever done was January, minus two, under a clear sky, with a hundred people standing round a fire holding cups of hot broth. Nobody wanted to go inside. That does not happen in July.
- Cai

The Thing on the Quote Nobody Expects

Two practical things, and then I will stop.

Heating. If your venue is a barn, a marquee or anything without proper heating, someone has to heat it, and in January that is not a small number. Heaters and the fuel for them typically add somewhere between £500 and £2,000 to the day, depending on the space. Ask the venue whether it is included. It often is not, and it often appears for the first time on a quote in November. A fire outside does not heat a marquee, however much people like to stand near it.

Daylight. In December the sun sets before four. That means the photographs happen early, the drinks reception happens in the dark, and the fire becomes the centre of the evening far sooner than in summer. Plan for it rather than fight it. The dark is the best thing about a winter wedding.

Why It Is Worth Doing

Venues are easier to get and usually cheaper between December and February. Suppliers, including us, have more room. Your guests are not juggling three other weddings the same month. And the food, if it is built for the season, is better than anything we can do in June.

If you are thinking about a winter date, talk to me. We have space in the first quarter of 2027, and I would like to cook you a sticky toffee pudding in the embers.