A December wedding in a country house has one real problem: the light goes at four. Everything else follows from that.

We moved the ceremony to one in the afternoon so the vows and the photographs happened in daylight, then let the rest of the day turn inward — candles, long tables, a fire in the great hall, and a menu built for a cold evening rather than a summer one.

The couple had been told a winter wedding would feel smaller. It did not. It felt closer, which is a different thing, and it cost noticeably less than the same wedding in July.