I love color. I have written so many posts about how to choose your wedding colors, how to pull off a rainbow colored wedding, and even persuading brides to try unusual color choices, such as orange. My own wedding was full of different color choices – sapphire blue with accents of fall leaf colors red, orange, and yellow. If I felt I could get away with more, I would have! One thing I remember when planning my wedding, and that I have noticed for brides currently planning theirs, is hard decisions about where to use your beautiful color palette.
It’s hard to choose where to use the different colors you choose. Sometimes palettes complement each other perfectly while other times (like mine) the color arrangement can get tricky. You also don’t want to use too much of one color so that it overshadows your others, or use each color equally to the point where it’s painful to look at it. When choosing how to balance your colors, break your elements down.
Start with the wedding party. Give each member of your wedding party (even the groomsmen!) room to play around with your colors and their personality. Have bridesmaids choose their favorite colors out of your palette and chooses dresses in those colors. Make sure the shades complement each other well. You can also do the opposite and choose your main shade for all bridesmaids to wear, but let them choose their own dress styles. Accent with the remaining wedding colors in their bouquets.
Do the same with the groomsmen’s vests, ties, bow ties, and boutonnieres, but not all at once! Choose one part of the suit to have the different wedding colors, then make the rest of the suit neutral. You can play it safe by having elements of all your wedding colors in the boutonnieres, but make sure it does not contrast his assigned shade. To make your groom stand out, assign him the shade that matches your wedding dress and give him a pop of all your wedding colors in a single boutonniere.
Your wedding invitations are a great way to experiment with using your color. You will quickly decide what your main shade is and what the accent colors will be. Whether you meet with an invitation designer or design your own, balancing the colors on the invitation using common sense will help you figure out how to balance the colors throughout the rest of your wedding.
Involve your wedding colors in your bouquet! Many brides are going for the one-color bouquet, but you can highlight all of the beautiful shades in your palette in the bouquet. Work with your florist to build a bouquet of different flowers that incorporate all your shades in a balanced way. Neutral accents are a great way to achieve the desired color balance.
There are A LOT of elements in the venue decor and that can be overwhelming when trying to balance your shades. It is very easy to go overboard. I highly recommend choosing a neutral color for your tablecloths. This gives you more room to play with color on smaller pieces that won’t overwhelm the eyes of your guests. However, stay away from white unless white is one of your main colors. White tablecloths are bright and will distract from your other colors. Choose black, gray, or beige instead as a base to build your canvas.
Your dessert table and wedding cake is another beautiful way to display your colors. Your main color should be the icing on the wedding cake and the main color of the dessert table, whether it be the linens, bowls and platter, or the food itself. Accent the table and the actual desserts with your complementary colors in a smooth and pleasing way.
