Tips for choosing your wedding colors

You might have already chosen your wedding dress, the food, the location (perhaps you’re going to somewhere like the admiral). But when it comes to styling your wedding, there is one key component that will tie all your details together and that is color. Color has the ability to dramatically influence the tone of your wedding and basically set the vibe. Establishing a color theme for your wedding is an important step in the planning process and one that must not be taken lightly. As such we’ve put together a list of handy tips that will have you on your way to creating a winning color combination, sure to impress your guests.

Know your stuff

To get your color combination right, you’ll need to do some research and understand the relationship between colors and how they work together. You don’t need to be an expert, you just need to have a basic understanding of which colors complement one another and which ones clash. Remember learning the color wheel back in school? Why not revisit that.

Get Inspired

Not sure where to start? Look for inspiration for your wedding color theme by scouring bridal magazines, websites and social media tools. Pinterest is the perfect place to start your search with an ever expanding catalogue of wedding images at your fingertips. Browsing Pinterest you are guaranteed to find images of wedding shoots, real life weddings and styling advice from wedding professionals. You’ll then be able to see which color palettes have worked and which ones you like most.

Consider Your Venue

Ideally you should have a color theme in mind as soon as you select your venue. In the same way that you will want to select a beautiful venue for your special day, the colour theme of your wedding is just as important. Your wedding ceremony and reception venue is probably the biggest factor when it comes to deciding your color theme. This is because you need to set a tone for your wedding that reflects the ambiance of your venue and creates some consistency. For instance a beach wedding will have a completely different feel to a formal city wedding or compared to a rustic wedding at Brookwood Camps
and your color theme needs to match this. Think a color palette of blue, white and yellow for a beach wedding while a combination of white, black and gold will be best suited to a city venue.

Time of Year

Much like your venue selection, the time of year that you will be marrying will also have an effect on your color theme. For instance fall wedding colors can be quite different to spring wedding colors so this will need to be considered during your planning stages. More specifically a palette of bright, bold tropical colors works for summer wedding colors while darker, rich tones are better suited to winter wedding color palettes. Bear in mind that you are not constrained by the seasons, you might like to style your wedding with a blend of romantic pastels and lovely neutrals which will work for any time of the year.

Implementing your color scheme

How and where you incorporate your color scheme is purely up to you. If you already have it selected your color theme can be included in your save the date cards and formal wedding invitations. For the ceremony, you can choose to implement one of your colors in the bridesmaid’s dresses, have them feature in your bouquet, or even by decorating the aisle with candles, flowers or petals. Depending on your wedding style you could even include comfy cushions of differing colors for the comfort of your guests. While at your reception, your table décor is probably the easiest way to highlight your color palette with your wedding stationery and accessories (table numbers, place cards, menu cards etc.), vases, flowers, and your wedding favors all simple options for featuring a color scheme. Additionally you could include a color coordinated candy bar for your guests to enjoy. The décor and styling of your wedding will depend on your overarching theme whether it is rustic, beach, formal or vintage, each will require different elements and the options are truly endless.

Keep it Simple

The best way to incorporate your color palette is to do so subtly. You don’t want to overload your guests with copious splashes of color all competing for your attention. Finer details and delicate hints of color will implore your guests to peruse your decorating touches in greater depth, which they are likely to appreciate more. You should also limit the number of colors you wish to include. Generally 3-4 colors work well, any more and your décor can get a little crazy and lose that timeless and elegant appeal each wedding has.

Guest post by Kristi Charter

‘Kristi Charter is a passionate freelance writer, inspired by all that is beautiful, fresh and creative. With a keen interest in the wedding industry and a wide array of knowledge, Kristi is a regular blogger for Giant Invitations’