Planning a wedding can be an overwhelming process, but making sure you’re excited about every detail is what will make your day so special! One of the first steps you should take while wedding planning is to pick your wedding colors, but this decision is easier said than done. After all, the colors you choose will determine so many other decorative details for your wedding – table linens, flowers, wedding party attire, as well as your custom wedding invitations and wedding day stationery. A carefully chosen color palette can make such a difference when creating a cohesive aesthetic for your wedding, so follow our guide to find the colors that feel perfect for your personal style as a couple. (Free resource down below!)
A Quick Note
You may be wondering how many colors your color palette should have. The ideal wedding color palette is somewhere between three and five colors. When there are hundreds of colors to choose from, narrowing down to just a few might seem difficult, but it’s an important decision to make. Too many colors in your palette will make everything seem disjointed. If your linens, wedding party attire, wedding stationery, and flowers are all different colors, your wedding could start to look messy and uncoordinated. But, you also don’t want to choose less than three colors, since this could leave you with too few options in the later stages of wedding planning. By choosing between three to five colors for your wedding, you’ll be able to create a beautiful overall look in every aspect of your special day.
Getting Started
The first thing you should think about when trying to decide your colors is if you have anything in mind already. Do you know that you want one of your colors to be a light blue or a pale green? If you know that there’s a certain color that you just have to have in your wedding aesthetic, then this is a good place to start. Find some swatches of the color you have in mind to get a good idea about what types of shades you’d like to use for your wedding. (see resource below) Choosing a base color that will be used most prominently throughout your wedding can be really helpful in deciding which colors you’ll use as accents. The most important part of finding a base color is to make sure it’s a color you genuinely love!
Consider Your Venue
Now that you have a color or a few colors in mind, think about what your wedding venue looks like. Visualize the inside of the venue – are the walls covered in ornate wallpaper? Are you getting married in a log cabin? Is it a barn? All of these are important to think about when choosing your colors. The existing details of your venue should influence which colors you decide to use. Certain venues that are less detailed, such as outdoor tents or other neutral spaces, will make the choice much easier than venues that are already decorated, such as hotels or restaurants. If one of your initial colors doesn’t work well with the venue, then you know that you can eliminate it from your palette. Using your venue as a source of inspiration for your color palette will help to set the tone for the wedding, and should definitely be considered when selecting colors.
Consider the Season
Another way to help determine what your final color palette might look like is to consider the season in which you’re getting married. Of course, you don’t have to choose tones that match up with the season of your wedding, but it can be helpful in making a decision about which colors you want to use. Some colors just really make you think about certain times of the year. Dark purples, blues, and jewel-toned greens are often used in late-fall and winter weddings, since they fit in with cool weather surroundings like snow or changing leaves. You’ll see a lot of bright colors for summer weddings, since they fit in with excitement and high energy events that are often associated with the summer. Pastels are commonly used in springtime weddings, since more muted colors are used in spring celebrations.
Don’t feel like you have to choose colors that go with the season of your wedding. If you want to use darker colors in the summer, that’s fine too, as long as what you choose works well with your venue and other wedding details. Focusing on what you’re drawn to is important since it’s your special day!
Consider the Style You Want
The type of style you’re going for at your wedding will probably fall in line with the venue you choose, but it can be another important factor in choosing your colors. If you’re going for an elegant, sophisticated theme, you’d want to choose whites, ivory, or beige as a part of your color palettes rather than bright colors. If you’re hosting a beachfront wedding, you might prefer a color palette that feels a bit more nautical, with colors like navy blue, green, or coral. If you’re looking for a more rustic theme, adding earthy tones like cream or tan to yellows and white will give you this look. Your venue will probably influence the style of your wedding, so the colors you decide on should also reflect this style.
Consider Using Gradients
If you’re having a hard time choosing colors that look good together, think about using different hues of the same color. Sticking with one color and creating an ombré color palette can give you a beautiful style for your wedding. Using three or four shades of green can create a great vibe for your wedding just as three or four different colors can. Whether you can’t decide on accent colors or you just really love one color, know that you can use different shades of the same color to create a gorgeous palette for your wedding.
Consider Your Vendors
Once you think you’ve figured out your color palette, make sure to contact your vendors. Talk with them to make sure the colors you’ve chosen can be included in each detail of your wedding. For example, if you’ve chosen a palette with deep purples and greens, make sure to contact your vendors to be sure that each of them can incorporate your colors into their products. At Beechtree Design, in Cinnaminson, NJ, we’re always able to take your colors and incorporate them into your custom wedding invitations, save the dates, and wedding day stationery so that you get to keep the perfect color palette for you.
Choose What Makes You Happy
By using these suggestions to guide your decision about a color palette, we know that you’ll be able to create the perfect wedding aesthetic for your special day. Whether your color palette be bright colors or more muted tones, or whether your venue is a blank canvas or an ornate ballroom, know that these tips will help you find the perfect colors for you.
Choosing your colors is a tough decision, but whatever you choose will be a reflection of who you are as a couple, so it’s important to pick colors that mean something to you. When you think back on your wedding day, you want to be sure every detail is remembered fondly, so choose colors that make you happy.
Have any questions about your colors or what they might look like on your custom wedding stationery? Contact us at:
Our favorite place for color inspiration: https://www.design-seeds.com/
