It's impossible to know what decor to choose before you even know what colour scheme you're working with! If you've decided on a specific theme for your wedding, then this might be a lot easier, but if not, how do you choose? Here are some useful tips to bear in mind when deciding on a colour palette.
Think About Your Venue
At this stage, I'm hoping you'll have booked your venue (and if not, then I strongly recommend you choose your venue before you worry about your colour palette). How your venue looks will play a huge part in your chosen colour scheme. Have a look around the main areas and see if there are any prominent colours. Your reception might be taking place in a room that is painted powder blue, in which case, perhaps bringing together different shades of blue would work perfectly.
Perhaps your venue is a completely blank canvas, with white walls and wooden floors. If this is the case then you have free rein to do whatever you please! Sometimes if a venue is too bare, it might be nice to bring in some bright pops of colour. In other cases, you might feel there is already plenty of character in a venue space, and want to keep your palette neutral so as not to make the room too busy.
Looking at your venue is the best starting point, so if you can't remember exactly what it looked like, then book another viewing and take plenty of photos!
What Is The Time Of year?
It sounds like an obvious one, but the different seasons come with their own colour palettes. For example, we should all know by now that autumn is full of reds, burnt orange, copper and browns, mimicking the colours of the leaves and general nature at that time of year. This means that by following these patterns, we can also be in sinc with nature and match the beauties of outdoors as well as our indoor spaces.
Winter is a perfect opportunity for deep reds, gold and warmer colours. Summer on the other hand is the time for bright, vibrant colours, and I think that Spring is a lovely time for pastels and muted colours. In my opinion, the all year rounders, are nudes and champagne gold. Adding a touch of luxery, you can't go wrong with these classics.
Despite all of this, if you really want to showcase bright pink in December, then absolutely go for it. These aren't rules, just tips of guidance for what tends works well.
What Feeling Do You Want To Create?
I think if you're really looking to acheive a more sophisticated feel, then keeping your colours a little more subtle and understated is the way forward. Pale pinks, peaches, nudes, light browns, are all colours that sit more within the relms of elegance.
If you'd like your wedding to scream FUN, then dare to choose those bright, in-your-face colours, like orange, hot pink and yellow - all the happy colours you love to see.
Perhaps you've chosen a more specific theme, like the 1920s style Great Gatsby. For this you'd really want to home in on the glitz and glamour, and cover the place in gold, with black and white as your base colours.
Maybe you're a absolute nature lover, and you want to bring the outside in to give your guests that wild experience. For this, green and browns would be a perfect match. You could hire in tonnes of plants, perhaps even put your bridesmaids in beautiful sage green dresses and have accent of light brown within the decor.
What Do You Already Love?
Do you have a favourite flower? Does everybody know when it comes to your birthday, they can't go wrong with buying you a bunch of red roses? Then why not use that as a basis for you palette? It's much easier to acknowledge these things early on to use as a starting point, than try to incorperate it further down the line when you've already booked the purple linen.
Have a look around your home. What colours are you naturally drwan to in day to day life? If your living room is super industrial looking, then why not bring that into your wedding and look at using woods, black metals and copper within your decor? You might only have to look in your wardrobe to realise that blue is your absolute vibe. Well include it in your wedding and surround yourself with a sea of blue.
Clashing Opinions With The Other Half?
Now, while all of this might be useful to you when figuring out the best colours for you, that doesn't necessarily mean your other half will agree. They might HATE red roses, or your favourite shade of pink. Unless your partner is really unfussed, I don't think it's fair for one of you to love the wedding design, while the other is cringing at the sight of orange all day. You need to reach a compromise, and often, combining your two favourite colours isn't always going to work.
It might not be your favourite, but try to find a colour you both like, or keep it really simple by choosing those timeless, subtle colours I mentioned earlier. If you already live together, you must have come to some kind of agreement on your interiors, so definitely look around the house for inspiration to remind yourself of what makes you both happy.
Final Thoughts...
It's important to choose your colour palette early on, so turn the telly off one evening and have the coversation with your Fiance until you come up with a good vision. Pinterest is a great place to browse for inspo and you can see how other couples have made different colour palettes work. You're bound to find something you both like, and from here you can get cracking on the rest of the design.
If you're struggling to bring your ideas together, I offer a design and styling service, where following a consultation call, I create you a detailed design brief for you to refer back to and send to suppliers as a vision board. Feel free to drop me an email for more information!
XxxFJ.
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