Wedding Blog
Dear Weddingbee,
Your site has become my daily obsession and source of wedding knowledge. I was wondering if you could help me and other brides with a discussion about wedding colors. I’m sure this probably sounds really simplistic, I mean, I don’t know how many brides have this problem…but, well, I’m having some difficulty envisioning the color of my wedding! So far my invitations are cream and aqua- but how does this translate to flowers and table settings? (Aqua in large doses can run the risk of looking tacky).
So, can you discuss colors (coordinating colors, color combinations, popular seasonal colors, etc.) in future postings? I would really appreciate it. Thank you for your consideration.
Cindy
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Help with color schemes is one of the most common questions we get here at weddingbee, so I thought we’d have a little contest about them! Leave a comment suggesting any color scheme, and we’ll pick one winner at random at 12 pm tomorrow. You can enter more than once, but that will not increase your chances of winning. 
The winner will receive a Yasmena wristlet sport bag (similar to Cindy’s color scheme coincidentally ;)) - perfect for travelling or carrying on a jog.
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Share this post: Color Schemes Contest
We’re doing a cobalt blue as the main color (bridesmaids dresses, ties, etc.) and going with a sunflower yellow as the supporting color. (Fiance’s favorite flower is the sunflower)
one of my favorites that I’ve seen done is a spring green (not lime green, more muted) for dresses, ties, ribbons, etc., with a bright coral orange for flowers and accents. very fresh and vibrant without being gaudy. great for summer weddings.
Chartreuse, chocolate brown, ivory and an injection of orange in the floral arrangements. It’s a fall wedding and I didn’t want to go the traditional color route!
I’ve found that a great way to find good color schemes is to go to a paper (http://www.hollanders.com/) or fabric store and pick out some pieces in the colors you like.
I love bird-of-paradise flowers, so we’re doing an orange and lime green (sounds so tacky! i love it). I like the orange and green as accents only, so I’m thinking of picking out the bridesmaid dresses in either cream/gold or black.
i’m doing a variation of the traditional brown and pink… I’m doing a deep espresso brown with a bright coral pink. I really wanted brown and since our wedding is in May… so we decided on the coral pink accents for the spring. It’s funny how the different shades of brown can work for all seasons… when traditionally it was more of a fall color.
we are going with a fall theme for our september wedding. bm dresses are brown with a hint of teal our flowers will be a mixture of oranges, some foliage and some brown pod like things. And my dress is light gold/champaigne colored.
sunflower yellow, dark chocolate brown, ivory, and olive green, inspired from a pillow at crate and barrel. wanted to have a fall wedding without the typical fall colors. it’s usually pretty warm in so. cal during early oct. anyways, so went with the beautiful yellow (my favorite color). 
I would suggest going with the season…For Fall….mine would be brown and pink. Pink to add a little pizzazzzzzzzz.
Sky Blue and Mango Orange! Perfect for our tropical wedding. =o) Plus, they are my favorite colors.
http://www.weddingbee.com/2006/05/19/aqua-tumblers/
You can do all white/creme flowers and or yellow. That would look nice with your projected color scheme.
if its a summer wedding, aqua and minty green would look adorable. with hydrangea( in those color combo) as centerpiece floral. i love to use hydrangeas because they’re so colorful and has a wide range of color combos possible.
for tables, cream base table covers for each table and have aqua and minty green contrasters on top. put a mirror on the center of the table with lots of small votives tied w/ matching ribbons, and then hydrangea centerpiece. hmm…
we did pink and brown, loved it. but now i’m working on my best friend’s wedding and her colors are light blue and light yellow. impossible!
i’d use the aqua in small touches, like ribbons around the bouquet; monograms on stationary items; napkins on tables, but not tableclothes… that sort of thing.
i also like using tiny touches of red with aqua. v interesting look, i think.
Two of my friends did navy blue bridesmaid dresses and orange flowers (orange roses for their bouquets). It was so pretty!
I’m doing sage green for BM dresses, table runners, etc. with fuschia flowers that should really pop in our tropical setting!
We had a fuschia and orange wedding. I think picking colors can be a tricky thing because there are many factors to consider-What time of year, time of day, the formality etc. Colors evoke a mood just as themes do. If you are going with aqua, finding flowers to match will be challenging. Have you considered black and white with aqua accents if it is a evening wedding? I also think that teal and aqua are an excellent pair for any time of day. Good luck!
my best friend is doing chocolate brown and teal. we found bm dresses in brown with a teal sash that really pops and looks nice together. so we’re probably going to go with white or cream hydrangeas as the main flowers and just add accent colors from there
for our october wedding, i really wanted chocolate brown as my primary color…
… for my secondary colors, i didn’t want to go with pink b/c i felt like it was so common. so i picked lilac/lavender with some light green accents - a great tip is to go to the home depot and pick out paint swatches to see all the different shades of each color.
my BM dresses are tea length chocolate brown and for the flowers, we’re going with purple hydrangeas, sterling roses, freesias… and for the light green accents we’re adding light green cymbidium orchids and light green cala lilies.
for our GM, we thought that brown vests/ties would be too dark next to their black tuxes, so we’re having them wear the dark lilac vests/ties from afterhours.
Here’s a bio on The Knot devoted to Aqua weddings. I’m sure it’ll give you some ideas. http://www.theknot.com/co_profileview.htm?profilename=AquaBrideBio
Personally though, I’d just go with the creme and aqua and maybe some touches chocolate brown.
We’re a fall wedding, and our colors are a rusty reddish orange, ivory, and gold. Our MOH dress will either be gold or rust, and the flowers are burnt orange callas, and various leafy-things.
Ocean blue/Champagne/Peach and some white accents for a fresh summer wedding.
We haven’t decided on a venue, so it’s a little hard to pick colors. One we thought of that would be so pretty is sky blue and apple green.
Champagne, ivory and Chocolate brown - with blush and celadon accents….BM dresses are champagne and chocolate, my dress is ivory, all linens will be ivory champagne/gold neutrals. The flowers will mostly be ivory and blush (peonies, orchids, lilies of the valley) with a few green berries here and there……..
I’m not married nor am I engaged but I read Weddingbee religiously when I’m at work and have never really thought about or envisioned my own wedding until I started reading Weddingbee!
The only thing I knew since I was young was that I wanted my wedding colors to be lavender and silver but after seeing so many different color combinations, I believe I’d have to rethink that!
Lately, I’ve been really into bold, bright colors. I think with aqua, some shade of bright pink would match, like coral pink or a more tame version of magenta or hot pink. This would be great for a spring/summer wedding. This was mentioned above already but if you are having a fall/winter wedding, I think a spring green would totally work. Like a more dull version of lime green. And then maybe add some brown in to make it more fall-y.
For flowers, I personally think any colored flowers would look great! Who doesn’t like flowers?? If you happen to have a great florist, I think you should pick out your favorite flowers and leave the rest to her/him. I’m sure you could find aqua vases to put the flowers in and a tie a ribbon of your other color around the vases.
They aren’t my colors, but I think a deep aubergine, with an apple green and champagne would be fabulous.
Hi Cindy!
I’d do cream, aqua, and navy blue - the navy will balance the aqua and make things look a little more serious and sophisticated, while the aqua will keep things light and fun. If you want another accent color, either silver or gold would work well.
For flowers, I’d do mostly cream flowers with some aqua ones (dyed carnations maybe?), accented with navy ribbons. For table settings, cream tablecloths with 1/2 the napkins aqua, 1/2 navy - the alternating look is gorgeous!
Bridesmaids I would put in navy with aqua sashes and shoes. You could wear aqua shoes as well - what a lovely touch!
Guys could wear cream shirts with their suits or tuxes, with black ties and aqua pocket squares.
Good luck with your planning!
I searched in the Wedding Bee archives and found that there are two articles written regarding Color Schemes - part one
http://www.weddingbee.com/2006/03/20/color-scheme-part-i
and part two
http://www.weddingbee.com/2006/03/21/color-schemes-part-ii
If you want something a little busier but still look great you can check out Color Wheel Pro for their theory on the “basics”.
http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-theory-basics.html
I personally like complementary colors over monochromatic so here are my suggestions:
Spring - aqua, yellow, white, and a hint of red/pink. a daisy comes to mind.
Summer - aqua, orange, white - think bird of paradise and clear blue waters where you can see the ocean floor.
Fall - definitely something earthy. here your choice of color should be primary while the aqua should be secondary because it is more of a spring/summer color. Maybe chocolate, ivory, or even a rusty orange.
Winter - have you seen Disney’s Cinderella? If I remember correctly, there was a lot of white and light blue (you can substitute with aqua), with hints of silver, gold, ivory, and red. Take into account that that you don’t have to use all the colors, just whatever you feel is best for you and your wedding.
Happy Planning!
My colors are champagne, golds, and ivory. Very simple, classic elegance. This helps with pearls, warm candlelight, and beautiful bright colors in the flowers that pop in photos.
I think for Aqua, you should use the complimentary colors of cream, chocolate brown and mint green…
Personally, I envision deep red, mango orange, and fushcia… mixed in with choc brown and cream. But maybe thats too much goin on??
I’ve always loved purple, so I want to use that in my wedding next August. I’m considering Grey & Lavendar, they would compliment nicely
Good Luck!
I’m going for a end-of-summer-beginning-of- fall thing for my mid September wedding. The colors will be light yellow-green and burgandy, kind of like a changing apple.
I like the more teal that leans towards the green instead of blue with ivory/champagne and chocolate brown. Its timeless with a hint of fun and trendiness. Maybe even mix in a little coral.
We picked pale pink because of the bridesmaids dresses. I went to the Watters and Watters sample sale so I had to just go with whatever color they had. I never envisioned myself to be a girl with so much pink in her wedding, but it’s turning out to be very pretty. We also went with a dark burgandy (I know pink and red don’t usually go together) because I think red roses at weddings are so classy looking. Then to compliment the burgandy and pink, I chose silver. Interesting combination, I know
We are doing dark burgandy/oxblood, pear green and silver. Ivory/off white will be in there as well for all the background stuff, but my theory is (except for the bridemaids dresses) that I won’t be picky about the exact shade of any of the colors - so they will go but not look too flat. Shades, tones and luster can and will vary in each item.
I think my color scheme is very unique - although it is starting to get trendy - it is turquoise (not tiffany blue, not aqua) and chocolate with hints of chartreuse (from the flowers). The turquoise is a deep turquoise, like peacock blue. My bridesmaids are wearing turquoise saris (indian clothes) with brown blouses, my chairs are dark brown chivaris with turquoise cushions, my flowers are all light green. My linens are chocolate and copper pintucks, turquoise napkins, turquoise votives. I also have invites those colors, and turquoise petal cones with brown ribbon.
I love turquoise and didn’t want to use traditional fall colors even though I’m getting married in the fall and wanted something bright - I got the color combo from my Coach purse:)
you: what about doing cream and aqua and throwing in a chocolate brown for contrast. you could do cream flowers for the bouquets. the girls could be in aqua. and chocolate brown linens for the tables would make your cream & aqua centerpieces pop.
if you’d like to keep things light and airy- say a beach wedding, i would use champagne instead of chocolate brown. soothing and beautiful.
me: for our nov. wedding we have soft white invites printed with a dark brown metallic ink with chocolate brown inner envelopes.
fallish-champange dresses for the girls. we will be carrying deep red peonies. the linens will be chocolate brown and we’ll have gold chivari chairs. so our colors are champagne, gold, deep red and chocolate brown.
Our color scheme is a work in progress, but we’re thinking black and white with a range of vibrant green and touches of taupe and gold.
The taupe will be in our chuppah fabric and the poles will be gold. I am wearing an ivory dress with a taupe sash and gold jewelry and FI will wear a black tux with a taupe vest and bowtie. FI and I will have white flowers accented with taupe (ribbon), and the gms and bms will wear black and have green flowers accented with white (ribbon). We plan to do white and green centerpieces in glass vases.
Our color scheme has been a big point of contention because FI said ‘no way’ to pink and I was dying to do pale pink accents. I like green though, so we’re happy : )
With aqua I would definitely go with an orange that is more on the red side. Perhaps a coral. That would be it’s opposite on the color wheel. I think that would be appropriate for Spring, Summer, and even an early fall.
For fall and winter, a chocolate brown would like a little more appropriate.
My own colors are cobalt blue with silver and a touch of gold. My decorations fall along a celestial theme due to my love of stars. Flowers are almost impossible for this color combo. But we’re making it work!
We are doing a soft blue and ivory. We are having a fall wedding, but I wanted to do something different than fall colors. Plus, we are doing silk flowers, so that gave us a lot of color options!
I would say, don’t limit yourself. I think almost any color could work in any season.
We are doing lime green, red and yellow for our fall wedding. It sounds really bold, but we wanted it to be a lot of fun and use some funky flowers. Our sample centerpieces came out great, so i cant wait to see it all come alive.
Brown and Aqua seems to be a common pairing, but you could really use a wide range of colors whether you wanted to play it up and have something really vibrant or as you said, used the aqua as just an accent
i’m like L and while i’m not engaged, i love pretty things and thus read weddingbee a lot among other sites =)
i’m on a chocolate color kick right now. i love rich brown with anything…with mint, pink, yellow, orange, baby blue, deep blue…
or french blue with anything…pink, red, warm yellow..hehe
apartment therapy has great blogs on colors called color chips:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/color-chips/index
hope this helps you ladies =)
I wanted something elegant and timeless, so we’re using black with ivory and pale pink as accent colors. My dress is ivory with a hint of pale pink in the beading, and our bridesmaids will wear black dresses. The flowers will be cream and pale pink roses.
I’m not engaged yet but my two choices for color schemes will be navy and a pale yellow or champagne, or navy and pale pink, possibly with touches of bright pink, such as in the flowers. (Some bright pink peonies would be lovely.)
I’m thinking of champagne and slate blue. When choosing my color scheme, I found a picture that I really liked (in my case it is a landscape) and used the eyedropper in photoshop to select color.
I went and looked at scrapbook paper and picked a design that had colors I thought went well together, without being something that I’d seen a lot before. I ended up with olive green and orangey-red, with some lighter greens and ivory thrown in.
I first thought of the scene I wanted to create at the reception, then the colors that would go into it. Though it’s a late-spring wedding, it’s in the evening so I felt that we could go with more intense colors. So:
cobalt blue, silver, and ivory, with black and light blue accents.
My dress is ivory and my bridesmaid is wearing blue (she hasn’t decided light blue or cobalt yet, and I don’t have a preference one way or the other). All our servingware at the reception is cobalt blue or silver, and we’re decorating with tulle and white twinkle lights. Our stationery is printed on light bleu paper with silver accents, black text, and cobalt envelope liners, and my bead bouquet (in leiu of flowers) contains light blue and cobalt blue Swarovski crystal beads.
Our colors are crimson and platinum (you know, red and silver!). I have found saying crimson really gets the color I want across…when I say red, people think fire engines.
I love this idea!!! I had a little bit of problem picking out my colors, until I wore an outfit one day. So you could say I inspired my own color scheme. TEEHEE.
The wedding will be the colors of turquoise and mocha. We’re having our wedding in January, so I didn’t want it to be too winter-y, so I chose a scheme that would be bright and warm at the same time.
The bridesmaids will be wearing turquoise dresses. I will have a turquoise sash tied around my dress for the reception. The girls will have flowers wrapped in sparkling white until the reception where the stems will be wrapped with mocha sashes. That’s how the colors will fit in - in a more subtle way.
Of course, there are other elements too, but the great thing about turquoise and mocha are that there are so many different combinations; and you don’t have to stick to one color! Varying shades is the new thing… for me anyway!!
nice contest idea! i think using one light color and one dark color for a color scheme works well, because it provides a really good contrast. also, limiting yourself to two colors works well because then it doesn’t get to hectic. that said, i think a pale olive green and a deep purple, or lavendar and a dark sage green is a good color combo.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! So many wonderful color combinations and ideas. What a treat it is to read everybody’s colorful suggestions.
Our colors are black and white. While you might think black and white how boring we absolutely love it. My gown even has black accents on it (maggie sottero’s mandalay) and was the inspiration for it all. How classic and cool.
The bridesmaids got to pick any black dress they wanted off j.crew.com and they all have black heels so that saved some $.
There will certainly be spots of brilliant colors..mainly the flowers insert here (gerber daiseys in popping pinks and reds) but black and white. Classic statement yet bold too. I like it!
I like the combination of black and gold for several reasons. First I think it looks really classy and chic, especially for a formal event or an evening wedding. Also, I thought it might be a fun option for me in the future as I met my boyfriend in college and those are our school colors. It would be fun for a lot of our guests who are also alumni.
as i only weight in at comment #53, i am sure someone already listed this, but i have always like navy and lavender.
chocolate and lavender work well too.
We first decided on pink and orange for our wedding, with accents in yellow or possibly green… After we’d discussed the yellow option I found pictures of a wedding in a magazine that were pink, orange, and green and loved it.
Being indecisive though and worrying that the colors may be too bright (I prefered softer colors while my fiance prefered brighter), we changed to blue and purple… In this case we both like the deeper shades… not navy blue, but just a deep shade… a purple with more of a blue undertone than a red (does that make sense?)… although I’m having a heck of a time finding a BM dress in either of these colors (esp. purple). Decorations like flowers I think will be more open to varying shades of these colors with white accents.
I am a gift consultant and work with a lot of couples on wedding favors, table settings, and other wedding related gifts. The one thing I would suggest for any color combo is to choose at least one popular foundation color that you can easily match (black, ivory, white, chocolate brown), so that you don’t run into problems when trying to coordinate linens, flowers, place settings and other details. From there, you can incorporate any variety of colors and be as creative as you want.
Personally, I’ve always liked really rich colors. Chocolate brown, copper and a pearlized champagne, with bold punches of a rust orange is my personal favorite color scheme. I’m a fan of incorporating textures as well as colors, using metallics, dupioni silks, brocades, or deep velvets throughout the color palette.
Dress: champagne/deep ivory with orange sash around waist and tying in back
Bridesmaid dresses: (Really) deep orange strapless
Invitations: Letterpressed ivory paper with chocolate text and orange decorative accents
Cake: Pearlized fondant with copper and orange
Flowers: Copper vases with ivory/champagne flowers
Etc, etc, etc….love putting together color combos!
plum, raspberry and green apple are my colors!
I’m obsessed with the purple category since I was a little girl =)
If it’s a Summer/Fall wedding, I would go with more bold colors such as purple (of course) and accent it with mint/light green.
If it’s a Spring wedding, I would go with lavendar and ivory for softer colors.
My wedding dress will definitely be lavendar =)
I need some help. I am getting married in late April and the bridesmaids are wearing navy blue springish style dresses. The wedding is at the beach and I am wondering what a good accent color would be?
I’m thinking a very pale yellow to go with navy blue, is that weird???
i like fuschia with navy blue…fuschia flowers against a navy dress would add spring flare
I am getting married in July and my bridesmaids will be wearing indigo dresses. I don’t really like blue flowers so we will be using plum/pink flowers, inspired by the plum heirloom rose. Check out knottie bella26 for how pink toned flowers look with a darker dress.
Ok…I agree with the pink or yellow…but what color shoes?
Two ideas:
-Chocolate Brown and Eggplant Purple
-Khaki and Eggplant Purple
I have decided on a champagne and gold combination for my color scheme .
This is for a wedding in December in India.
I would like to highlight this with a bright / warm color maybe like a grape fruit purple or an olive green..
Any suggestions
We have decided on Apple Green and Chocolate Brown. The green is a bright almost lime green (kind of like the border on this website) and it looks great with the chocolate/mocha color.
We have chosen to go with Choc. Brown/Yellow-Orange w/ Cream accents for our Sept. church wedding.
My dress: Ivory with silver accented beaded bodice.
GM: Choc. Brown Tux/Suit with cream vest Yellow-Orange Pocket Square to match my Autumn Rose hand tied Bouquet.
We are not having BM & GM only FL & RB (Our Kids) FG (Age 2 1/2) in Cream with Orange Sash -tossing dried petals (Autumn Rose) received as gifts from FI throughout relationship. RB (Age 6) in Brown Suit/Tux with orange vest and Cream Pocket Square.
Reception: Ivory on Choc. Brown Linens for the Buffet, Choc. Brown Runners on Ivory for the tables.
Centerpieces:Clear Vases with sliced oranges & Limes in the vases tied with Brown Ribbon w/ Cream Flowers… I Love this!! They Look Better that they sound.
I have a WHITE dress and not sure what colors to put the whole wedding party in. My FH will wear a black suit but what color should he wear? I wanted Chocolate/Ivory for my colors. I have a mixture for my flowers, champagne, brown, burnt orange and deep red. Red is out of the question for the bridal party.
I wanted my MOH to wear champagne or brown but both or our mothers want to wear brown so I don’t know what to do. I think that will be too much brown. I don’t really have a color scheme other than autumn colors. Our linens will be Ivory, and I have ivory and chocolate organza bags for the tables for favors.
So, my question is what colors should the bridal party and family all be in? I was thinking FH in black suit with all white since I am wearing a white dress??? Please HELP!
Cindy
We are using eggplant for the bridesmaid dresses and table runners. The flowers will be a mixture of raspberry, deep red and ivory. Accents of silver.
We are having a spring wedding and are using chocolate brown, sage, and I was thinking of using hints of light pink.
We are using chocolate brown as it seems that it’s become the “black” of spring.
invitations will be chocolate brown pocketfolders with sage ribbon and mats.
bridesmaids will wear chocolate brown dresses with sage sashes or sage dresses with chocolate brown sashes.
flowers will be natural whites and maybe hints of pink.
ribbons for favors, etc will be sage.
Because i want my wedding to have a timeless elegance, we are using navy blue with silver accent for the main colors.
However, it is going to be in October so I wanted to add a touch of autumn colors as well. So the flowers are going to be red, orange and yellow.
hello I have a question myself my wedding is september 09 and my colors were originall black white and silver a classic loved it but my dress will be ivory so that wouldn’t work..So now I have gone with champagne ivory and a hint of sage how do you thunk that would look my BM will be in a champagne dress with ivory sashes and my FH will be on ivory the GM will be in ivory do you think if i incorporate the sage ivory and champagne with the GM I could pull it off for example there vest attire Help I need a theme too.lanyone can email me at mskkgolden@yahoo.com with suggestions and the wedding will be putside to!
The combination of aqua, copper and off white.
Copper because it represents rustic strength no frills, it represents my financé, who is a no nonsense kind of man.
Off White because it represents the fragility of the moment, and tradition.
Aqua because it represents water, motion and change.
Thanks
we’re having an vintage art deco ‘theme’ wedding; i am slightly afraid it will look too theme-like. our reception is at an avaiation museum so im goig wth a lavender/violet, silver (perfect with the vintage airplanes on display) and cream.
We are using the color combination of Champagne, Ivory and Sage green as the accent color, We are having a September wedding and the colors are not to dark and will accent the weather at that time. The colors are simple yet Elegant once placed with one another.
My dress is Ivory , My bridesmaids will be in Champagne dresses with a hint of Ivory with my Fi and our boys in Ivory suits and Champagne vests. The GM in Black with the Sage green vests. My adorable flower girl will be in an Ivory dress portraying the princess that she is.
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Mrs. Bee, New York
Age and Occupation: 29, Weddingbee Publisher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Internet
Engagement Date: May 7, 2004
Wedding Date: March 5, 2005
Venue: Westside Loft, New York
About Me: Yes, my name really is Bee! I love my blogging, wikis, and tabasco sauce!
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