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Pretty early in the wedding-planning process, you need to nail down a color palette. True, this decision won’t necessarily have an impact on the other big-ticket decisions (such as date or ceremony/reception venue), but it shows up in almost every other decision you’ll make. You can’t pick bridesmaids’ dresses, table linens, boutonnieres, “mother of” attire, or centerpieces without knowing what colors you’re working with. Well, I guess you could pick all of your details without picking a specific color palette first, if you don’t mind having your wedding kind of resemble rainbow throw-up.
Image via Glitter Grahpics
To each their own, but I’m trying to avoid having anyone compare the look of my wedding to vomit. So, a well-defined color palette decision, it is!
As I launched into planning our wedding, I figured Mr. Snow Cone would be the typical backseat groom that I’ve always seen in movies and TV shows about weddings. You know the type—pretty much a magic 8-ball of supportive but nonchalant answers like “sounds good” and “whatever you want, honey.” I expected he’d want to be highly involved in certain aspects of the day, such as picking and sampling the menu, making bar selections, and other “dude-ly” tasks. I also expected that he’d be more than OK with me taking the driver’s seat with more of the detail-oriented, visual stuff, such as color palettes. I made the assumption that I would pick a color palette, tell him what I picked, and keep the ball rolling. Simple as that. When I started trying to envision what I wanted our wedding to look like, my brain immediately went to my favorite color combination of navy blue and sunny yellow. I had visions of this type of cheery, fun wedding:
Collage made by me. Sources, clockwise from top left: (1) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Lace/Hanky Photography / Bouquet by Flora Studio (2) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Red Fly Photography / Pomander by Blue Parrot Playa del Carmen (3) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Victoria Souza Photography / Bouquets by Hana Floral Design (4) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Heather Hughes Photography / Cake by Emily Uperti-Patti of Patti Cakes, Inc. (5) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Antonis Achilleos / Invitation by Kenzie Kate (6) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Antonis Achilleos / Bouquet by Beautiful Blooms (7) Image via TheKnot / Photo by DVB Photographers / Favor by Savannah Bee Company (8) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Evrim Icoz Photography
I was a little worried people would think we were having a Notre Dame and/or Pitt themed wedding, since coincidentally both schools’ colors are navy and gold/yellow; but, at the same time, I kept telling myself that having a wedding that just happened to be in our schools’ colors would be a reflection of us as a couple, which is what you strive for in wedding planning. It turns out that Mr. Snow Cone had the same concern; plus he was plus-minus on the blue and minus-minus on the yellow. Not quite the reaction I was going for.
Attempt #2: I refused to give up on my beloved yellow. I thought if I masked it with another bright, strong color, he might be more of a fan. So, I tried purple and yellow. Not necessarily one of the first color combinations that comes to mind when you think of “awesome colors that go together, especially for weddings” (at least not for me), but I was pleasantly surprised about how the color inspiration board turned out—dramatic but still upbeat and fun.
Collage made by me. Sources, clockwise from top left: (1) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Ann Hamilton Photographer (2) Image via TheKnot / Photo by L’amour de Vie / Flowers by DesignWorks by Dave and Mike (3) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Halberg Photographers / Rentals by Fusion Linens (4) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Missy Photography / Favors by The Knot Wedding Shop (5) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Nelson Photography / Program by Paper & Inklings (6) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Borrowed Blue Photography (7) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Ian Johnson & David White (8) Image via TheKnot / Photo by VUE Photography / Flowers by Twigs
Mr. Snow Cone’s response? He really liked the purple, but didn’t fall for my attempts to sneak yellow into the palette. To him, this color combination looked like a Minnesota Vikings themed wedding, and I couldn’t really disagree with him on that.
Image via Chris Snider Design
Purple and yellow? Officially a no-go.
Attempt #3: Peacock-inspired color palette. No feathers would necessarily have to be included, since it wouldn’t be a peacock-themed wedding, but if they wriggled their way in there, so be it. I mostly was envisioning pretty shades of purple, teal, apple green, navy, and the like:
Collage made by me. Sources, clockwise from top left: (1) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Captivated Images / Boutonniere by Carol Gary at Dayspring Designs (2) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Phase 3 Photography / Flowers by The Urban Blossom Floral (3) Image via Bright by Black (4) Image via Formal-Invitations (5) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Melissa Grimes-Guy Photography / Program by More Than Words Fine Paper (6) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Melissa Grimes-Guy Photography / Program by More Than Words Fine Paper (7) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Goen South (8) Image via TheKnot / Photo by Therese Marie Wagner Photography / Cake by Carlo’s Bake Shop
His response: a hesitant “As long as there are no feathers involved…” Once again, not quite what I was hoping to hear. Adios, peacock colors!
Synopsis: After creating these inspiration boards, we managed to give yellow the axe and agree that purple was probably a good choice, but we definitely weren’t anywhere close to picking any sort of accent colors. I was surprised at how active and opinionated Mr. Snow Cone was during this color-selection process. Apparently pop culture was off-base as it conditioned me for 22 years to expect to pick my favorite colors and be done with it; it was kind of a hard day for me to realize that my countless hours of vegging out in front of the TV may not have been the best preparation for the real world. Although we didn’t land on an exact palette the first, second, or third try, we were honing in on a winner. Fortunately for us, a lucky Google search gave us the answers we were looking for…
…to be continued!
Did you have a groom-to-be who was active in the decision-making process? How did that impact your planning progress?
We actually went with our college colors, heh. We both went to colleges that were Purple and Gold and loved how they looked together! Plus it’s a nod to the schools that shaped us and had an impact on us meeting. 
Can’t wait to see what colors you guys picked!
Our colour palette was surprisingly easy. FI said he wanted to wear a red tie and a grey suit (still trying to talk him into a black or darker suit) and so our colours are red, black and white. So simple, so Swiss… FI’s nationality. If we do use grey… red and grey are my alma mater. Win-win!
Plus I keep reminding FI that HE chose the wedding colours. 
One of our colors is Mr. H’s school colors, but luckily we each got to have a color we liked best, and they work well together!
That purple + yellow inspiration board is so fun! Mr. Tartlet’s been very active in the decision-making, but he left the color palette to me since he identifies colors in very general terms (e.g. pink = red, blue = purple). 
When I originally envisioned it, I was picturing navy and silver, but we are having a themed wedding, so our main color (lime) was already decided. We agreed that black and white would be the best combination for a bright main color. Grooms are always shown in that “hands-off” way on TV, but the truth is that some can be just as hands-on in the decision-making process as the bride. I got lucky and my fiance is very involved!
Ohhh, the first board with “navy” is similar to ours…except we’re doing royal blue, ivory, and greens. The picture with the bridesmaid dresses and hydrangea flowers was on my inspiration board and is almost exactly how my girls are going to look! =)
I wanted purple originally, but FI said no purple or pink…so blue it was!
Ha! The first time I approached the topic of colors with Mr. Lox he told me I was silly and we didn’t need them. I find waiting a few weeks and approaching from a different angle sometimes yeilds results. The next time I snuck up on him with pink and orange (orange being his favorite color) and I emerged victorious!
I’m having the same problem. I started with gray, which he nixed. Then it was pink and orange, but at the last minute he started adding in more colors! Like aqua! And gray again! And what about brown!? And green! Now I’m so sick of pink and orange I could spit pink and orange. So now we have pink, orange, and gray.
Mr. E actually had a pretty big say in the colors for the wedding. We ended up going with both of our favorite colors.
Oh my gosh I struggled with color palette!!! My groom-to-be wasn’t so opinonated with the colors…he’s color blind, but I still ran everything by him. He’s not a detail guy but a big picture guy so I have to work on giving him the big picture.
I love bright colors like pink, orange and yellow. Since you liked the purple I am dying to see what you paired it with.
I had trouble too! I really like maroon and purple (not necessarily together) and he was all for blue and green. So we compromised and ended up with blues and purples (I’m not trying to be consistent with the shades, that’s just too much work). And I love it.
My original color-theme vision was lavender and chocolate, and Mr. Crown requested that since our date is on July 4th, that the colors reflect the sparks that will indeed be flying that evening. So we collaborated and came up with lavender (my favorite color) and silver (to signify the fireworks). In the end, it’s all about how the two people involved collaborate, negotiate and compromise…a very good practice for larger, more important decisions after the wedding.
when I asked my FI about our theme color, he said ” you choose whatever you like” he does not understand the importance of it, looking back, most of the flowers that he sent me on important occasions were pink roses, and we decided to add some light purple and gray
i’m not sure he currently knows our colors… although i’ve told him hundreds of times! I LOVE sunflowers so color 1 is yellow… he LOVES the Yankees so navy blue is our 2nd color… we’re too far from Indiana for it to be associated with Notre Dame so we’re in the clear… you can live through me. my invitations are almost finished so you can check them out in my gallery
Can’t wait to see what you come up with! I love all of your inspiration boards. Mr. Seal is pretty much one of those, “whatever you’d like, honey” kinda guys, but he does occasionally catch me off-guard With the colors, he was cool with whatevs.
I started out as a peacock themed bride which FI didn’t quite understand and thought he had to wear feathers but I wanted to place emphasis on the purple and gold and with peacock usually being blue and green I nixed that idea
so now we are ivory and old gold with purple accents and he still does not understand the concept or color scheme and continuously asks me where’s he going to find a purple tux *sigh*
I WISH my FI didn’t care about making decisions for the wedding. He didn’t care about the colors - red, white, and black was my choice. However, he cares about the STDs, the invites, and even the stupid card box. REALLY!? He also insisted on tons of candles and a smores bar.
We had some trouble agreeing on colors as well. My FI has been pretty opinionated since we started planning our wedding. Not that I’m complaining, but he’s certainly not making it easy on me! We started with navy and light blue, but I actually axed that idea since it clashes too much with our ballroom. Navy and green, heck no he said. Then I fell in love with navy and blush, which worked great with our ballroom, but he hated the pink. Finally, I showed him navy and light purple, which also works with our room, and he loved it too. So finally, our colors are navy, light purple and touches of ivory.
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Mrs. Snow Cone, Pittsburgh/Johnstown, PA Age and Occupation: 23, Public Health Graduate Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Engineer Engagement Date: April 9, 2010 Wedding Date: August 2011 Venue: OMOS Church ceremony/Sunnehanna Country Club reception About Me: I’m one of the lucky ones---I met my future husband at the ripe old age of 13, started dating him as a mature woman of 15, and have been enjoying the ride ever since. Here we are, 8 years later, living in Pittsburgh, planning a "homestination" wedding in the place our school romance began---Johnstown, PA. I thrive on talking a mile a minute, eating my weight in chocolate, and internet shopping. I love a lengthy to-do list almost as much as I love a healthy amount of chaos in my life. Mr. Snow Cone and I watch countless episodes of Friends and The West Wing on repeat, root for rival college sports teams, and make each other laugh each and every day. We’re putting together a small-town wedding with a big personality and a classically modern (or modernly classic?) look for 250 of our closest family and friends. It’s been 8+ years in the making, and sometimes I still can’t believe I’m finally getting to marry my high school sweetheart!
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