Weddingbee Blog

I have a secret, dear bees. You aren’t my first. There was something else before you. You see, before I was a Weddingbee blogger, I was a design blogger. My love of color had me poring over my paint fan decks just days after we got engaged. I was in search of inspiration for a color scheme.

Just days after getting engaged, we were being asked questions about our date, our venue, my dress, and all kinds of details that we hadn’t even thought about. I thought that if we made one decision, we’d feel a little less pressure to have answers for all those questions we were getting.

I eventually pulled together a selection of blues and blue-greens from Pantone’s Matching System Chart, the PMS, and showed them to Mr. Mink. His response: “Cool.”

From the Pantone Matching System Chart at cal-print.com

I then started looking at wedding blogs for real weddings that used those colors. I also found myself looking at the special occasion dresses on the J.Crew and Ann Taylor websites. At J.Crew “Matisse Blue” jumped out at me, and at Ann Taylor “Plume” felt just right.

Bridesmaids in Plume dresses by Ann Taylor / Photo by Sarah Postma Photography

After some more searching, I realized that three of my design-blogging friends had considered using the same color. One found it especially hard to find anything that matched the J.Crew dresses I loved. She wound up using navy blue as the main color in her wedding color scheme.

Bridesmaids in Matisse Blue dresses by J.Crew / Photo by Jodi Miller Photography

I had to decide whether to stick with the blue I loved or switch to something that would be more common. Teal was considered one of the hot colors for 2012 by Michelle at My Personal Artist, so I was pretty sure I’d be able to find coordinating items like invitations and linens if I used that. Blue was all over wedding magazines and blogs already, so I knew my options would be plentiful if I went with that.

Mr. Mink told me he liked all the blues and that I should go with whatever I wanted, which is a nice thing to say to someone with four fan decks in her hands, convinced that making this decision was critical to the wedding-planning mission.

What would you do? Would you stick with the uncommon color you love or switch to a color that was easier to match?

How did you pick a color to use in your wedding (or how are you doing it currently)? Did you know what you wanted from the start or did the color scheme evolve?