Color Your Wedding / 1

“What are your wedding colors?”

I must have answered that a million times when planning my own wedding. My answer, “mainly eggplant and light gray with accent colors of red, ivory, and charcoal”, totally took people by surprise. I think they were expecting a two color answer. Like Tiffany blue and white. Or pink and yellow. Or the ever popular classic black and white.

I think two color answers are boring. Choosing all of your wedding decor based on two colors creates a flat, uninteresting style. Pink bridesmaids dresses, pink invites, pink cake, pink peonies, pink shoes, pink uplighting. YAWN. I’m sleeping.

Sure, a strict two color palette does make things easier. Just pick everything pink and you’re done. Without a design eye, it’s difficult and overwhelming to choose more than two colors that go together without creating an event that looks like a rainbow festival. Honestly, rainbow festivals are rad, but I’m thinking not all of you want this look. This is the first in a series of Color Palette posts to make the process of picking wedding colors much, much easier and be sure that all your decor will coordinate.

Here’s my secret formula for creating a wedding palette:

1. Create a Design Board that visually depicts the look, feeling, decor, and colors of a wedding. For my clients, this is a lengthy process that includes a few rounds of options. For you, there is a mini Design Board attached to each Color Palette download.

2. Choose three main colors. These are the colors that will be used most for the wedding. They’ll be represented in the invites, bridal party, flowers, and tablescapes, to name a few.

3. Choose three accent colors. These coordinate with the three main colors. Use them in the calligraphy, table numbers, signage, ribbons, accent flowers, etc.

4. Choose a texture. Weathered wood, steel, shiny plastic, glitter, ripped up book pages, linen, burlap. These are all examples of great textures. What you choose will impact how your wedding decor visually feels. Meaning, chalkboard creates a more rustic feeling than laser cut acrylic. Satin tablecloths are much more fancy than linen ones.

You can use the above formula to make your own palette or download one that I’ll create for you! Every week I’ll post a new color palette for you to download, print, email, send, messenger pigeon to your florist, wedding party, baker, caterer, mother-in-law.

Here’s how they work:

• Right click and Save As. Each palette is sized to printout on 8.5″ x 11″ paper.
• Instead of trying to explain to your cake baker and florist what your colors are, send them the Color Palette image. Everyone will be on the same page about colors and all your decor will coordinate.
• Write or type your info at the top before sending to your vendors.
• Use the three big color chips as your main colors, the next three smaller color chips as accents, and the chip on the far right as your texture.
• The palette is meant to be used as a guide. Because of the color calibration across different computers, phones, tablets, and printers, the colors will not look exactly the same on all devices. For example, neon pink will look great on screen, but it will look dull when printed on a home printer. It’s a good idea to give the colors names on your palette, like mustard yellow, to further explain to others what the correct color is.

Image credits, left to right: DesignLoveFest, chromaa, @ilovemartine

Pin this image to your wedding inspiration board, download and print, email to your vendors, or just stare at it lovingly. Pick your poison and have fun designing your wedding! More palettes coming soon. Have a special request? Like, you really want to use purple and black but don’t know how to make it look springy? Email me at Michelle@michelleedgemont.com and I’ll make one custom for you in an upcoming post.

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