the journal

One of the most important decisions you make for your wedding is colors! The colors you choose will determine your bouquet, bridesmaid dresses, decor and even the groom’s and groomsmen attire. But before you finalize your wedding colors, the are a few things you’ll need to consider.

~ 1st The Venue ~ You have to decide where you want your wedding or reception to be so you can complement the colors you choose with your venue. For example, if you decide to have your wedding outdoors on a beautiful lawn with already landscaped areas, you’ll want your wedding colors to complement what’s already there. You won’t want to use lime green because it would clash with the lawn. Or if you have your wedding in a simple white walled venue, you can be a little more creative with your colors.

~ 2nd The dress ~ If your dress is white, you won’t want to use cream as your neutral. If your dress is light blue, you won’t want to use that same shade of blue for anything else.

~ 3rd The cohesion ~ You need to make sure that the colors you choose actually look good together! This is something I struggled with when I got married. I had really specific ideas in mind for colors. I wanted green, blush, and mint. And those colors DON’T go together. So, I had to be really strategic in picking shades of each of those colors so they would actually look good together. I ended up picking olive green, light mint, and peach. These colors all had the same tint to them so they actually went quite well together. Another way to see if your colors go together is to get a color wheel! If the colors you want are opposite of each other on the wheel, then they should complement each other.

~ 4th The neutrals ~ Focus on 1 neutral. Beige, navy, cream, white or black. If you choose black, you won’t want to use dark brown or navy as well. These colors are too similar and they will just end up looking misplaced and the navy or brown could be mistaken for just dirty black. And you don’t want anyone thinking that the tablecloth especially, is dirty. You’ll want to decide if you want a light and bright feel, or a dark and moody feel. Beige, navy and black are perfect for dark and moody. Cream, white and beige are perfect for light and bright! You’ll also want the neutral you choose to complement the other main colors. Since the colors I chose for my wedding were a little muted and mostly light, I chose cream for my neutral. However, if the colors you chose were burgundy and forest green, black would bring them together creating a classy, elegant feel.

~ 5th The number ~ Ideally, 3 colors and a neutral is perfect! In my case, the 3 colors I chose were different, but still cohesive so if I added even 1 more color, it would have been a nightmare to look at! However, if you choose similar colors, all shades of grays and golds, you can have up to 7 colors and still make it look cohesive. You don’t want to choose 3 completely different bright colors because then you’re overstimulated every time you look at those together. Trust me, your guests will thank you if your colors are cohesive. And you’ll thank yourself every time you look back at your wedding images.

~ 6th The future ~ For my wedding, I hand-made a lot of things. I chose to do my own projects and I had a lot of special and sentimental items after my wedding. I put them all away for a while and then decided I wanted to display them in my home. I want to be able to look at them every day and remember the feelings I had on my wedding day. So, while you’re picking your colors, make sure it’s a color you can live with forever. I really love bright teal! But I don’t love it all the time. And I would HATE it in my living room. But I love olive green and it looks beautiful in my living room. It’s a color that every single time I look at, I love, unlike teal.