Choosing the colour theme for your wedding
Colour evokes a mood, sets a scene and makes the world beautiful. Nature does it so well and may inspire you to hold your wedding out of doors or in a weathered barn.
Or if you want a more sophisticated feel to your special day you may chose a Country Club or elegant hotel as the venue for your ceremony and celebrations.
Whatever your choice the decor and feel of the venue will influence your choice of colour theme for your special day and in turn dictate the colour of your bridesmaids’ dresses, the flowers, and even the colour of your groom’s tie.
Your choice of colour should ideally influence your mother’s choice of colour for her outfit.
Wedding etiquette is that the mother of the bride should choose the colour of her outfit before the mother of the groom but after the bridesmaids – whose colour is chosen by the bride.
The two mothers should confer bearing in mind you will all appear in photos together and it’s important not to clash or unbalance the group. If the bride is having a vintage wedding influenced by the soft colours of wild flowers, she will not want to see a pop of electric blue or orange on one of the mothers’ dresses in her photos. And photos last well beyond the wedding day and can make or break the memory of that special day.
Pippa Middleton’s wedding is a perfect example of how to get it right. Pippa’s flower girls wore ivory silk dresses with dusky pink sashes echoing the pale pink and soft white flowers around the church door; her sister the Duchess of Cambridge was careful not to upstage her sister on her special day choosing a demure Alexander McQueen dress in the same dusky pink; while her mother Carol wore a Catherine Walker pale pink coat accessorised with dusky pink shoes and clutch bag.
The mother of the groom, Jane Matthews, got it right too by wearing a pale aqua shade and green heels and clutch ensemble that neither completely contrasted nor too actively matched the in-laws.
You don’t have to have a big budget to develop a colour theme that brings everything together in a very special way.
Last year at The National Wedding Show I met Karen who was looking for her mother of bride outfit. Her daughter was having an Easter Day wedding in this country and had chosen purples and lilacs as the colour theme.
Unusually, her daughter wanted her mother’s dress to be very close in colour to her bridesmaid dress. Luckily it was a shade Karen looked good in and was perfect for an Easter Day wedding.
Later when I received a wedding group photo I was so impressed with how beautifully co ordinated the wedding looked.
Another mother of the bride, Lea, who came to me a few years ago, was faced with a different challenge for her son’s Art Deco themed wedding as all the female guests had been asked to wear white – even though the bride was also wearing white. White is not a flattering colour for most women who reach mother of bride or groom age, so I suggested Lea should wear winter white/ivory which is softer and more flattering.
My advice to brides choosing a colour theme is not be over influenced by current trends which can be fleeting and date your wedding photos in a negative way. Instead choose colours you like and you know suit you – and remember sometimes you have to compromise.
When Carla, one of my brides, asked her wedding guests to wear black or white to compliment her red wedding dress, her 80 year old grandmother took a lot of persuading as in her world a powder blue suit was the order of the day.
As a designer colour is at the centre of my world. It is the starting point for my design work, shapes my living environment and how I see the world. I can help and support your choice of colour theme for your special day taking into account your colouring and complexion as well as your favourite colours and your venue. This will ensure colour works to maximum effect and you can relax and enjoy your special day.
But remember even on a shoestring budget, if you have a keen eye and some imagination you can still achieve a coordinated look for your wedding simply by copying colour themes from weddings in glossy magazines…
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