Wedding Colors - A Solution to a Rainbow of Endless Inspiration

How many times have you changed your mind about your wedding color scheme? I have changed my idea for colors for our wedding, reception, ceremony, invitations (etc etc) countless times in my head…and in actuality (like telling other people) twice. But given that I’ve only been planning this wedding since about September and that it is happening in February – I can only imagine the amount of times other Brides must change their inspiration and color scheme for weddings that they’ve been planning for a year or more.

Seems like “what are your colors?” is almost everyone’s favorite question to ask. It’s right up there with, “did you get your dress yet? What’s it look like?” Your wedding colors affect everything, from the invitations, centerpieces, altar décor and anything else that could stand for a little style and aesthetics (i.e. everything). So how do you do it? How do you decide which color palette to go by for your wedding?

Is it as easy as picking you and your fiance’s favorite color? Are your colors inspired by the season, i.e. winter whites and blues, shimmering summer pinks and yellows; or are they inspired by a theme, like an icy blue winter wonderland or maybe Kelly green and navy blue for a prepster-inspired wedding.

Here’s how I did it (no fancy math involved or fantasy inspiration). I started first with my favorite color, purple, and then I thought about how purple signifies the gemstone for February, Amethyst which gave me an idea to look at the other birthdays and anniversaries shared by my fiancé and me. My birthday in July signifies Ruby and his, June, the Pearl (or white). Looking at so many sparkly and precious gemstones, I found so many that I loved in addition to the Regal Purple and Ruby Red and chose sapphire blue, emerald, onyx and pink sapphire. I was inspired even more and took our color scheme a final step further and gave it an overarching title of “Jewel Toned” in color and theme for our wedding.

I was off and ready to create all sorts of ideas based on “our colors” now. My maid of honor wanted to wear black (there was our Onyx); the banquet chairs at our venue were sapphire blue, the tablecloths a standard white (Pearl sounds waaay better!) and I figured the flowers and centerpieces could be a mix of the gorgeous purples, reds and pinks of our other color choices. Everything was going great, until I started to get stumped on how to bring the colors together for the rest of the reception and ceremony décor and I broke one of the cardinal sins of wedding planning.

Wedding Planning No-No #1: Once you’ve decided on a color scheme, so not go looking at other colors and their inspiration boards.

Sure enough, looking at all the other inspiration boards across the web and in other couples’ weddings posted everywhere from Martha Stewart to Wedding Bee and everywhere in between, I began to second-guess our own “Jewel-Toned” wedding. With two months to go, what did I do? Panic.

But fret not. With blogs and social boards, you can consult with your fellow brides about almost anything, including choosing a color palette. Being one of the most indecisive people know, I took my dilemma to the  Wedding Bee, set up a virtual poll and asked my fellow bees which color scheme they would prefer for a winter wedding: Jewel Toned Purple, Green, Blue, Pink and Red; Purple and Red; Plum and Blush; Purple, Fuchsia, Blue and Pink; Purple, Burgundy, Peach, Cream; or Purple, Navy, Blush and Red.

The voting helped out a little but still was not finite. Bees had a strong opinion (50%) in favor of the Plum and Blush palette; but I was not fully convinced. Maybe I wanted to combine a little of all of them together? Maybe I wanted one palette for the ceremony and another for the reception? I continued to collect countless inspiration boards found on the web, gathering pictures and ideas from Pin Interest, Martha Stewart and many Real world weddings. Somewhere in my travels, I stumbled across a color palette generator based on your favorite pictures and I knew I had to look no further.

Big Huge Labs is the DIY wedding planners dream color palette creator and best of all, it’s soo simple! How it works: Upload your favorite inspiration picture to its site and within seconds, Big Huge Labs creates a palette out of the colors in that very picture!

After doing this with several of my favorite wedding inspiration boards, I am now fully convinced that I want our wedding to be in the Plum and Blush color scheme with secondary colors in blues, creams, silvers and a hint of gold and peach.

Need help creating your own Color Palette for your wedding, other event or even a home decorating project? Check out the Color Palette Generator at: http://bighugelabs.com/colors.php

So fun, helpful and inspiring!

So, what are your colors for your wedding and how did you choose them?

Wedding Centerpieces - From Big Ideas to Small Budgets

Trying to decide what to do for that fabulous, eye-catching centerpiece? Here are some of the invaluable resources I have used for inspiration in my own DIY wedding décor.

I wish this was the first article I read when trying to plan and organize the decorations at our reception; but better late than never. Stacy at Favor Ideas is an artiste when it comes to wedding centerpieces, giving everyone that visits her site feedback, critiques, inspiration and links with pictures! She was a tremendous sounding board and help to me.

Stacy’s article on choosing and creating an elegant yet do-able DIY centerpiece is perfectly laid on, from choosing the basic guts of your reception’s focal point to the tiniest of details of what will surround your centerpiece.  Here is her fabulous article on centerpieces, Want 10 New Centerpiece Ideas in the Next Five Minutes? It will guide you from idea to innovation, helping you to find the perfect supplies, at the right price, personalizing every inch of your centerpiece to really make it your own and of course, making it super gorgeous. Check it out!

Here’s another resource I found (based on Stacy’s suggested links and pictures) that will give you pictures of many (many, many) centerpiece samples you can try at home:

http://www.chateauatforestpark.com/rentals2/Centerpieces_1.html

And, what would a DIY article be without a link to the Wedding Bee and its own section on centerpieces. Find out what other Brides are showcasing at their reception and get real feedback on your own DIY  ideas and trials.  

http://diy.weddingbee.com/category/centerpiece

Have fun and share with me what you did. I love to see what others’ are doing for their big day decor. It’s great inspiration!

Centerpieces that Flower, Sparkle and Pop! - My first DIY project!!

These jewel toned centerpieces maximize flowers, dimaonds and gorgeous colors. I was really surprised at how simple this creative and elegant centerpiece option turned out to be. I’ve been scouring every DIY, vintage and budget friendly web site and book out there for wedding centerpiece ideas and I came across some very helpful advice on how to cut costs on your wedding tablescapes. To maximize your dollar without sacrificing your décor, it suggested emphasizing your use of flowers and candles. Now, I’m not talking about going to a wedding specialty flower shop - Not to say that you might not find a fabulous deal at your local florist or even better, your local grocery superstore’s flower section -  but this particular DIY project focuses on faux flowers and how to make them sparkle and pop with rhinestones, ribbon and lots of color.

I found this fabulous idea from another DIY-er Bride on the budget-friendly web site, Wedding Bee. Her centerpieces were Pink and black damask with a long dangling onyx (looking) gem in the center. When I saw how gorgeous her flowers had turned out, I just knew I had to try it for myself.

So far I have created 1 Purple, 1 Fuchsia and 1 White one and my goal is to create at least one more each of the purple and fuchsia and maybe add some red ones too.

Each centerpiece took me about 20 minutes to a half hour and I’d estimate that each one cost me about 6 dollars and 15 cents to make. I found ALL my supplies at the dollar store (except the glue which was at Walmart). Not bad, for a wedding centerpiece, huh? The Dollar Store has literally become my go-to for all things wedding and DIY related.

Here is what I used for each one:

1 Glass Vase - $1.00

3 Flower Bushes (7 stems in each; your choice of color and type) - $3.00

1 Foam Floral insert (same width as the mouth of your vase) - $1.00

1 Colors Wide Ribbon with Wire (I used a sparkly sheer Silver) - $0.10

1 Color Satin Ribbon (I chose a majestic purple to match the dark purple roses) - $0.10

1/2 of a Dangling, sparkly earring set - $0.50

Clear Aqua Gems (or your choice of vase filler) - $0.25

12-18 Rhinestones in your choice of color (I chose purple to match the ribbon) - $0.10

Hot Glue/E6000 (Any adhesive that will stick to glass and fabric) $0.10

I would love some opinions on what you think of my centerpieces so far? Also, I am thinking about adding a few things to these centerpieces – like a few feathers mixed in with the flowers, alternated with rhinestone headpins. These centerpieces will also be surround by short votives, diamond confetti (and possibly more flower petals). What do you think?

You can see there is lots of room to customize the centerpieces to suit your taste in flowers, colors, wedding themes and jewelry preferences. Share with me what you plan to make!

Day Dreaming About Weddings: What Inspires You?

The first thing I did after my fiancé and I committed to a reception/ceremony place and a date was to start brainstorming for the color and theme of our wedding. Being my first (and hopefully, only) wedding to plan, I was pretty new to all the different ideas and ambiences that can become the inspiration for one’s big day décor. Since we’re getting married in February, I started to envision snowflakes, aqua or light blue, silver and white. I came up with the overall idea of “Winter Wonderland”. Sure enough I soon found out this was not such an original idea. So back to the drawing board I went.

After visiting the historic inn we chose to get married at and meeting our coordinator and contact there, she suggested we think of using bright colors in our décor, from the tablecloths to the flowers and everything in between. This really got me thinking and I started to come up with a few ideas….

Being the romantic dreamer I tend to be, I started to envision bright jewel tone colors and everything gleaming and sparkling. I wondered how I could tie these all. My first thoughts went to the importance of birthdays, anniversaries and the gorgeous gemstones that represent these celebrations. This gave me Ruby Red, Amethyst, Pearl and Opal to work with. From here I took my own direction and combined my favorite color (Fuchsia) with bold and bright jewel tones (Majestic Purple, Emerald Green, Sapphire and Claret Red) and traditional wedding images (Winter White and Silver) and I came up with the basic set of colors to represent our day.

The next thing I did (and continue to do) was scour the web for some real life weddings, centerpiece ideas and DIY decorations. As you might imagine, the resources are virtually limitless. From Crafty brides to Bees and DIY divas alike, ladies getting ready to tie the knot around the world are posting their DIY projects complete with pictures, sources of inspirations, directions and more! From easy to difficult, inexpensive to costly and the most simple the most elaborate, there is a DIY project for every bride out there. I know it has given me a huge helping hand.

Here are just a few of the images that I have seen, loved and used to create my own inspiration board.

My reception decoration ideas so far: DIY flower pomanders with swan feathers peeking out atop a medium height hurricane vase bejeweled in satin ribbons and rhinestones; candy dishes filled with candles and pearls; bling bling DIY napkin rings with rhinestone jewels and a feather and of course more bling - diamond and pearl confetti with rose petals strewn about the tables; and petals surrounding them atop a sea of alternating table runners in sapphire blue, emerald green, claret red and majestic purple. Hanging above? Chandeliers with dangling gems cascading off them and fun tissue paper pomanders floating in the sky.  Glammed out table numbers featuring postcards of Hollywood’s hotlist of the past encased in bejeweled silver frames; and for favors, I have cute little Swan basins that I might add a DIY shiny touch of silver paint to and filled with scrumptious candies, like M&Ms or the classic Jordan almonds. Look for future posts featuring my DIY work and progress!

What inspires you? Share your own links, pictures and whatever else inspires you here!