wedding color palette | Gilded Swan Paperie

There is no better way to convey your wedding day point of view than with a color story. That's my opinion anyway and I'm not changing it! I am a color enthusiast after all and it is what guides me throughout every single day. Colors are my "spirit guides" so to speak. And some people, simply do not care. I will never leave my house wearing beige, peach or pale yellow. It does not exist in my closet. Pink and green, teal and magenta, burgundy and forest... oh yes! But that's me, and not you. I'm also not a "pick a swatch" type of gal either. I'm a pain in the butt to my Painters. I have to mix two swatches to create my own colors. I like those "in between" shades and not the ones straight out of the Crayola box. If you are like me, coming up with a color palette is going to be a fun, yet a very tough road simply because we care so much!

Your wedding venue may be a great place to start in choosing your wedding color palette. Is your venue chic and modern and just screaming for a neutral palette? Perhaps it's a lovely Art Nouveau hotel with jade and gold painted ceilings. Is it a woodland setting that calls for emeralds and sages? Maybe it's a rustic barn and those boho warm tones seem to work just right.

Second, you might want to consider the season. An obvious choice for an autumn weddings are warm, earthy tones or jewel tones. Fuscias and spring greens for well, spring and so forth. And what about the flowers and foliage that are in season during your event? Hellebore is my favorite flower on the planet, but I would be hard-pressed to find them in summer.

You can look at your own personal style for your inspiration. What colors are important to you and what do you wear well? What about items you cherish? You might find inspiration from vintage floral china, a victorian locket or that green velvet couch you want to rent for your reception.

Try using this guideline when setting your wedding color palette. Choose:

--one main color

--one or two secondary colors

--one neutral

--one metal

About the only mistake you can make is choosing too many intense colors with the same value. Meaning, you have no hierarchy in your palette and the colors all have the same intensity and they fight with one another. They can be overwhelming to view as one's eye does not know where to look first. That's what I call the "kitchen sink" palette. It is very difficult for Designers to work with a palette where every color is as strong as the next. One or even two very strong colors can work as long as the rest of your colors are neutral. Using my guideline above will help build an organic flow and hierarchy to your color palette.

One last consideration is to apply your colors in a thoughtful and appropriate manner. Trying to force your color theory into every aspect of your event can have less-than-attractive results. I had a client recently whose main color was a deep, dark rusty red. She chose my Swinging on the Moon design and insisted that the night sky be the deep dark rust color. To me, the vintage couple sitting on the moon looked as though a nuclear holocaust had happened. In that case, she could have tied her color in another way-- through the envelopes, wax seal or vintage stamps.

So just have fun with your colors! It can be overwhelming at first, but you got this! Check out a little color inspiration below.