Wedding Colors and Styles

Back in the Bride’s Guide to Wedding Planning blog we talked about making different Pinterest Boards for every potential wedding you could have to help you decide on the style you really want. It’s such a good way to visualize all your ideas, organized into a form of what they actually would be like together. What they’d be paired with, the kind of mood they would create together, all of that fun stuff. This is also a great way to help you stay organized and to help all of your vendors get an understanding of the wedding you want and how their product will play into it all.

But maybe you don’t have much time before your wedding is here, or you’re working like crazy and just don’t know when you’d find the time to do something like that, but you still need that visual guide to help you figure out what you want. That’s what this blog is for. A “pinterest board” and description for every style of wedding I could think of.

But first there are some important things I want to address before we get too far into this. Please remember this is not a completely inclusive list of wedding styles, or a bible you have to follow on color schemes. There are tons of themes out there, and whatever you love (both stylistically and color wise) you should absolutely choose that and not worry about what’s “right”. This is just to help you learn what you like and make a choice if you’re completely at a loss. Always stay true to who you are and what you want.

Another important thing: when selecting colors, always remember that contrast is very important! You’ll notice in a lot of the palette’s I use for examples in this there’s a range of colors, and not only do the colors themselves provide contrast, the shades of the colors do too. Having contrast in your colors creates a more visually interesting image and it provides more variety and options for you and your bridal party and family. I suggest choosing a color palette of 5-6 colors instead of just 2. You can start with two that you love, but then build around them by adding two base colors (like white, cream, light grey, dark grey, navy blue, and black), and then add another accent color that coordinates well with your original two colors. Now you have 6 colors instead of 2!

Ok, now I’m going to break down the different styles I most commonly see in weddings.

Country

When I think country my first though is a red barn. Maybe that’s because it’s a really popular type of location in my hometown, but because of that my go-to colors for country weddings are red, white, yellow, navy blue, and a golden tan color (think khaki or golden wheat). In country weddings you’ll also see a lot of distressed metal and wood, leather (One of my favorite country styles is the leather cowboy boots with the wedding dress. SO CUTE). You’ll also see a lot of the more feminine side of country like lace, burlap, ribbons, and floral prints.

To me the major hallmark classic style is black and white. Black suits and ties, and white flowers with a lot of greenery. A classic bride to me reminds me of Audrey Hepburn kind of style. Neat updo hair styles, pearl necklace, and high heels. And you’ll definitely see the traditional wedding events like the bouquet toss, garter toss, and cake cutting, as well traditions in the bride’s clothing and accessories (something borrowed, something new, something old, something blue).

Boho

Bohemian style is a pretty new thing, and the fun thing about it is that it really is more themed on your personality. For example, a fun fact about me is that my absolute favorite item of clothing is this beautiful medium-wash denim jacket my mom gave me for my 20th birthday. If I was going to go for a boho style wedding, I would totally wear that jacket to my wedding. You’ll see similar things in boho weddings like leather jackets, an old favorite pair of shoes, hats, and anything else that brings out the personality of the couple and makes them feel like themselves on their wedding day. A lot of the time these will be quiet and small ceremonies out in nature. Some even ditch the small ceremony all together and elope! For many of these weddings you’ll see rich but bright colors like reds, oranges, and turquoise, paired with tans, creams, and sandy colors. Boho weddings tend to be where you’ll see a lot of modern, currently trendy choices like flower crowns, mismatched bridesmaid dresses, macramé, rugs and blankets, and unique wedding dresses that are full of personality.

Romantic

This one is kind of a hard one to nail down because all weddings are (or should be) romantic! What I’m talking about here is having romance and your love be represented through the whole mood and presence of your wedding. Think intimacy and closeness. In these weddings you’ll see a lot of low lighting such as Christmas lights, lanterns, and candles. It’s also very common in these weddings to see nude colors, blushes, light pinks, and mauves.

You can still apply any of the above styles to the season you’re getting married in, but generally speaking, each season has a “mood” that fits with it, and if you’re concerned your August wedding won’t feel “summery” enough it’s good to consult the general style of your season.

Winter

One thing I love about winter weddings is how cuddly and close the couple is. Nothing makes you want to get wrapped up together quite like freezing outside for an entire 2 hour bridal shoot. The colors of winter are dark and rich. Dark greens, dark reds, cranberry, browns, and plum purple or maroon. These are the kind of colors that come to my mind when I think about staying home out of the cold, snuggled up on the couch in front of a fire with a good book and a hot chocolate.

Summer

My vision of summer is sitting by the pool, watermelon, lemonade, and of course a fat sunburn across my entire back. Everything is the brightest shade of its color. Bright pinks, blues, yellows, and oranges, and reds.

Spring

Spring is all about pastels. Light blues, lavender, light pink, light green. Spring colors to me are all the light and bright colors of Easter. For spring weddings it’s very common to see outdoor ceremonies and receptions with a lot of flowers.

Fall

Fall colors are very similar to the “Boho” colors that come to mind. They’re rich and bright, like the colors you would see on fall trees. Basically you want to think about all the fall things you love: the leaves, the pumpkins, squash, hot chocolate, all the best parts of fall. Where most of the colors we associate with fall are deeper, brighter colors, you want to make sure something is there to contrast against that, like a base or neutral color. I suggest ivory or cream, and navy blue.

Destination

For a destination wedding embrace the culture of the destination. It might feel more theme-based than color-based, but all places have colors and schemes that are reminiscent of that place. For example if you’re having a wedding on the beach consider going for light blue, a sandy tan color, light pink, orange, navy, white. Those are all the colors I think of when I imagine a beach sunset! Or if you were going to have an island wedding consider having tropical flowers and fruits and colors to match like bright pink, purple, orange, lime green, and tan.

Love,

Brittany