If you are in the throes of wedding planning, interviewing vendors and creating mood boards, you may have noticed a question that comes up again and again: What is your color scheme? Choosing your wedding colors is one of those important early planning decisions that will help dictate several other decisions down the road. A color scheme is not just a list of colors you like, it is the key to unifying all the different elements that make up a wedding celebration. The colors you choose will be used in the florals, the table linens, the wedding party attire, the stationary . . . The list goes on. If you’re an artist at heart or a meticulous planner, you may already have the perfect color palette picked out. In that case, you’re all set! However, if you are feeling unsure of where to start, or perhaps wondering why your palette can’t seem to harmonize with itself, then hopefully these tips will help guide you on your way.

Think of What’s Important

Oftentimes when planning a wedding you have a list of non-negotiables, whether physical or mental. Maybe there is a certain flower you want featured in your bouquet or a piece of jewelry you want to wear.  Maybe there is a certain theme you want to embody or a symbol you want to feature. Maybe you are just shooting for a certain feeling or vibe. Finding out what these non-negotiables are and keeping them in mind can help guide you toward complementary color schemes. 

Consider Your Setting

The colors and decor you choose have the ability to transform any space to fit your vision, but if you are needing inspiration for your color scheme, considering the setting of your wedding can get you pointed in the right direction. Your setting includes both the where and the when. If you have a venue picked out, look around at the colors that are already present. If that doesn’t get the creative juices flowing, think instead of what season and time of day your wedding will be in. Generally, spring is associated with lighter colors and pastels, summer is associated with bold and bright colors, fall is associated with rusty colors and neutral tones, and winter is associated with rich jewel tones. Similarly, lighter colors are seen most often at daytime weddings, and darker colors show up more in the evening.

Look At What You Wear

Sometimes the best place to start is in your own closet. Look at what you and your partner routinely wear and identify your most-worn colors. These are often the colors you like the most or feel the best in. Pulling colors from your favorite clothes to use in your wedding ensures that the palette is perfectly on-brand for you, and surrounding yourself with colors you look good in is sure to complement your happy faces and highlight that newlywed glow.

Less Is More

One of the biggest mistakes people make in selecting a color palette is choosing too many colors. Ideally, you want to narrow the selection down to 3 or 4 colors, including a dominant color, secondary color, and 1 or 2 accent colors. When planning what colors to use where, use the 60-30-10 rule to find the correct balance. This means roughly 60% of your decor should be your dominant color, 30% should be your secondary color, and 10% should be your accent color. In most cases, less truly is more as using too many colors can look disorganized and unbalanced. The exception to this is when the use of many different colors is intentional and necessary to accomplish a certain theme (e.g. rainbow, maximalist, wildflowers, etc.).

Nail Down the Neutrals

One part of building a color scheme that is often overlooked is deciding which neutrals to include. No matter what colors you decide on for your wedding, you are inevitably going to have decor, attire, and dinnerware in some form of neutral color. Neutral colors include white, black, grays, and beiges, but for weddings the choices are often simplified to white and ivory. While very similar from a distance, when placed beside each other white and ivory tend not to get along. White tends to look stark next to ivory, and ivory tends to look dingy next to white. The easiest way to decide between the two is to go along with your wedding gown (assuming you choose a traditional color) and match any napkins, china, seat covers, and aisle runners accordingly. 

Consult Color Theory

If you’ve gotten started on your color scheme but you’re still finding it difficult to make your colors get along, it may be helpful to consult the artist’s old friend: color theory. Consulting color theory is a good way to identify colors that naturally play well with each other and to iron out any colors that are not quite fitting in. Color harmony is a term used to describe colors that balance well together in a color scheme. There are several diagrams to help you find these harmonious colors, but the simplest of them include monochromatic, analogous, complementary, and triadic schemes. Monochromatic schemes include multiple shades of the same color, analogous schemes include colors that are adjacent on the color wheel, complementary schemes include 2 colors that are opposites on the color wheel, and triadic schemes include 3 colors that are equally spaced on the color wheel. You can use any one or a mixture of these schemes to help harmonize your color palette and fill in any gaps.