I''m not creative with colors. Suggestions?

[luckystar112]

I am having the HARDEST time coming up with colors for my wedding. I have browsed every knot gallery known to man, sifted through the threads here...looked at bridal magazines! I''m about to give up and just tell the wedding party to wear whatever they want!

Wedding scenario: At a church, around mid-day.
Reception scenario: Starts just before sunset, outside, at a beautiful lake property, in the beginning of August.
Look I''m going for: Elegant, but fun. Cocktail attire? Want the BM''s to be in cocktail or tea length dresses. I''m a simple kind of gal. I like one type of flower in my bouquet. I like centerpieces with flowers and curly willow. I love chinese lanterns. I like clean lines and a neat/organized appearance. I hope that says enough about what I''m looking for?

Problems regarding color:

1) I want my bridesmaids dresses to be affordable, but to have enough selection that I can give them a fabric and a color and they can just go wild picking whatever dress that fits them best. I''ve browsed the david''s bridal website and it seems that every color I''m interested in only has limited amounts of dresses available in that particular color. For instance, I was thinking a creamy yellow...well, they only have one dress in that color! This seems to happen a lot. It''s important to me that all BMs get their dress from the same place so that I know the fabric/color is exactly the same

2) Then I was thinking chocolate brown with a bright blue for the sash. I like it, but again, there isn''t a huge selection...and my biggest nightmare has been dressing the guys. Does brown go with black? Brown suits seems like too much brown, not to mention quite 1970.

3) So back to David''s bridal. I could do Apple...they have like 6 pages of dresses all in apple! GM can wear black suits with apple ties! NICE! I have plans to incorporate golds and oranges. My mom said that it''s too fall/wintery of a look for an outdoor summer night wedding.

So here I am...back to square one. I can''t do green because FSIL did green. I need something that will look nice in a church, and at a nightime reception during the summer.
I like summer colors, but it seems like most of them are only appropriate for daytime weddings, and I have this fear of my wedding party looking too "homecoming dance"...so pinks any basically any type of metallic or pastel is out, I''m afraid...but I am open to suggestions.

Does anyone have ANY suggestions? I''m not creative at all.

 

[Sabine]

I know you said you want all your BMs in the same color dress, but after dealing with David''s Bridal, the frustration of finding different dresses in one color may get to you. Is there any chance you could pick out a dress from Davids and have the BM''s pick the shade they want? For instance, I know David''s has like 5 different shades of purple, mystic purple, victorian lilac, regular lilac, etc. That way you could incorporate some summer colors but don''t have that homecoming look, and you can still get some continuity if the girls are wearing the same or at least similar style dresses.

 

[Sha]

How about a deep plummy colour as the main colour, with tangerine/sunset orange as accents? I think the scarlet/plum colour would be elegant and work well in the evening, and the orange would provide a summery touch.

Brown and blue is nice too. The fellars could have black suits with brown vests, and maybe a blue tie with blue boutionniere?

What colours do YOU like, though? What''s your favourite colour? What colours usually stand out for you? I think that would be the best inspiration for choosing your wedding colours.

 

[happy in love]

I was just at a summer wedding where all the bridesmaids wore a dark champagne/light goldish color and they all were in different styles. Then, their flowers were beautiful bright summery colors which popped against the neutral dresses. I absolutely LOVED the way it looked.

 

[luckystar112]

What great suggestions!!!! AHHHH I''m so excited now.
Sha, I love the idea of plum and orange......I can see the flowers popping againsts the dresses now!

 

[Pandora II]

I''m using sage green, ivory and pale gold with flowers in burnt orange, mango and marigold for a wedding at the same time of year as yours.

Another combo I love is pale robin''s egg blue with mocha brown and pale gold. I saw a load of chocolates in these colours this evening and thought how lovely they looked together and how great they would be as wedding colours.

 

[sera]

I love purples and oranges... whether it's more of a tangerine with purply-pink or vibrant shades. These vibrant colors look Asian-ish and would look awesome with Chinese Lanterns. I also think the bit of green adds a fresh, cool aspect to it making it more Summer-sunset-outdoors-ish.

Orange-Pink-Green
...and another.
Magenta-Orange-Yellow

ETA: uh oh... the links take you to the log in page... if you signed up already hopefully you can see them. Right now my photo editing software is not working so I can't decrease the size of the pics to post them

ETA: NM... I found a way around it

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I like plum with orange too! I wanted plum BM dresses at first too. But honestly I *HATE* that people feel like they have to choose their colors BASED on the season. It is your wedding and no one is going to care. Pick colors YOU love. If that happens to be red, gold, and orange so be it. It will look beautiful!

 

[MMM]

i am in the process of choosing colors too...

right at this moment (it changes a LOT

) i am thinking about yellow, white and navy blue. but a warm, mustardy yellow (and maybe some burnt orange thrown in?).

then the girls can be in yellow and the guys in navy blue suits.
and i just love yellow and white flowers together!

 

[sera]

Date: 8/26/2007 3:07:19 AM
Author: MMM
i am in the process of choosing colors too...


right at this moment (it changes a LOT

) i am thinking about yellow, white and navy blue. but a warm, mustardy yellow (and maybe some burnt orange thrown in?).


then the girls can be in yellow and the guys in navy blue suits.

and i just love yellow and white flowers together!

That would be stunning!

Pretty!

Pretty!!

Pretty!!!

 

[firebirdgold]

My colors were a bright sunny yellow and white. It's one of my favorite colors plus it was very easy to get orchids and roses in that color. I didn't mean for the family to color coordinate but most of the women ended up in turquoise and all the men in a soft spring green and they all looked amazing with the yellow and white ginger leis!

What's your favorite color? What color do you think best represents happiness?

How many bms are you having? (I forgot, sorry) David's Peridot is a nice color and comes in enough styles to suit every body type. It's a summery color but it's a quiet and elegant color. It's neutral enough to work with most people's coloring and to make the flowers pop. It'd work for a night-time wedding. And it's not soo green that it would look like you're copying your fsil. Plus it'd work well with an asian theme which clean lines, curly willow, and chinese lanterns sorta lends itself to.

ETA: your fsil can't monopolize an entire hue range you know! I wouldn't go for the exact green she did, but she can't hog everything between blue and yellow!

 

[havernell]

Regarding getting bridesmaid dresses of the same color but different styles- I''ve heard that Aria is a good brand of BM dresses if you want to do this. Depending on the fabric you choose, the dresses seem to start at about $150. Looks like any of their styles can be ordered in any of their colors, so no restrictions like david''s bridal.

Am I allowed to post websites here? If so, the website is www.ariadress.com. Again, I haven''t used Aria myself (at least not yet, maybe I will for my BM dresses down the road), but many women on the knot have recommended them for your type of situation.

Good luck choosing colors!!

 

[Mara]

i''m a fan of sage greens and champagnes and the two work well together, esp for a summery early evening wedding. use bright colors such as fuschias and lime greens for your flowers and similar. that is along the lines of what we did...but also if you are doing an outdoor thing, use the greenery and the other things in that area that are ''natural'' to wherever you will be and play up those colors. like we got married in hawaii and a ton of greenery was everywhere so i kept the colors very bright and also used neutrals like white. so we had some ''pop'' but also some blending. and the guys'' ties were sage, girls dresses were like a soft mauve, flowers were fuschia, lime and whites.

champagne or a soft tan like that with orange would be great, as would champagne and fuschia, etc. think along the lines of your chocolate brown and blue idea but lighten the brown for the early sunset theme. even champagne and a beautiful silvery purply blue would be pretty.

 

[luckystar112]

Indie, I love the idea of yellow....but the color I wanted (banana in david''s bridal) only has one dress, and the other yellow, "canary" is too bright for my taste.

I''m going to have 4 or 5 bridesmaids! Hopefully 4...I originally wanted 3. heh. Peridot is pretty...but there just seems to be so much green out there already. I think I need to see it in person.

MMM, this is totally unrelated, but have you decided what you are going to do for a wedding band? Are you just going to have Mark make you one to match your e-ring? The reason I ask is because I''m thinking of getting my e-ring put in a halo in the (sort of distant) future, but I want to make sure I don''t have to buy a new band. (But then again, a 1ct stone might not even look good in a halo...what do you think?) My ring will be based off yours, which is either flattering or annoying...I hope not the latter! lol

Tacori- I totally agree. I really do love red, but I feel like it''s so "safe". You know what I mean? As much as I love it, I think I want something different. Maybe that''s my problem--maybe I should go with what''s popular so I have more options.

Pandora, I love your color options! I wanna steal. lol

Sha, I''m bummed because the purple I like, "plum" only comes in one dress as well!

I checked Alfred Angelo and the only purple they have is grape which is not at ALL the right color. There''s always "victorian lilac" at DB, but I think I have to see the color in person, because half of the dresses have blue undertones, and half are purple. Plus it''s hard to know the true hue without seeing it in person.

Havernell...thanks for the link! I''m going to check it out right now! Hopefully they have dresses available in Maine, which is a WHOLE other problem I seem to be having!

What do you all think of champagne dresses with plum and orange bouquets? no? Too clashy? Too "out there?" I told you I have no idea what I''m doing.

 

[luckystar112]

Date: 8/26/2007 2:08:02 PM
Author: Mara
i''m a fan of sage greens and champagnes and the two work well together, esp for a summery early evening wedding. use bright colors such as fuschias and lime greens for your flowers and similar. that is along the lines of what we did...but also if you are doing an outdoor thing, use the greenery and the other things in that area that are ''natural'' to wherever you will be and play up those colors. like we got married in hawaii and a ton of greenery was everywhere so i kept the colors very bright and also used neutrals like white. so we had some ''pop'' but also some blending. and the guys'' ties were sage, girls dresses were like a soft mauve, flowers were fuschia, lime and whites.

champagne or a soft tan like that with orange would be great, as would champagne and fuschia, etc. think along the lines of your chocolate brown and blue idea but lighten the brown for the early sunset theme. even champagne and a beautiful silvery purply blue would be pretty.

Ahhh I''m so glad you chimed in! I think you have great style....so I''m definitely going to look into your suggestions.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Maybe David''s is your problem. My wedding was black and white with purple accents *gasp* in the summer. My girls wore black dresses from bill levkoff. His website is here. He had a really pretty plum. If you go to a bridal store they have sample swatches.

Red is classic. I am not sure I would agree it is trendy right now. I feel like browns, blues, pinks are really popular. Maybe it depends on where you live.

 

[luckystar112]

That purple is PERFECT! There seems to be a wide selection, AND there is a store less than 20 miles away.
Just one more thing.......sort of a big thing.....are his dresses expensive? I can''t find any prices, but I''m hoping to keep the dresses around $150 (or less). A couple of my BM''s have kids, and the other two are in grad school. One girl is in two other weddings besides mine.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Date: 8/26/2007 3:09:01 PM
Author: luckystar112
That purple is PERFECT! There seems to be a wide selection, AND there is a store less than 20 miles away.

Just one more thing.......sort of a big thing.....are his dresses expensive? I can''t find any prices, but I''m hoping to keep the dresses around $150 (or less). A couple of my BM''s have kids, and the other two are in grad school. One girl is in two other weddings besides mine.

Are you talking about the site I gave you? I think they were over $150 but under $200 (if that helps). Certain styles might have been less. My BM were not concerned b/c all agreed they could wear them again. I think one got hers cut to her knee after the wedding. They are very good quality and I think they have beautiful designs. Also we ordered them through a local bridal shop but I am sure you could get them for less online.

 

[MMM]

flattering or annoying?! --- COMPLETELY flattering!! i answered your post in the stationary website thread : )

 

[E B]

I see you''re leaning toward purple, but I thought I''d throw this quick collage in. I saw the color combo in a bridal mag not too long ago and fell in LOVE with it for a summer scheme:

 

[E B]

That color is called "Spring" from Watters and is sort of a blue-green aqua-ey color. Paired with firey orange callas, the colors make each other POP against, well, each other. The dress (in chiffon) is from WToo, which is Watters more affordable line of BM dresses.

 

[OUpearlgirl]

Ok this may or may not have already been mentioned somewhere, but you can go here and play with colors, styles, and location.

 

[Mara]

aw thanks lucky...that''s funny because i don''t tend to think i have the greatest sense of style...hehee!! but i honestly think champagne can work with so many colors, bright or muted, just depends on what you want the look to be. i actually love the idea of a soft champagne or tan with plum and orange...i''d use the bright colors sparingly in the decor and flowers and use neutrals like white to help balance things out.

i even think that champagne or tan would be great with a mauve dress or color to kind of balance it out as well. maybe a bit of fuschia to pop or lime green. i love that combo hehee, i''m a little biased.

 

[Harleigh]

Ebree...I LOVE that Watters dress...that is a gorgeous color!