Ask the Experts: Incorporating Wedding Colors into Your Day
Choosing your wedding colors is one of the most traditional parts of your big day. It helps you create cohesion between the ceremony and reception and allows you to play with a number of themes. There are many ways to incorporate your wedding colors into a variety of elements and several ideas on how to make your picks pop and shine in just the right way.
Decor and Flowers
Floral by Willow & Stock
The flower arrangements and reception place settings are the perfect places to let your colors shine. Whether your palette has two, three, four or more colors, you can incorporate them all in these places. Once you decide which are your main hues and which are your supporting hues, it’s much easier to decide what goes where.
Utilize a neutral backdrop of your ceremony altar and chairs to drape flowers and fabrics in your wedding palette. Additionally, your ceremony accessories can cut through the burst of colors in your flowers and pew decorations as well. You can also have smaller pieces, like paper programs, candle lanterns and ring bearer pillows, that offer additional highlights of color.
When it comes to reception table decor, everything from the tablecloth, runner, napkins, glassware, and utensils should blend together seamlessly. Your tablecloths or runners are usually in neutral colors, while the smaller pieces can play with bolder hues and fun textures. Somtimes it’s fun though to be dramatic and use a beautiful colored or patterened table linen with neutral accents. Don’t forget how these decisions interplay with your centerpieces too!
Lighting
Photo by Brooke Pavel, Pinspots by Unique Events, Design by Soirée Wedding Planning
Most weddings start during the day but continue on well into the night. If your venue is outdoors or you’re adding your own lighting elements to an indoor venue, you need to consider how the lighting plays into the photography as well as the ambiance and mood. Consider the color temperature, or hue of your bulbs, and whether you want more of an orangy match flame to a greyish blue daytime overcast color. The lumens of your bulb, or brightness, will enhance the hue of the color temperature. The brighter your bulbs, the more obvious the color temperature you’ve chosen.
Also, consider how placing your lighting next to decorations will affect the way they look in photos. Do a few test runs before choosing the temperature and brightness for your wedding lighting. A good resource to discuss your options with your wedding design team and wedding photographer.
Entertainment & Activities
Photo: Brian Hall Photography
Depending on your wedding venue, and whether or not you’re welcoming your family’s and friend’s kiddos, you may have a variety of activities at your reception, from cornhole and coloring sheets to trivia or photo booths. You can customize the colors for each of these things to match your wedding and theme. Go all out and have fun with it! You may be able to get custom cornhole with your names and colors or use a photo booth backdrop that matches the rest of your wedding.
Bridal Party
Photo: Ivory+Bliss
While the bridal party seems like an obvious place to incorporate colors, many people forget about the bride and groom’s parents as well as other attendants. Most of the time only one or two colors shine among your bridesmaids and groomsmen. Take the opportunity presented by the other people involved in your ceremony to incorporate additional hues, and don’t forget about accessories too!
One of the more interesting people who can showcase your wedding colors are the flower girls and any junior bridesmaids, like in this photo. You could choose to match their outfits to your bridesmaids, dress them all in white, or opt for another one of your wedding colors. While some let the parents choose the flower girl’s dress, others will make a few suggestions of your own, which is perfectly okay. Just remember that anyone will add to the wedding look as they walk down the aisle.
Signature Cocktails
Photo: Jennifer Weinman Photography
A final place you can incorporate your wedding colors can be in the signature cocktails. Tons of juices and purees can make your cocktails delicious and match the theme of your wedding. Are your colors pretty and pink? Opt for clear cocktails with a hint of grapefruit or cranberry juices that pack a punch and tint your drinks. Is your color palette a little crepuscular? Glow in the dark and color-changing cocktails is definitely an option!
Working with Your Vendors 
The event vendors you choose have probably been doing weddings for years and can help you come up with great ideas on how and where to incorporate your wedding palette. Ask for their advice and listen to their suggestions when you meet with them to design the various aspects of your big day. Wedding planners can also be a huge help to anyone who’s feeling uncertain on how to accomplish a look or feel they want, or those who need help coordinating everything.
Author Bio: Katie Tejada is a writer, editor, and former HR professional. She enjoys writing about weddings and events, travel, decorating trends, and innovations for the home, but also covers developments in HR, business communication, real estate, finance and more.