Tips on how to select a palette and where to find colorful inspiration.

 

A wedding’s color palette is the colors you use to decorate your wedding and can be made up of as many colors as you like, changing from ceremony to cocktails to reception (though there should be some relationship between each setting).

The best way to choose a palette is to go to a paint store and take home a bunch of (free) paint chips. Lay them all on a white surface and play with them. Group colors you like together and remove colors that don’t appeal to you. You’ll soon realize that there are a few shades you keep gravitating to. Take those colors with you to the wedding planner and florist to help you finalize your wedding colors.

wedding-color-palette-inspiration-board-gay-weddings

Isn’t this lilac and lemonade inspiration board charming?

Once you’ve picked a palette, make sure you share the exact color with your baker, stationer and other vendors who will be creating details for your wedding. Remember that you want to be specific when describing your wedding’s colors. For example, blue ranges from sky to navy, so telling each vendor the wedding’s palette is blue and white may return a variety of items that don’t coordinate the way you want them to.

Here are three colorful resources to help inspire you:

  1. Pinterest allows you to search for images by topic or keywords. I’ve found that when you go to the source of an image you’ll find more images that relate to what you’re looking for. While you’re there, follow our Pinterest board, too.
  2. Dessy has a partnership with Pantone (the color company) and features a specific tool that allows you to create inspiration boards using Pantone color swatches and images in coordinating shades. They recently launched Pantone Wedding Chiplette, where you can order large swatches of the colors in your wedding to help you coordinate your wedding details with each of your vendors ($1 per swatch).
  3. It always amazes me how many inspiration boards Snippet & Ink creates. Kathryn has created wedding inspiration boards in more than 500 colors, themes and details so couples are sure to find inspiring images on her blog.

 

Photo: Snippet & Ink