How to Choose Wedding Colors You’ll Love Forever

The wedding planning process is full of decisions, and perhaps one of your favorites will be choosing your color palette. It’s such an exciting moment as you begin to explore how the backdrop to your wedding day will look and feel. 

Finding your dream wedding colors can set the tone for the whole event. Learn how to choose wedding colors (and determine if they suit your big day), plus discover some color inspiration that might be just what you’re looking for. 

How to Choose Wedding Colors for Your Big Day

We understand that getting your color palette right is important. After all, it’s one of the things that stands out most when you look back over your wedding photos. Here are some ideas on how to choose wedding colors that you’ll love on your big day and every time you look back at your mementos. 

Embrace the Season

So much of what we do, wear, buy, and eat is aligned with the seasons and time of year — so it’s only natural that your wedding colors would do the same. If you’ve chosen your wedding date because it’s during your favorite season, that’s all the more reason to celebrate it within your color scheme. 

For a spring wedding, pastels are perfect while summer weddings are prime time for tropical-inspired bright colors. For fall weddings, jewel tones and lush, dark greens are popular. Meanwhile, winter weddings are the perfect moment for navy, deep reds, and metallics. 

Take Inspiration from an Item or Accessory

If there’s something you’ve bought and would love to display or wear at your wedding, use that as the focus for your color palette. That stunning centerpiece, the wedding flowers you’ve fallen in love with, or special table linens could inspire the perfect shade to tie your wedding color scheme together. 

Look through your wedding decor inspiration and see which colors stand out to you. Collect all your desired wedding pieces together and see if there’s a common theme. If you have an object you’d love to base your look on, seek out the Pantone color to match — this will help your vendors create looks that match perfectly. 

Consider Your Wedding Theme

When figuring out how to choose wedding colors, look to your wedding style or theme. For instance, if you’re dreaming of a boho-chic celebration, you might consider a color palette of natural tones such as forest greens, woodsy taupes, and terra cotta. If you’d like a more retro theme, you could mix a neutral base with pops of pink, yellow, and blue. If traditional is more your style, consider gentle pinks or soft purple hues. 

Look to Your Surroundings

If you’re stuck for ideas, there’s no better place to look than your wedding venue or the place you’ll be hosting your wedding reception. Take a tour around the place or look through past weddings hosted there and you’ll spot opportunities to inspire your wedding color scheme. 

Look at the character of the property, the beautiful grounds, and the decor inside. Think about which colors would complement the style — or stand out if you want a contrasting look. Take photographs to capture specific colors you love, and build a digital mood board based on your venue to pull your color ideas together. 

Look at Real Weddings for Inspiration

Sometimes the best place to source inspiration is from weddings past. This can be a great way to not only look at color ideas, but to see how you can weave those colors throughout your ceremony and reception. 

Browse your favorite wedding idea sites to look through real weddings and find your color inspiration. Don’t forget to look for ideas across the entire wedding — you might spot bridesmaid dresses in a color you adore, or a centerpiece that has the perfect shade of green.

Choose Your Favorite Colors

If you haven’t decided on a color scheme yet, why not simply choose your favorite colors? Consider your favorite colors as well as your fiance’s, then look at a color wheel to find shades that complement each other. 

Opt for a neutral base color so you can make two very different colors work, or have the two colors face off against each other in a fun way — like on your wedding cake, chair covers, or in your wedding flowers. 

How to Know If Your Chosen Wedding Color Palette Is the One

Knowing how to choose wedding colors is one thing, but how do you know if your planned color palette works for your event? Explore these tips to help you decide if you have the perfect color scheme or if different colors would work better. 

Put Together a Mood Board

Head over to Pinterest and create your own digital mood board, curated with images that feature your planned color choices. You’ll be able to see at a glance whether it’s a combo that works or whether you need to make a few tweaks. 

Ask Your Loved Ones

Check in with friends and family members who know you best and get their opinion on your proposed wedding color scheme. They’ll give you honest feedback and might make a few suggestions that will help you get closer to the ideal palette. 

See How Your Shades Look Next to Each Other

Before you commit to a selection of colors, check that they match well together. Use a tool like COLOURlovers to visualize your wedding color combinations alongside each other. It’s a helpful way to see if certain hues look the way you imagined. 

Think About How They’ll Work in Practice

Consider how your main and accent colors work together across all your wedding day details. Think about how your cake topper might look, how you could style your centerpieces, and whether your wedding dress would stand out or look awkward against your chosen neutrals. 

Popular Wedding Color Themes

Now that you know how to choose wedding colors, let’s explore some color inspiration. Here are a handful of the most popular wedding color schemes alongside some matching online wedding invitations to inspire you.

Jewel Tones

Design: Jen Montgomery

The rich, vibrant colors you find in a jewel tone-inspired palette are perfect for a sophisticated or luxurious wedding ceremony and reception. Borrow a few tips from this Herringbone Monogram invitation and pair your jewel tones with striking gold accents and subtle patterns. 

Navy Blue

Design: Signature Greenvelope

There’s something stunning about using navy blue in your wedding color scheme. It’s perfect for dramatic winter weddings, or you could take inspiration from this Rustic Lace invite and style it for a chic rustic wedding. 

Pastels

Design: Noonday Design

Pastels will always remain a hit for weddings because they create such a soft, welcoming atmosphere — plus they look great in photos. Look at this Pastel Brushstrokes invitation as a way to mix different pastel shades together in a creative way.

Shades of Blue

Navy isn’t the only blue that’s ideal for weddings. Explore multiple shades of blue like this Serendipity invite to add depth and interest across your wedding color scheme. 

Natural Tones

Design: Signature Greenvelope

If you’ve been inspired by the seasons or landscapes around you, natural tones could be the perfect palette choice. This Autumn Florals invitation is packed with fall colors that really set the mood for a cozy wedding. 

Build a Beautiful Ceremony Around Your Chosen Wedding Colors

Learning how to choose wedding colors is one of the most exciting parts of planning your wedding. The good news is that you can seek out color combos wherever you go and begin to narrow down the options that’ll make your big day feel magical.

With your wedding colors all sorted, you can move on to choosing your beautiful online wedding invitations. At Greenvelope, we have lots of gorgeous designs and color options — plus you can even use your own color palette for the most beautiful and memorable wedding invitations.