Selecting Your Wedding Colors

Selecting Your Wedding Colors

Color can be used in so many ways for weddings. From an accent color to the main color theme used in everything from the bridal party dresses to the table cloths and napkins at the reception. It is up to you how much color, or how little color, you want.

Should you use your favorite color for your wedding theme? What happens if your favorite color is yellow and your wedding is in the winter? It's still your wedding and your choice if you want to use yellow, but you may not want to use yellow as the main wedding color but more of an accent color such as the mini roses in the bouquets or as the ribbon around your wedding favor.

Some of the prettiest weddings we've seen have used multiple colors or shades of the same color throughout the planning of their weddings to the actual event. One color is used for the bridal shower, another color for the ceremony, followed by combining the colors for the reception. It's actually a very easy thing to do that will result in spectacular look.

For example, you have selected blue for your wedding color - great choice for anytime of the year. Your bridal shower kicks off with a lovely baby blue being used as flowers on your cake, bells, ribbons and decorations are intertwined with baby blue and white and your bridal shower favors also feature something blue and look beautiful sitting on your guest's white table cloths.

Moving onto your wedding day, you have selected a deeper shade of blue for your bridal party. The bridesmaid's dresses are the color of the ocean with your groomsmen bow ties matching. Your bouquet is white or ivory roses or calla lilies intermingled with the blue hydrangeas which carries the color theme elegantly throughout the bridal party.

At your reception, you have chosen to add an even deeper hue of blue and now have three gorgeous blue shades throughout the reception location. Your bridal table, guest tables, gift table and cake table all have three different cloths with the deepest blue tablecloth on the top. The other colors peek below as they cascade to the floor. White place settings and napkins sit majestically on the deep blue of the table cloth. Gorgeous tall white candles burn in the center of each table and at each guest seat is a tasteful white candle wedding favor for your guests to take with to remind them of your beautiful wedding day.

Your wedding cake is a cascade of white flowers and pale blue ribbons. Beautiful white and blue bows are scattered throughout carrying your colors even further. Finally, you have the beautiful blue garter that your husband can sexily slide off your leg!

It doesn't matter which color you select as your wedding color as they are so many creative ways to use color for your wedding. Enjoy the process as you plan the wedding that your dreams are made of! by Michelle Bery

Your wedding day can be the realization of a lifetime of dreams; you want everything to be perfect - from your dress to your flowers and everything in between. But, for most of us, planning the perfect wedding means doing so on a budget. And when it comes to high-end services such as photography, staying true to that budget can prove extremely difficult. However, with research, planning, and a significant dose of flexibility, you can find affordable wedding photography that will not only meet your budget restrictions but provide you with the beautiful photography you deserve.

Finding affordable wedding photography can be accomplished in a number of ways. Word of mouth is the most essential tool you can use to find those wedding services you want at a budget that works for you. Talk to friends or acquaintances that have held weddings similar in size and scope to what you're planning to determine what vendors worked successfully within their budget.

Another avenue you may want to explore when it comes to finding affordable wedding photography is the venue where you are holding your reception. Clearly, reception sites host a variety of weddings throughout the year; they often have access to quality vendors who offer affordable services.

Some people may think that hiring a wedding planner works against a budget-conscious wedding, but the opposite is often true. Wedding planners will often pay for themselves with the money they save you in vendor fees. Because wedding planners work with photographers frequently, they often have established relationships that will save you money in the end.

But when it comes to affordable wedding photography, sometimes limiting the services you require rather than choosing a low-priced photographer will help you stay within your budget restrictions. If you have your heart set on a particular photographer that does beautiful work then compromise to get to the price that you need; perhaps have the photographer only shoot your ceremony and formal shots and then ask your guests to help take photographs throughout your reception to be gathered into an album at a later date.

Ultimately, affordable wedding photography is about creativity and flexibility. If you think outside the box and think of small ways to save money, eventually those small steps will add up to big savings.