How to Choose Your Wedding Colour Palette

Long gone are the days when brides would choose one colour for their wedding, pair it with white, and leave it at that. Taking their cues from home decor and fashion trends, today’s brides are leaning towards a more expanded colour palette with multiple hues and shades. A larger, while still cohesive, colour palette creates a richness, a sense of depth, and a more stylish look overall. It will evolve your wedding design from basic and ordinary to a well pulled-together aesthetic. 

But, just because a bride knows she wants a larger colour palette doesn’t always mean that she knows HOW to create it. Which primary hues to choose? What shades of those hues? Do you stick with one colour for the bridesmaids’ dresses and invitations, and another colour for the bouquets? 

To start with, pull out a colour wheel—most of your answers will come to you here. Consider the following colour palette options, and then see what you lean towards naturally!

Neutral: white, grey, brown, black
Monochromatic: one colour, with different tones or shades to bring depth to it
Complementary: opposites on the colour wheel
Split Complementary: one base colour, plus the 2 hues on either side of the base colour's complement
Analogous: 3 hues beside each other on the colour wheel

If you are nervous about how to incorporate colour, start with an analogous colour palette and you can’t go wrong! For example, mauves transition naturally into violets and pale pinks so you can easily combine these hues into a well-designed palette.

For myself, I know that I’m always drawn to analogous and split-complementary palettes, and many of my brides are drawn towards monochromatic palettes (often with blush pink). After you are better able to verbalize what types of palettes you’re drawn to, look outside of weddings to find inspiration on what tones and shades you like. Look to fashion, home decor, and art for ideas—I love looking at beautiful fabrics or wallpapers to see how different hues play together. I’m sure that you’ll discover some beautiful inspiration, and then you can bring that all back to more wedding-specific tasks and use it as a guide for choosing your linens, working on your stationery, and of course, planning your flowers! Still not sure? Here are some examples of each palette--give yourself a moment to glance over them and see what pops out at you!

Example of a neutral colour palette by Stone House Creative. Photo by Victoria Anne Photography.

Example of a monochromatic colour palette by Stone House Creative. Photo by Brittany Mahood Photography.

Example of a complementary colour palette by Stone House Creative. Photo by Stephanie Godfrey Photography.

Example of a split-complementary colour palette by Stone House Creative. Photo by Jeremy Hiebert Photography.

Example of an analogous colour palette by Stone House Creative. Photo by Brittany Mahood Photography.

NEED MORE HELP? Here are some helpful articles I've found: 

Designing Your Wedding Colour Palette
Top 13 Color and Style Mistakes to Avoid
Once Wed's Tips for Creating a Wedding Colour Scheme
Spring 2016 Wedding Colour Trends

Brianna and John's Summer Wedding at Pineridge Hollow

On a lovely day in August, Brianna and John got married at Pineridge Hollow. I love working on weddings out there, because the light airy feel of the reception tent is so easy to bring flowers into! It works great with lots of different colour palettes, and the tent is really adaptable to several different aesthetic styles. I also happen to love a good soft blush and cream palette in this all-white setting. Brianna was actually the first bride to meet with me after launching Stone House Creative, and also the first bride to book with me! Thank you so much for trusting me with your blooms! 

And another huge thank you to Hailey Funk Photography, who always takes such beautiful pictures of my blooms.

Peony Bridal Bouquet - Karen and Chris' Engagement

Karen and Chris just got married at the beginning of October, but they chose to have their engagement session in early summer. And you know what that means...peony season! Karen asked me to create a simple floral crown for her, and when a good friend told me I could help myself to all the peonies in her garden, I knew I had to design a bouquet for her, too. And really, is there anything lovelier than a garden-grown peony?

Thank you to Rachwal Photography for these gorgeous photos!

A Flower Field Day

Back in August, I spent the BEST morning at a flower field day with some of my local flower friends (we affectionately call each other our #flowerfriends). We toured around Lily Stone Gardens, cutting stems to our hearts' content, chatting about our businesses and the flowers that we love the most, and playing with these wonderful, locally grown blooms. It is so exciting to me that I have the opportunity to include locally grown flowers in my designs; these stems are grown with the utmost care, attention, and love! If you're getting married in the summer, chances are that I'm going to use local blooms, whether you ask for them or not ;) 

Enjoy this trip to the farm!

Photos: Holly Gilson Photography // Flowers Friends: Kelly and Nicole of Lily Stone Gardens, Britney of Fache Floral Designs, and Tatiana of Oak & Lily

Coming Soon ~ Spring Bridal Portraits

I'm so excited to share all the beautiful images from this spring bridal portrait shoot with Kat Willson Photography! We'll release all of the images in a couple of months with an exciting blog feature, but for now, here are a few sneak peeks. 

Calligraphy: Julie Doan // Dress: Studio Jann Marie