Color Theory and Your Wedding

Color Theory and Your Wedding

Written by: Callie Hutson

We all have our favorite colors – the vibes and auras that we are drawn to, but how does that translate into your wedding flowers? We say YOGMO (you only get married once, or often – no judgment here), so pick flowers that are YOU. Toss the trends to the wind and focus on what makes your heart skip a little beat. Is that blue and orange? FANTASTIC! Cream and Sage? WE LOVE IT. A rainbow assortment of everything? YOU BET, BABY.

 

We want to help guide you in picking out the best flowers for your color choices. First, let’s start with a quick overview of the color wheel.

Colors opposite of one another on the color wheel are called complementary colors. If you’re really loving purple and yellow, there’s a scientific reason for that. We just think you have a great eye for design and good taste. Orange compliments blue and red compliments green, (pov: this moodboard) If you want your wedding flowers to really stand out and pop against one another, we recommend following the color wheel and using complementary colors. There are a million different colors between the main (primary) colors to use as well. For example, check out this Peach and Lilac Collection – SWOON.

If you are all about one color and all the similar shades around it, consider yourself an analogous bride. That doesn’t sound super glitzy, so let’s just call you the Monochrome Maven. You are loving purple and everything that brings you back to…purple. For this color scheme you could delve into lavender, lilac, magenta, and plum. If you’re feeling more adventurous but not totally wanting to branch out, you should dip into the colors that border purple – add a pop of burgundy ranunculus or blue thistle for some depth and texture in your wedding flowers. We love the way this Moody Violet Moodboard is clearly for the purple-lovin’ bride, but brings in more variety as well.

What’s a good flower arrangement without some greenery? Green is a special color as it generally goes with every other color out there. We see it in nature and it never looks out of place, so don’t be afraid to dip into the greens to add some variety in your wedding flowers. Wedding foliage also helps to set apart each flower type and stem so that they pop even more. If you are going for a muted, understated, bleached-out feel, try using a sage green like Eucalyptus (silver dollar, seeded, gunni, and baby eucalyptus are our favorites!) or even Bleached Italian Ruscus for you boho babes. For a bolder green, you could use Italian Ruscus and Nagi. If you’re feeling bright and cheerful, we really love the lime greens like Salal and Pittosporum. Another great thing about foliage is that it does not have to be used with flowers. It is a great stand-alone for filling space at your wedding by using greenery garlands, greenery walls and backdrops, greenery wreaths, or a total greenery wedding sans flowers.

Okay, so now you might be thinking – WHERE IS THE WHITE?! MY BELOVED CREAM QUEEN! She’s there. She’s just hiding underneath all of the colors because white flowers look great no matter what! You can add white flowers with any design and you can not go wrong. Be warned: white does stand out, so we recommend using at least two different white or cream flowers so that they blend with your other flowers naturally. If you add a white rose to your Boho Wedding, be sure to add a second white flower such as Baby’s Breath or White Lisianthus. Before we go any further, fear not, we definitely have not forgotten the timeless and ever-classic White Wedding. Our heart eyes will never leave it’s gaze. Though it may seem that adding a ton of white flowers and throwing some greenery in is copy and paste work, it is far from it!

There are many different ways to make your White Wedding special and unique to you. You could go the Cream and Sage Wedding route for a soft romantic feel. An Emerald and White Wedding is great for having the white flowers stand out against the dark foliage. If you are very adventurous or beachy, you can incorporate tropical flowers and tropical greenery into your Tropical White Wedding by using white orchids and bright green palms for a beautiful pairing! All of these are stunning options and only the tip of the classic white wedding iceberg – we really encourage you to make your white wedding your own!

Maybe you are having a hard time choosing between complementary, monochromatic, all-white, or greenery-only wedding flowers because you truly love them all. If you fall into this category, we recommend that you go with your heart and use all of the colors! You can go all-out rainbow wedding or you can choose any of your favorites from the color wheel to curate your own wedding flower palette. This Bright and Cheerful moodboard incorporates many of the bright colors including pink, orange, yellow, and blue but leaves out the darker tones like burgundy and purple. However, if the brights are too much for your vision and you still want to incorporate all of the colors, you can go the Pastel route. This gives you all of the colors in a more modest way. If the constraints of a set color palette makes you cringe, a Wildflower Wedding is what you need. Wildflowers have no rhyme or reason, and you are free to choose your favorites and arrange them in a whimsical way that mimics your vibe. Now that we have the color theory down and dirty, we hope you will be able to use these tips to create the DIY wedding flowers of your dreams!

About the Author

Callie Hutson is the floral wunderkind of Flower Moxie. She works in Order Managament and does Custom Designs, so if you need help with your floral emergency she is your gal. When she’s not creating incredible floral masterpieces she can be found adventuring in the outdoors with labradoodle Sierra or sipping on Lavender Lattes.