Do you know what I think is the hardest part of starting to plan your wedding/party? Picking your color palette tops the list, especially if you’re a design- nut like yours truly. My own wedding went through three different palette changes before I finally settled on one! Here are my quick tips for forming a jaw-dropping color palette that will transform your fête into a very dandy celebration!

Find the color that you can’t live without!

Close your eyes. What’s the one color that always makes you smile; that one color that seems to speak to you? It could be the color of your first bicycle or car, or maybe that color you always dressed in as a child, or even the colors of your alma mater! For example, a bride very near and dear to my heart loved the color purple. She didn’t want to wear an ivory colored dress (she was Snow White-esque pale with long dark hair and naturally red lips…gorgeous girl!), and her husband-to-be wasn’t wild about bridal white. Her reply was “Well fine, I’m going to wear purple,” and boy, did she live up to her threat. I loved her wedding colors; dusky Victorian lilac, intense royal purple, light green, and onyx. They really lived up to her rocker-chick vibe!

Got that color? Now break out your color wheel!

A color wheel is an artist’s best friend. I have one I keep in my floral toolbox for design purposes and for when I’m having a brain-block moment when trying to come up with centerpiece ideas. A great online color wheel is located at Colors on the Web. Got your color? We’re going to use dusky slate (hex value #B3C5D0, which is a toned down version of sky blue) for our base color.

Okay, look 180 degrees away (directly across the color wheel) and mark that color. That’s your complimentary color (e.g. red-green, purple-yellow), which you’ll need for these next color combinations. Our complimentary colors are the tints, tones, and shades around warm peach (hex value #FFB183).

Monochromatic colors are within tints, tones, and shades of your base color. So, for our dusty slate color, some monochromatic colors are cerulean blue, silver, white, and sky blue.

Analogous colors are directly next to each other on the color wheel, like purple and blue or yellow and orange. These ensure you stay in the same color family. So, back to our slate; add soft blue-greens and true greens into your color palette.

Triadic colors high-energy colors that are found by choosing three colors that are separated by 120 degrees on the color wheel. The primary (red, blue, and yellow) and secondary (purple, orange, green) colors are examples of triadic colors. With our slate blue, we have spring green and dusky rose thrown into the mix.

Tetradic colors take the color wheel to the next level! Locate your color on the color wheel and draw a rectangle/square with your color as the first corner. These four values (e.g. blue, green, yellow, and red) are tetrad colors. Our slate blue is tetradic from spring green, dusky rose, and lilac purple.

Split complimentary color is a variation of the complementary color scheme. In addition to the base color, it uses the two colors adjacent to its complement (like blue, orange, yellow, and red). Our slate would be split complementary to peach, tan, silver, white, and sky.

Now you’ve got some schemes. Time to mix and match!

I’m a firm believer in using tints, tones, and shades to your advantage. If you’ve got one soft pale color, don’t be afraid to pump up the intensity on your remaining color values. For example, I chose Tennessee orange as my focal color which has always been my favorite summertime color (for multiple reasons), which is a coppery-orange. Being a bit more daring, I went with a tetradic color scheme and used lime green and orange with little touches of turquoise and magenta over black dresses and linens. I wanted a dress that my girls would use again and again, so I picked a black tea-length dress, and black is a wonderful neutral that makes any color pop.

My one big piece of advice is DON’T BE AFRAID OF COLORS! Pshaw, don’t stick to two colors. Push the envelope as hard as you can, lions! Love purple but want red dresses? Throw purple against oranges and reds in a bouquet for an intense pop of color!

Until next time, dearest lions, I encourage you to keep pushing that envelope and enjoy your colorful celebrations!

Unbordered love,

Amanda

floral + ambiance lioness

say g’day: amanda@dandylionevents.com

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also, a little about us: dandyLion began as  indieLion and morphed from dindieLion. kitschy maybe but we like it. when you’re with dandyLion, you are welcomed, accepted and supported- despite family dynamics or other social issues + injustices you may face.

love is all you need.

wishing you a happy new year!

this pic is (c) meredith norwood- it’s from one of our events last summer.

with love,

lindsey

say hello: lindsey@dandylionevents.com

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