The Process: Color
A dear friend of mine has just begun the process of planning her wedding (sans coordinator), and asked me if I had any initial planning tips. Tips, you say?
To me, color is the primary facet in designing an event. It doesn’t matter if I’m designing a wedding, a party, an awards show, or anything else: color comes first. Everything else that I do stylistically revolves around my color choices. From my experiences with my clients, I’ve found that non-creative types (i.e. those who don’t have a natural penchant for art and design) tend to really struggle with choosing colors. They are often very unsure of what colors “go” together and how color affects the various aspects of their wedding/event. This is where a great designer becomes worth their weight in gold.
There are many, many ways to choose colors. Brides often go with their “favorite” color. I have a feeling that is why we see so much pink in weddings! Executive event planners tend to go with colors that match a logo or a design already in place for a company. I find myself taking inspiration from all manner of things: a pretty piece of stationary, a dress or accessory or piece of jewelry, the cover on a book or album art, photos of nature… there is no “right” or “wrong” way to choose colors, you simply have to choose what speaks to you on a personal level. Be bold with your color inspiration, and try to look beyond the obvious. Flipping through a wedding magazine is great- but do you really want to copy someone else’s wedding? Try to be more creative than that! Take inspiration from the wash of your favorite pair of jeans, or your partner’s favorite printed t-shirt, or the color of the coffee that you drink every morning!
The sky is the limit, so you have the freedom to choose the one color that really speaks to you (and/or your partner)- and if you get stuck there, or don’t have an innate understanding of how different colors interact with each other, don’t be afraid of the color wheel. It’s a valuable tool and so simple to use! My color wheel and an intense book of color were my constant companions throughout my college design classes: they still hold important spots on my design desk today. However, a brief warning: NOT all colors combine well. I’ve had to work on events in the past where a bride chose two (or three or more) colors that looked awful together, but they were her “favorite” colors and she would HAD to have them. Terrible decision. Sometimes you can mix colors that you wouldn’t expect to see together, sometimes you simply can’t. Please, please listen to your coordinator/event designer/floral designer if you sense any trepidation from them regarding your colors. Choosing colors that do not coordinate can seriously ruin the entire aesthetic of your event.
It helps to have someone to toss your color ideas around with. If I’m not working directly with a bride or event planner, I like to discuss color ideas with fellow designers. I often discuss colors with (my mum) Victoria Hoke Lane of Calligraphos, Ink. At the moment, we’re working on designing a wedding show booth together. Victoria knew that she wanted to use a pale shade of aqua for one of the primary colors for this event, so we were able to start there. I took her online to Behr’s paint website, where I am fond of stealing color swatches to use in my designs. Victoria chose a color called “Aqua Spray,” and then we moved onto the next color. First we looked for a red, but after much browsing of shades and discussion on how popular “turquoise and red” have been lately for weddings, we decided to go for pale lavender, instead. Once our two primary colors were chosen, I put them together to create a little “swatch” that we could refer to when making the rest of the design decisions.
In this case, I’m obviously not going to be able to get aqua flowers, and the pale, pale lavender might prove difficult to match, as well. So we know from the outset of this process that the flowers will be in varying shades and tones of light purple, and the aqua will be used for non-floral accents. Knowing this delineation outright helps us as we begin to make further design decisions. But the next part of the process is gathering overall design inspiration for the bigger picture, and we’ll save that discussion for another day!
