Choosing Color Combinations for Wedding Invitations

Wedding Invitation Colors, Choosing Color Combinations for Your Wedding Invitations Getting married seems as if it's all about choices from the flavor of your wedding cake to the location of your reception to where to seat the guests, you're constantly having to weigh your options and make decisions. Unfortunately, choosing the mix of colors for your wedding invitations is not much different. You'll need to make some tough choices, but there are ways to make those decisions easier.

Choosing Colors

Most importantly, you need to think about the style of wedding you are having. This really does influence all of your wedding invitation choices. If you are having a semi-formal to very formal wedding, then you'll probably be limited in the colors you can choose. For example, your paper colors will be limited to off-white, ivory, cream, and similar shades. However, you may be able to add color to your embellishments, such as invitation ribbons, however.

With informal weddings though, you really have a lot of freedom when it comes to choosing your colors. In fact, you may feel you have too many choices available!

Once you understand how the style of your wedding is going to influence your color choices, you can start looking at other factors. First, look for color themes already present in your wedding plans. For example, what color is the wedding dress or the bridal party's attire? What colors have you chosen for your wedding flowers? Are there certain colors that stand out at your ceremony location?

By answering these questions, you may discover that your wedding already has a pronounced wedding theme that should be continued in your wedding invitations. For example, if you've chosen pink roses and white lilies as wedding flowers, then pink and white should be the dominant colors on your wedding invitation. Even if your invitations are traditional, you could use a pink ribbon, dried pink rose petals, etc. to bring color to the invitations.

If your wedding doesn't already have a clear color scheme, then think about when you are having your wedding. All of the seasons have definite colors associated with them. For example, fall colors include brown, orange, dark red, and yellow while winter is often associated with blue and white. Spring, on the other hand, is for pastel colors while summer is usually for bright primary colors. You can use these colors for inspiration for your invitation colors.

Picking a Color Scheme

With formal invitations, you'll probably only need to pick one main color since it will be used mostly as an accent. For other invitations, you'll probably need to be thinking in terms of appropriate color schemes.

According to color theory, a color scheme is a combination of colors which look nice together. These combinations are usually based on the placement of colors on a color wheel. By looking at where the colors are located on the wheel, you can choose the right colors to include in your scheme.

Now there are different types of schemes to choose from. One option is called analogous. In this scheme, you're picking three different colors that are right next to each on the color wheel. Essentially, you're picking various shades of the same color. For example, you might have a combination of navy blue, periwinkle, and sky blue. All three colors are blue, but in different shades.

A similar scheme is called mono-chromatic. As the name suggests, you only use one color but you use various tints and shades of that single color. In this way, the results are similar to an analogous scheme but not as many differences exist between the shades.

A third option is to use a complimentary scheme. With this scheme, you'd pick two colors which are opposite each other on the color wheel, such as violet and yellow or green and red. If you choose a complimentary scheme, you want to blend the colors carefully since they are so different. For example, you might have yellow envelopes and violet paper.

The fourth type of color scheme is known as triadic. With triadic, you choose three colors that are an equal distance from each other on the color wheel, so you might end up using red, yellow, and blue. While those colors may not sound like they would be a good match, they do work nicely. Again, you'll want to combine them carefully, possibly using one for the paper, one for the envelopes, and one for the embellishments.

Color Schemes & Ink Choices

While you can freely play around with colors when it comes to your paper and embellishment choices, you should be careful not to get too creative when it comes to the color of ink you choose. For one, colored ink – particularly colors like silver and gold – are going to cost you more per invitation. Plus, even when colors are supposed to look good together, such as blue and yellow, that doesn't always mean the results will be readable. Your best choice if you are using colored paper is to use black ink because it stands out on almost any color. If you're choosing dark colored paper that may not work with black ink, then consider white ink or a light gray ink which might work better.