Weddings with more than 2-3 colors?

This is a good question.

As a bridal garment designer and dressmaker along with being an interior decorator, you can imagine that I deal with color all of the time. A successful combination of colors is easier to select than one may think. Many of the principals of decorating your home also apply with organizing the color elements of a wedding.

Just like when you decorate your home, you need inspiration. So, you select an object, a fabric, a painting or what have you, to base your decor on. Then, from there you pick colors, textures and patterns to fill up the room. Very much like what may inspire a bride's color choices for her wedding.

Inspiration to select colors can be found anywhere. I found some fabric to make my brides maids dresses which inspired my 4 color wedding color scheme. The fabric was a chiffon with an ivory back ground with burgundy, pink and purple/lavender flowers. I used all of those colors in my wedding. Ivory table linens with burgundy napkins, large full blooming African Violets for the tables in all those colors (a whopping $1.79 each, yes, one dollar and seventy nine cents), my mother wore pink, his wore lavender, the groomsmen wore burgundy. When you have some inspiration, like I did with the fabric, it just takes off from there. Just like a pretty comforter can dictate the color of your bedroom and accessories.

I have helped brides pick colors for quite some time. Often I ask them the same questions I ask my home decorating clients. Like, where do you like to vacation, what are your favorite activities, what is your favorite time of year, where do you go for peace and quiet; questions like that tell a lot about a person and immediately help me to see colors they would like. For instance, the person who likes to hike in the woods and ski in the winter, will usually turn away from bright colors and stick with a mild color pallet. Whereas the individual who vacations in the Bahamas and loves boating would lean toward turquoise, corals and yellow colors.

I once picked wedding colors from a favorite painting in a client's house. It was a beautiful fall scene in bright daylight. So, we picked sage green, rusty reds, burnt oranges and golden yellows for her wedding colors. Sometimes I ask a client to take a quick peak in their closet. There I find favorite colors all the time and use them to inspire the wedding colors.

I think the best thing is to stop thinking so hard about it because the answer to your color selections are usually right in front of your face, you just have to look for them.

The most colors I've seen in a wedding would be a rainbow one, where the wedding couple used every single color of the rainbow. It was a really fun and unique wedding--nothing drabby there! What the couple did was they had 12 people total in the wedding party (6 bridesmaids, 6 groomsman). All 6 bridesmaids wore a different color dress, shoes, and flower bouquet of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple), and the groomsman as well (except they wore different colored vests and ties. Their suits were khaki). The bride and groom also decorated each reception table a different color. They added in turquoise and hot pink, because they needed 8 tables. The bride wore a white dress and had a rainbow colored flower bouquet. The groom wore a black tuxedo and had a rainbow colored tie and boutonniere.

And the same concept used in the rainbow wedding is the same for any other wedding with 4+ colors. In the case of the flower girl, they might have her wear a two/three-toned dress and then a sash with a different color. Or they might just stick her with one single color (might be plain white, like the bride, or one of the wedding colors).

For the colors of the dresses, I strongly suggest picking the color that looks best on your attendant(s). So many colors go well for a June wedding, there is no reason to limit it. But if your heart is set on sage green and pink, that will work. Just keep in mind that sage might was out your maid's skin, and she won't look as nice in pictures. Stay away from gerbra daisy's for a hot Texas wedding! They look fab, but they are not very sturdy. They wilt much faster than roses, and the heat will speed this up even more. It is true that roses are the sturdiest, hardiest flowers and will look the nicest the longest. This is why they are usually in bridal bouquets. I think a simple, informal dress would be very nice for your wedding. Especially if it will be outside and since the wedding is small. They can look very elegant. Mori Lee and Alfred Angelo have some very nice dresses that seem lighter weight and more informal. You want to stay away from tulle!

I'm also curious how they make that many colors work and would like to see pictures.

Everyone has different ideas of aesthetic, but to me less is more. Our colors were brown and pink, I was not totally strict on the shades of those colors though. Our cake was chocolate brown with pink cherry blossoms all over, and the blossoms really popped against the dark brown. Bridesmaids dresses were more of a cafe Au lait shade, looked nice on an evening California sunset.

When my sister got married, she had one color.

I think having some dominant colors looks nice, but it is pointless to follow it to a T. I can't believe some of the brides on here actually worrying whether their ivory dress will clash with the white tablecloths, LOL. Or that the invitations only come in aqua, which is not exactly like Tiffany blue. Gimme a break.

We are having a lot of colors in our wedding...but none (almost) of the colors were planned and we don't consider them to be "our colors"

I'll explain. My dress is pale yellow. I didn't plan this..I just saw the dress, liked it a lot, and bought it. My accessorizes to the dress are brown..I did plan this because I think pale yellow and brown go together well. Since my accessories are brown...I wanted the flower girl to be in brown also. Her dress is brown with bright orange, red, pink and some other colors flowers on it. Her dress also has a bit of the same pale yellow as my dress. Fiance's suit will be a tan-ish color. (similar to my pale yellow)

We are not having a wedding party..so no decision about colors there.

We are marrying in a rose garden...so whatever roses are in bloom will be A-OK for us. We are not decorating. My bouquet will be a bunch of multicolored roses (similar to the ones in flower girl dress)

Reception is lunch at a restaurant. When the event coordinator asked me what color linens we want..I said "it doesn't matter..something nice" So if the linens are black, white, tan, green...that's all good.

The cupcakes are in multicolored wrappers with ivory icing and the small roses on top of the cupcakes will match the liner it is in.

So at the end of the day...we probably will have a wedding with 30 or more colors.

The different colors be bridesmaids each wearing a different color, tux vests can be different for the groom, groomsmen, ushers, etch.... or it can be as simple as the flowers pulling in the colors, or the decorations. The colors are used to the bride's liking I would say. Its a creative thing.

Depends on how it is done....and it can be.

When I remarried five years ago it was late September in downstate NY the autumn colors that year were glorious....I wore an outfit of deep garnet, almost wine red...a color reflected in many of the trees. Since my groom and our 'attendants' (his Best Man, and my four kids stood up with us) chose to wear neutrals of charcoal gray & black....I let my bouquet have all the colors of fall....garnet, burnt orange, gold, pale yellow, brown ( multicolored star lillies,mini cat tails, golden yarrow and sheaves of wheat.)

We had a home reception at my sisters and coincidentally her dinning room was painted a soft pale creamy golden-yellow with deep garnet valences over white gauze curtain panels so we used her garnet colored table cloth, let our wedding cake ( cream cheese iced carrot cake decorated with sugar callas) framed by two ivory candles in brass candlestick be the centerpiece of the buffet table. For convenience of clean up I bought matching plastic/paper ware in dishes, cold & hot cups and napkins-found a pattern of soft burnt orange background with pretty multicolored autumn leaves for the plates & napkins, used a pale champagne color for the cups and 'silverware' and left it at that...looked very, very pretty & was simple and understated enough for a second marriage between two 50 somethings having a small home style cold luncheon buffet for a reception.

I don't like more than two colours. My colours are watermelon and butter yellow, but I've also thrown in some light pink flowers into the arrangements to provide some interest. It's better to go with multiple shades of one colour rather than multiple different colours.