Planning your colors!

thisismynickname2

TK Blog recently had a post (well, might have been an old post they publicized for the 15th time on Facebook) about tips for choosing your colors. 

One of the tips is to not clash with the venue. 

For the love of God, folks, please don't clash with the venue.  My venue is a restaurant that sometimes posts on Facebook and last week they posted some photos. "This weekend we had three fabulous weddings!"  

Two of the three looked like crap!  The venue is decorated in an art deco style, complete with goldish colored walls and gilt frames. Some batshit crazy bride stuck turquoise blue chevron in there.  Horrible, horrible.  There's a good reason they offer standard black and white linens in the wedding package.  

Have you seen anything like this?  Decor gone awry?  Please share the snark.  

Marzipan13

Last summer I attended FI's cousin's wedding, and ho-lee shit.  The color scheme / "theme" didn't clash with the venue (the venue was gorgeous and pretty neutral as far as decor), but the color scheme / "theme" did clash with each other.  

Colors: "grape" and "fuchsia".  First of all, stfu, it was purple and hot pink (gag).
Theme: "Wine country".  Bunches of fake grapes & fake ivy at every table, perched on top of mason jars, venue (although very nice) was at a horse ranch.

I just... ugh.  I just couldn't with this wedding.

ETA:  I think it's worth mentioning that this wedding, despite the theme, was not in wine country (California, Seattle, Italy even...).  No, lovely bridal friends, it was in central Florida.  

snikives

Link? I wanna see!

thisismynickname2

My bad, it's not chevron.

This one is Tiffany blue theme:

https://www.facebook.com/TheSignatureRoomAtThe95th/photos/pcb.10152615463571495/10152615462031495/?type=1&theater

This one is a different blue pattern:

https://www.facebook.com/TheSignatureRoomAtThe95th/photos/pcb.10152615463571495/10152615462886495/?type=1&theater

Some blue and gold can be done, but both of these make my eyes hurt. 

goldchocobo.defunct635829490514903826

Another word of advice....make sure your venue doesn't clash with your venue.  If it does, I recommend another venue:

larrygaga

I have rejected venues for minor things like having ugly floral hotel carpet and cheap wooden paneling.

If you own a thing that you rent out for special parties, why on god's green earth are you not making the floors, walls and curtains as neutral as possible? It's just bad business, IMO.

Pellegcm

@larrygaga, same here. And hotels are the WORST offenders, which makes no sense to me! Both hotels I looked at (a Marriot and a Double Tree) had absolutely heinous carpeting and chairs that matched. 

Marzipan13

larrygaga said:

I have rejected venues for minor things like having ugly floral hotel carpet and cheap wooden paneling.

If you own a thing that you rent out for special parties, why on god's green earth are you not making the floors, walls and curtains as neutral as possible? It's just bad business, IMO.

Lord, if I could change one thing about our venue, it would be the carpeting.  Thankfully, most of the floor is wood, but there is a section of the old, nasty, floral carpet left.  Fortunately / unfortunately, the rest of the venue (food, location, price, everything) is wonderful, so we pretty much had to overlook the God-awful carpet.  But in another world... 

goldchocobo.defunct635829490514903826

This is my venue.  The chairs will be different, but I was in love with the stone walls and wood floors.  The place used to be a Mill.  It was a waterfall, man.  WATERFALL!  I looked a few crappy hotels before this (you guys are so right about the shitty carpeting...) and was like "NOPE!  Everything else is a landfill.  This place is IT!"

thisismynickname2

@goldchocobo that looks very pretty! 

goldchocobo.defunct635829490514903826

Marzipan13 said:

Last summer I attended FI's cousin's wedding, and ho-lee shit.  The color scheme / "theme" didn't clash with the venue (the venue was gorgeous and pretty neutral as far as decor), but the color scheme / "theme" did clash with each other.  

Colors: "grape" and "fuchsia".  First of all, stfu, it was purple and hot pink (gag).
Theme: "Wine country".  Bunches of fake grapes & fake ivy at every table, perched on top of mason jars, venue (although very nice) was at a horse ranch.

I just... ugh.  I just couldn't with this wedding.

ETA:  I think it's worth mentioning that this wedding, despite the theme, was not in wine country (California, Seattle, Italy even...).  No, lovely bridal friends, it was in central Florida.  

To the bolded:  WHAAAT?  

FI and I bought (what a waste of money!) The Knot's Wedding Guide.  The binder one.  Anyway, it came with color swatches, so we put all the swatches on the bed and grouped them together until we decided on what we liked.  Yeah, we did it before we chose a venue, but we wanted to nail down a venue first anyways so we could have always changed it...  Turns out the venue fit the scheme so it worked out.

Our centre pieces are going to have tea lights suspended in little bird cagey things...  Hard to explain without using the word 'vintage'.

....but grape and fuchsia?  Fake vines????  Fake grapes?  There was no neutral complimentary color?  

@thisismynickname Thanks!!  I'm just a lazy bride and the less decorating I have to do, the better

lizzypoo96

I once saw an episode of "Say Yes to the Dress: The Big Day" where the bride's mom paid the venue to get new carpet so she was at complete peace with the venue. Oh to have a disposable income...

StitelME

I agree about the clashing of colors being so obnoxious. I'm getting married at a vineyard (no I'm not doing purple and green and going for the wine theme - felt way too obvious at that point). The main reception room has a lot of pretty gold accents in the walls and natural décor. It made adding gold as one of my wedding colors really logical and it has been working out lovely so far (Though I realize only time will tell if I'm correct about how thing will look together).

I saw pictures a while back (I can't find them anymore or I would post a link) of a wedding that apparently went super modern with their theme and it just looked so awkward in the main room. You would think a lot of pretty, soft gold would work with a lot of things but it completely clashed with the almost harsh black and white atmosphere. I don't know how some people manage to do that. Why book this gorgeous place if you aren't going to take advantage of its natural charm?

beethery

HAD TO!!!!

jennyleigh16

StitelME said:

I agree about the clashing of colors being so obnoxious. I'm getting married at a vineyard (no I'm not doing purple and green and going for the wine theme - felt way too obvious at that point). The main reception room has a lot of pretty gold accents in the walls and natural décor. It made adding gold as one of my wedding colors really logical and it has been working out lovely so far (Though I realize only time will tell if I'm correct about how thing will look together).

I saw pictures a while back (I can't find them anymore or I would post a link) of a wedding that apparently went super modern with their theme and it just looked so awkward in the main room. You would think a lot of pretty, soft gold would work with a lot of things but it completely clashed with the almost harsh black and white atmosphere. I don't know how some people manage to do that. Why book this gorgeous place if you aren't going to take advantage of its natural charm?

I struggle with this a bit. I'm usually really good at being able to envision a room reno with a different paint colour, or furniture rearranged or what have you. I can picture my colours and accents and the decor I do have but I'm finding it really difficult to "see" the whole picture with the wedding. I had a mini freak out the other day over only having one shot to get it right, and not knowing if it's right until the day of, when I've been dreaming of this since I was a little girl. There's a lot of pressure to have this one perfect day. 

falsara

I'm actually really glad that my reception venue is basically a gym, at a church hall (my aunts a member).  Ok technically they call it an activity room, but the linoleum floor (white) has basket ball lines in maroon on it.  Good thing its mostly white and the walls are white.  The room is freaking huge though so you can only look at the floor piece by piece and when the lighting is dimmed, the floor actually looks white and black.  

Thankfully I have pretty easy colors, Royal Blue, Silver and white. The blue table cloths with silver runner will catch everyone's eye, no one will notice the floor.

beethery

jenbaer16 said:

StitelME said:

I agree about the clashing of colors being so obnoxious. I'm getting married at a vineyard (no I'm not doing purple and green and going for the wine theme - felt way too obvious at that point). The main reception room has a lot of pretty gold accents in the walls and natural décor. It made adding gold as one of my wedding colors really logical and it has been working out lovely so far (Though I realize only time will tell if I'm correct about how thing will look together).

I saw pictures a while back (I can't find them anymore or I would post a link) of a wedding that apparently went super modern with their theme and it just looked so awkward in the main room. You would think a lot of pretty, soft gold would work with a lot of things but it completely clashed with the almost harsh black and white atmosphere. I don't know how some people manage to do that. Why book this gorgeous place if you aren't going to take advantage of its natural charm?

I struggle with this a bit. I'm usually really good at being able to envision a room reno with a different paint colour, or furniture rearranged or what have you. I can picture my colours and accents and the decor I do have but I'm finding it really difficult to "see" the whole picture with the wedding. I had a mini freak out the other day over only having one shot to get it right, and not knowing if it's right until the day of, when I've been dreaming of this since I was a little girl. There's a lot of pressure to have this one perfect day. 

@jenbaer16 I can't guarantee I'll get your mental image right, but if you get me an interior shot of the venue and some images of what your tables/centerpieces/etc will look like, I might be able to roughly photoshop the interior or, at the very least, give you a rough sketch. If you want to kiiiiiind of be able to see it, that is.

Wegl13

goldchocobo said:

Another word of advice....make sure your venue doesn't clash with your venue.  If it does, I recommend another venue:

Omg our venue has these chairs. They are so comfy and so I don't want to get rid of them to bring in new chairs but I HATE THIS COLOR IT IS HEINOUS. So far I have just done the "pretend like it's not there and maybe the problem will take care of itself" thing but I was thinking of getting these covers- has anyone ever used this company? http://www.efavormart.com/ivoryuniversalsatinchaircovers.aspx

MegEn1

I'm not worried about my colors - I'm worried about my theme.

Colors: Navy, Maroon, Silver, White

Theme: Light 1930s Glam (I say light because I'm not going nuts with deco and everything else. I'm going to wear crystal and pearls and play some Glen Miller for cocktail hour)

Venue: Annapolis Maritime Museum

So while the venue will have a whole bunch of Chesapeake Bay displays, it's rather muted. It's right on the water, too. But I really didn't want to have a nautical wedding, so I decided whatever, they had glam by the water, right?

Right? RIGHT? I'M NOT RUINING EVERYTHING RIGHT?!

Fwiw, I'm focusing on the pearls to tie it all together. Pearls because of oysters, pearls because I love pearls, pearls for the silver .... but this isn't going to be a tchotchke party.

This is going to work, right? 

bethsmiles

beethery said:

HAD TO!!!!

This is post speaks to me! A friend of mine whose planning her wedding was like "I think I picked my colors, chartreuse and (some super specific shade of) white" and I just stared at her thinking WTF is chartreuse...apparently it's green.

jennyleigh16

@beethery That would be great! I'm still working out some details but when I have something in mind I would love to take you up on your offer!

MandyMost

It seems like every time I read a thread about wedding colors people say to not worry if your colors don't go with the venue, and EVERY time it pains me. You colors and overall "theme" have to go with the venue or it's going to look ridiculous. There was one a while back about someone wanting pastels (think pale blue and green maybe) and a light and airy, country feel but the venue they picked was all gold and deep red and very ornate. It just doesn't work!

There are times a big contract in themes works, because it was done on purpose, but none of these are on purpose. My venue is very urban/industrial and some people do these wooden farm tables which looks really cool. I've also seen weddings in rustic barns that have a chandelier or something that looks very chic. But most of the time? Ugh, it just doesn't work!

There are 2 choices--1. pick a venue that works with your colors/theme, or 2. change your colors/theme to work with your venue. It shouldn't be that hard. 

lnixon8

@MegEN1 that sounds perfect. I love the Maritime museumMy friend had a "fiesta" theme there and it was SO SO cool. 

It may be hard for people to understand if you're not from Maryland/Annapolis/ Eastern Shore but when you are planning your wedding around here or by the water your vendors naturally assume your theme is nautical so if its NOT you do have to speak up.

MegEn1

lnixon8 said:

@MegEN1 that sounds perfect. I love the Maritime museumMy friend had a "fiesta" theme there and it was SO SO cool. 

It may be hard for people to understand if you're not from Maryland/Annapolis/ Eastern Shore but when you are planning your wedding around here or by the water your vendors naturally assume your theme is nautical so if its NOT you do have to speak up.

Oh thanks, I'll make a point of telling them. It might be especially misleading if I'm so focused on the Navy colors. The only really 'nautical' thing we're doing is pearls. Pearls on the cake, I'm wearing pearls, pearl-looking center pieces. I figure it ties the Chesapeake Bay to the glam I'm going for. 

laquanharris

I don't have a set of colors, thought about Peach, Pearl and Blush. My wedding is a sunset wedding and going for a Romantic feel , Reception  dinner candlelit with dim lighting, until its time to dance and Partaay!

chevelleE

Uh-oh. 

I think I have made a terrible mistake...

We are having our wedding outdoors in October at an old farmhouse.  The farmhouse is not large enough to accommodate everyone, so we're renting a huge tent.  EVERYTHING will take place outside in the tent.  The only time people will need to be indoors is to use the bathrooms.  Our color scheme does NOT go with the indoor décor.  The inside of the house is already decorated nicely, so I didn't intent to really add anything to it, and we aren't allowed to remove décor that is already in the home... how awful do you think this will be? 

hellohkb

I agree. This goes for the style of decor you choose as well. My venue posted pictures on fb of a wedding that took place a few weeks ago and the decor was ultra modern, all white color palette and had a "club" look. It didn't work in the hotels cozy modern room with warm colors.

thisismynickname2

chevelleE said:

Uh-oh. 

I think I have made a terrible mistake...

We are having our wedding outdoors in October at an old farmhouse.  The farmhouse is not large enough to accommodate everyone, so we're renting a huge tent.  EVERYTHING will take place outside in the tent.  The only time people will need to be indoors is to use the bathrooms.  Our color scheme does NOT go with the indoor décor.  The inside of the house is already decorated nicely, so I didn't intent to really add anything to it, and we aren't allowed to remove décor that is already in the home... how awful do you think this will be? 

If everything but the bathrooms is outside in a tent, I think you're totally fine. Tents are nice because you have full control of the decor from top to bottom.