WEDDING STYLE

Choosing your wedding colour scheme

You'll be spending the majority of your wedding day enjoying the reception - having a wonderful meal, listening to speeches, cutting the designer wedding cake and then probably dancing until dawn - so it's important to create an environment that you feel suits the tone of your day. Try to focus on a colour scheme, whether it's just one colour or a combination of two. Silver and gold generally combine well with most colours, or you might decide to go for a contemporary look such as chocolate brown and mint green. If you've already chosen your colour, you’re halfway there! If you haven't, take inspiration from your venue. Perhaps there is a colour that will work particularly well. If, for example, the venue has a red carpet, you might decide to work with that. Also consider the time of year and the time of day of your wedding. Rich, heavy colours tend to work well at a winter wedding, while summer weddings lend themselves to pastel hues and softer shades. And, finally, think about what you like. There's no point surrounding yourselves with pink if you hate the colour!

Making your wedding colour scheme work

When you've chosen your all-important colour scheme, think about how you can introduce it to the room. Generally speaking - less is more! Simple, elegant touches and splashes of colour will be more effective than having everything in your chosen shade. Table linen, china, glassware and chair covers are all effective ways of bringing in colour. White tablecloths are a safe option, but you might decide to accompany that with a coloured napkin. Equally, white plates always look stylish, but you could have a coloured base plate or wine glass. As well as the table basics, consider decorations. Table flowers are an obvious way to introduce colour to the table. In fact, a wonderful arrangement can completely change the look of a simple white table. Table confetti, favour boxes, place cards, menus, candles and napkin decorations all make wonderful decorations. But - remember - the table is a place to eat and you don't want to clutter it up so much that your guests can barely see their food!

Wedding table settings

Coloured china and wonderful linens may sound great, but most venues will only be able to offer the basics. This is where the hire company comes in - enabling you to hire anything from fabulous gold base plates to stylish designer glassware. Unless you have a fortune to spend, the key is to be selective, and to remember that having things on every other table, or even just the top table, can be equally effective and significantly less expensive. When you have the perfect table in your mind, practise at home. It's always worth setting the table to see what it looks like before investing in various items and deciding that you don't like it. The next step is to speak to your venue, find out who will be decorating your tables on the day (unless you have a helpful wedding planner), and let them know exactly how you'd like it to look. Then, all you have to do is sit down and enjoy it all on the day!