We all know the tradition…a white wedding dress: representing simplicity, purity, youth, innocence, perfection, virginity and godliness. It can also convey a minimal aesthetic, with a clean and modern quality. The wedding night being the eradication of such things (apparently). Back in the day the wedding sheets would be brought out like a flag and waved around donning a crimson stain as proof the marriage had been consummated.

Now I’m not sure if I’m the only one, but I find the latter creepy, weird, un-romantic and a little too public for my liking…

All of the above being said – the main reason some modern brides swerve the ivory, champagne, magnolia vibe is just because it’s really hard to inject personality into these types of colours. White is at it’s basic, is a neutral colour – like gray or brown. Whilst the ability for them to be powerful, pure and sophisticated on their own – the risk is also there for them to be incredibly plain, unimaginative and fundamentally boring.

I’m an individual who adores personal connections – for example I’m a Pisces, a Wednesdays child, My birthstone is Amethyst, In Chinese horoscopes I’m a Water Monkey and the name Bethany is biblical – a small town near Bethlehem I believe.

When it comes to choosing the colour of your dress and even the colour and theme of your whole wedding actually – think about these connections. Think about your birthstone, think about colours that mean something to you, or your partner, or both of you. Think about flowers attached to your birth month or memorable times in which you remember certain colours or flowers. These personal connections are so important and I believe the more personal your day, the more memorable. Choosing colours that resonate with you and your partner is the way to go.

Here’s some explanations of what colours represent:

WARM COLOURS
This includes red, yellow and orange, and variations like pink. These colours evoke warmth due to their brightness and link to the sun. In general, they convey optimism, enthusiasm, and passion.

COLD COLOURS
These include green, blue, purple, and their variations like violet. These colours are considered cool as they are colours commonly found in nature and are known for their calming effect. These colours are calming, relaxing, and subdued.
· Neutral colors

RED
Red is considered to be a color of intense emotions, ranging from anger, sacrifice, danger, and heat, through to passion, and sexuality. Not surprising when it’s the color of fire and blood, as well as being associated with love. It is a bold, energetic, and lively color that can symbolize strength, confidence, and power.
Tips for use: In many Asian countries such as India and China, red is regarded as the color of happiness, wellbeing, and good fortune, so always consider the context.

PINK
Pink is regarded widely in the western world as the color of femininity. Because of this, it is used to bring awareness to breast cancer and women’s products. However, like all colors, pink is quite diverse and the level of intensity can impact its meaning. Pale pink is often aimed at little girls, dusty pink is more sentimental or romantic, while hot pink indicates youthfulness.

Tips for use: Identify the mood and feeling you want to muster, and choose your pink accordingly. Don’t shy away from using pink for genderless brands (like T-Mobile does) as you may be targeting personality or gen-Y rather than gender.

ORANGE
Blending the warmth of red and the optimism of yellow, orange communicates activity and energy. And of course, it’s hard not to associate it with its namesake, immediately making it feel fresh and healthy.
Orange has different tones and shades, each with different meanings and effects. For example, light pastel peach tones are seen as sweet, conversational, and affable, whereas more intense, vibrant oranges are seen as representative of vitality, energy, and encouragement.
Tips for use: Because orange is associated with fun and vibrancy is well suited to youthful, energetic brands and best avoided for luxury, traditional or serious brands.

YELLOW
Being the color of sunshine, yellow puts a smile on the dial. It is the most visible color from a distance (which is why it’s used for street signs) and communicates cheerfulness, friendliness, joy, and energy. It can also be associated with mental clarity and intellect. However, yellow is also a cautionary color used in life vests, police cordoning tape, and hazardous areas.
Tips for use: Some shades of yellow can look cheap—although this may suit your brand image. So yellow is a great example of when to research consumer reaction to color appropriateness and make sure it is the right color for your product.

Named after the Anglo-Saxon word grene meaning “grass” and “grow” but today it has two common associations that are paradoxical. One being nature and the environment, and the other being finance and wealth. When it comes to nature, green represents plant life and growth and is consequently used to convey being ‘green’ in the environmental, sustainable, organic, natural sense of the word. And of course, green is, as the saying goes, ‘the color of money’ (US money, that is) and therefore associated with wealth and stability.
Tips for use: Pick your shade of green carefully as brighter, lighter greens indicate growth, vitality, and renewal; while darker, richer greens represent prestige, wealth, and abundance.

BLUE
Blue is a color that has long been associated with royalty, art, military, business, and nature, making it a color with a lot of applications. It is a favorite color for companies that wish to convey reliability, trustworthiness, and communication (think Facebook, Twitter, and Samsung) and for expressing the authority of organizations like the police. It is also appreciated for its calming and harmonious qualities being associated with the sea and sky. On the flip side, it’s also used to express sadness or depression, or as we say, feeling ‘blue’.
Tips for use: Blue runs the gamut from corporate and dependable, to calming and tranquil, to feeling down in the dumps. So choose your shade wisely.

PURPLE
Purple is considered a low arousal color. It is traditionally associated with royalty, majesty, or nobility as well as having a spiritual or mysterious quality. Darker shades often represent luxury or opulence while lighter lavender shades are quite feminine, sentimental, and even nostalgic.
Tips for use: Purple is best used for targeting a female audience as research suggests women list purple as a top-tier color while it doesn’t even rank for men. Overall, purple is not a common color for branding and in fact, Cadbury is the only purple brand in the Forbes list of the 100 most valuable brands from 2014.

BROWN
Brown gets a lot of use in this era of organic and natural food, beauty, and products. Nature-inspired it represents a feeling of wholesomeness, orderliness, and being grounded. It is simple, strong, durable, and honest and may express that your brand has better things to care about than superfluous color when really, there are so many beautiful shades of brown to elevate any product.
Tips: Use caution with brown as it can remind people of dirt. On the other hand, it’s also great to cover up dirt if the product you’re branding has anything to do with soil, dirt, or mud.

BLACK
Black is to be taken seriously. It represents power, luxury, sophistication, and exclusivity on one hand; and death, evil, and mystery on the other. From formality to mourning to power, black is bold, classic, and not to be fooled with. While color is more likely to increase brand recognition there’s no reason black—when used appropriately—can’t be just as distinctive, memorable, and communicative of a brand’s attributes.

MULTICOLOR
Of course, what about mixing multiple colors in one logo, such as Google, the Olympics, and NBC? Diverse color generally indicates variety – be it representative of people, countries, or offerings.

Red – danger, passion, excitement, energy
Pink – feminine, sentimental, romantic, exciting
Orange – fresh, youthful, creative, adventurous
Yellow – optimistic, cheerful, playful, happy
Green – natural, vitality, prestige, wealth
Blue – communicative, trustworthy, calming, depressed
Purple – royalty, majesty, spiritual, mysterious
Brown – organic, wholesome, simple, honest
White – purity, simplicity, innocence, minimalism
Black – sophisticated, formal, luxurious, sorrowful
Multicolour – United, open, diversity

How about taking it one step further: how long have you and your partner been together? If it’s 8 years – bronze is your material – therefore maybe think about an autumnal wedding with lots of oranges, bronzes, deep reds and earth tones? 11th, 12th or 13th all scream winter wedding to me – cold colours, lace, steelglassware…
15-19 years – you there have a plethora of colour pallettes you can use because of these precious stones connected to those years. Check ‘em out:

1st anniversary: Paper/Associated Flowers: Carnations / Pansies

2nd anniversary: Cotton/Associated Flowers: Cosmos

3rd: anniversary: Leather/Associated Flowers: Fuchsias

4th anniversary: Linen/Associated Flowers: Geraniums

5th anniversary: Wood/Associated Flowers: Daisies

6th anniversary: Iron/Associated Flowers: Calla Lillies

7th anniversary: Wool/Associated Flowers: Jack-in-the-Pulpit

8th anniversary: Bronze/Associated Flowers: Clematis

9th anniversary: Pottery/Associated Flowers: Poppies

10th anniversary: Tin/Associated Flowers: Daffodils

11th anniversary: Steel/Associated Flowers: Morning Glory

12th anniversary: Silk/Associated Flowers: Peonies

13th anniversary: Lace/Associated Flowers: Hollyhocks

14th anniversary: Ivory/Associated Flowers: Dahlias

15th anniversary: Crystal/Associated Flowers: Roses

16th anniversary: Topaz

17th anniversary: Amethyst

18th anniversary: Garnet

19th anniversary: Aquamarine

20th anniversary: China/Associated Flowers: Day Lillies

21st anniversary: Brass

22nd anniversary: Copper

23rd anniversary: Silver plate

24th anniversary: Musical instruments

25th anniversary: Silver/Associated Flowers: Iris

26th anniversary: Original pictures

27th anniversary: Sculpture

28th anniversary: Orchids/Associated Flowers: Orchids

29th anniversary: New furniture

30th anniversary: Pearl/Associated Flowers: Sweet Pea

31st anniversary: Timepieces

32nd anniversary: Conveyances (vehicles)

33rd anniversary: Amethyst

34th anniversary: Opal

35th anniversary: Coral

36th anniversary: Bone china

37th anniversary: Alabaster

38th anniversary: Beryl/ Emerald.

39th anniversary: Lace

40th anniversary: Ruby/Associated Flowers: Nasturtiums

41st anniversary: Land

42nd anniversary: Real estate

43rd anniversary: Travel

44th anniversary: Groceries

45th anniversary: Sapphire

46th anniversary: Poetry

47th anniversary: Books

48th anniversary: Optical goods

49th anniversary: Luxuries

50th anniversary: Gold/Associated Flowers: Violets

55th anniversary: Emerald

60th anniversary: Diamond

70th anniversary: Platinum

75th anniversary: Diamond

When it comes to the perfect dress that suits you – aside from how important the colour is to you – it has to suit you. Every make up artist and hair stylist pays attention to face shape, hair colour, eye colour and skin colour, and it’s no different when picking your dress – aside from you have to consider your body shape so you can match your style to your bod! You can find colour wheels and all sort of calculators and visuals online to help you match a colour and style to your face and body. For example – I am curvy therefore love anything that clinches in at the waist, and I have hazel eyes with copper ish brown hair, therefore my top colour opt would be green. Also think about the season you’re getting married. Fur, long sleeves and lace are all going to match perfectly with a Winter Wedding for example.

I’m a person who doesn’t really care what Celebrities wear, but some of you will be – and that’s ok! So I’ve focused on the few figures I consider to be Iconic whether it be because of them – or the outfit – or both!

MY IDOL – Marilyn Monroe (Brown)

The Queen of the unexpected – Marilyn opted for a Dark Brown suit with a White Fur collar for a small Winter Civil Ceremony to Joe DiMaggio in New York – January 1954.
Oozing style and class, the suit screams wholesome, honest, simplicity. Just like the size and setting of their special day.

THE O.G – Elizabeth Taylor (Yellow – Cynthia Nixon and Emily Ratajowski opted for yellow too.)

Which one?! I hear you mutter.
Elizabeths dress when marrying Richard Burton in 1964 was created by ‘Cleopatra’ Costume Designer: Irene Sharaff. The merigold hued chiffon babydoll dress was completed with a Bulgari broach and her hair in a braid with woven in hyacinths and lilies. Lilys represent purity and Hyacinths represent Constancy (of which the marriage was neither sadly :/ )

Emily Ratajowski deserves a special mention here, she recently looked stunning at her wedding with a mustard yellow wedding suit.

BURLESQUE QUEEN – Dita Von Teese (Purple)

Dita wore a lavish purple gown designed by Vivienne Westwood for her 2005 wedding to Marilyn Manson in Ireland at a Gothic Castle. (wow!) Purple represents mystery and sometimes royalty. The gown was made of 17 metres of Violet, Swiss, Silk Taffeta. Offbeat, Unholy and Unconventional. Perfect!

Wanna read more about the celeb style? Click here > https://www.elle.com.au/fashion/celebrities-who-wore-colored-wedding-dresses-10778

Bottom line is – wear whatever you want, as long as it fits well, suits you and FEELS RIGHT!