Choosing a color palette for your wedding is one of the most enjoyable, creative, and rewarding steps in planning your big day.

Your color combo helps you determine the overall vibe of the wedding and makes it much easier to make decisions about the aesthetic elements. These range from big-ticket items like bridesmaid dresses and flower arrangements to all the little touches like tablecloths and napkins.

Picking your wedding colors also means you'll be ready to order custom stationery like invitations and save-the-dates. If you're yet to make a firm decision about your wedding color palette, there are endless sources of inspiration. Why not look at popular color schemes featured on Mixbook's wedding stationery products? Also, consider the season and location of your wedding, as different landscapes present the glorious color palettes of nature.

Best practices for picking wedding color palettes

Whether you have too many wedding color combination ideas or are struggling to pick just one favorite color, it's best to settle on one or two main colors, maximum. You might add one or two secondary hues, one of which should be neutral. Optionally, add a bold accent shade such as a metallic.

Designers use tools to help combine colors in a pleasing way. Tools like Adobe Color help you create a palette according to design conventions. You can also use the tool to extract a color palette from an image, such as a work of art or photograph.

Knowing the exact shades that make up your palette, defined by their hex codes, is helpful. This information will help avoid issues with different interpretations of color names. For example, your maid of honor's idea of "lilac" could differ greatly from the cake decorator's.

Inspiration for wedding color combination ideas

It's possible and common to know exactly what wedding color combinations you prefer based on your color preferences. You don't need a reason! For wedding-planning couples who still have decisions to make, look to the following for inspiration:

Seasons -We associate different color combinations with different seasons, so your wedding date is a good place to start.
Venue - Your ceremony or reception venue might influence your wedding color combination ideas. For example, a garden wedding might inspire floral pastels or greens; a tropical island wedding inspires bright, sunny hues, while a historic brick church wedding might suit a vintage color palette.
Trends - Fashionable brides and grooms can look to the latest trends for color palette ideas. The latest fashion and wedding magazines, along with following big-name stylish folks on social media, will reveal the hottest color combinations of the moment.
Personal mementos - Unique personal reasons could inspire your absolute favorite color combinations. Your grandmother's best dessert plates, your favorite pair of shoes, the flowers that grow on a fence you walk by every day, or a painting you're obsessed with — these are all lovely ways to come up with a wedding color scheme.

Our favorite wedding color combination ideas

Up-to-the-minute trends and timeless styles. Bold and bright, or subdued and sophisticated. Dazzling jewelry box hues or dusky earth tones. No matter your color combination preferences, they're all beautiful. We do have some favorites, though:

Emerald and white or gray

This was a PANTONE color of the year back in 2013, but the emerald jewel tone has a timeless beauty. As the main color in your wedding palette, emerald green will bring a fresh, lively spirit of lush abundance to your wedding celebration. Use it in your personal wedding stationery by selecting Mixbook's emerald damask, emerald flourish frame, or classic flourish frame wedding stationery suites. Neutral whites and grays help the jewel tone pop.

Indigo, blush, and gold

The hint of gold brightens our moody painted watercolor wedding stationery in saturated hues of indigo and blush. The colors resemble an impressionist painting and would work really well for a winter wedding.

Terracotta Shades

Mixbook's desert vibes wedding suite represents the sun-baked, earthy hues of terracotta, dusky blush, and leather. The color combination is ideal for a nature-loving, adventurous couple and a no-brainer for any wedding in a desert location.

African violet and marigold

The African violet shade of purple is a fabulous main color choice for anyone who loves the eponymous flower. The hue works beautifully with marigold-like yellows and oranges and holds its own as a color anchor alongside a neutral white or cream. Whichever way you go, Mixbook has lots of perfect invitations that feature that strong but subtle shade of lavender, including the color-blocking collage and berry florals.

Peach and lavender

The PANTONE color of the year for 2024 is peach fuzz, so choose this as a sweetly romantic main color if you want to be totally on-trend. Complementary lavender is a perfect secondary color for this palette, or you could embrace the theme of peaches and cream. These colors are perfect for a spring or summer wedding in a scenic outdoor setting.

Ice cream colors

For a summer wedding, choose a color palette that brings to mind a sweet treat of ice cream. Strawberry, pale chocolate, and vanilla hues resemble Neapolitan ice cream, but you could also bring in flavors like pistachio or raspberry ripple.

Forest green and the palest gray

A deep forest green is a beautifully sophisticated shade to choose for your main wedding color. It's perfect for a woodland wedding location or any venue with vintage vibes. Pair it with the palest gray of a stormy sky. The rich mahogany tone of an old leather armchair is a very handsome accent to go with this wedding color combination idea. Mixbook's abstract green painted wedding invitations are a match.

Black and White

Black and white never go out of style, and there's no rule saying the best wedding color combination ideas have to have actual colors among them. Limiting your color palette to just black and white still leaves plenty of room for endless design styles, and the results will definitely look clean and sophisticated.

Send out the modern type ampersand wedding or elegant white wedding script invitations to show guests how amazing a black-and-white scheme can look. (Oh, and if you do decide you need an accent color, literally any shade will work with black and white.)

Navy gradient

Navy is a timeless, moody, and chic shade of the darkest blue. Transform the main color of navy into a gradient, spanning from a slate shade to the deepest indigo with metallic gold as an accent. This color scheme, featured in Mixbook's painted navy wedding invitations, is perfect for a winter wedding or any city setting.

Wood and off-white

Wood's warm and nature-rich tones are the perfect main color for a rustic-set wedding or any fall-season ceremony. Choose a favorite wood, whether it's pine, mahogany, maple, or walnut, and pair it with a cream or off-white. Mixbook's rustic wood wedding stationery shows how attractive this aesthetic can be.

Rose red, glossy green, and white

Take inspiration from the reddest of red roses and their glossy green leaves for your wedding color combination ideas. The red floral watercolor wedding invitation shows how pops of these bold floral hues stand out beautifully against a white background. Mirror the color scheme with red roses in your floral arrangements.

Ocean blues and beach sand

For a coastal wedding or just for a couple who loves the vibe of the beach, choose a main color of marine blue with a subtle pale sand tone as a neutral secondary hue. The beach wedding invitation shows how this color combination works perfectly with a washy, watercolor effect. It could also look great in brighter, bolder tones.

Greens and grays with an inky blue

The greens of wildflower flower stems against pale neutral grays with a pop or two of inky blue make up a truly gorgeous color combination to consider for your wedding. Spring Florals by Khristian Howell showcases floral artwork with this color combination, and we think it would be beautiful for your wedding color scheme as well.

Burgundy ombre

With the richness of a delicious glass of red wine and the artistry of an ombre effect, Mixbook's burgundy ombre invitations represent a gorgeous color scheme. The deep hue is especially suitable for a fall or winter wedding.

Fuchsia, lilac, and sage

Fuchsia and lilac flowers always look stunning in a bouquet, and they're equally pretty as a wedding color combination. Complement the two main hues with leafy sage, as seen in the lovely artwork on our wedding day floral invitations.

Dusky raspberry and teal

The unexpected pairing of a dusky raspberry shade with a deep, saturated teal is stunning. The colorful floral frame invitations showcase this color combination, throwing in pale pinks and grays as neutrals and accents. We can definitely envision this color scheme as wedding decor.

The palest of primary colors

The three primary colors – red, yellow, and blue – typically say elementary school rather than a wedding color scheme. However, dial down the saturation and render the three colors in their palest hues, and you have a wedding color combination idea that's totally unique. Check out the wooden geometric wedding stationery at Mixbook for an example of this scheme.

Need help with wedding color combination ideas?

If you need any assistance with your wedding invitations, including design consultation, just reach out to the design experts at Mixbook's Help Center.