And if you prefer to read, here's the summary of the podcast episode!

 Today we’re doing something a little different for our season finale of both our blog and podcast (Be sure to check out episode 67 of Ask the Planner).

First, we’re going to talk about wedding colors and curating your perfect color palette. In the second part, I’ll do a brief summary of the top blog posts and episodes of Season 1 and Season 2. If you’re new to the blog and podcast or you’ve been meaning to catch up, this will keep you up to date on the most popular posts of the season. 

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Choosing Dominant and Complementary Colors

First, we have to choose the dominant colors of our color palette. Typically, I get inspiration from my client what these colors will be, usually it’s one or two colors. This can be their favorite colors, their school colors, or recurring colors I see in their home, like in the artwork hanging on their walls. These colors can also be inspired by the season, so deep burgundy for fall, or a coral pink for spring. 

To pick out the secondary colors, I also get inspiration from the client’s favorite colors to see if they work well with the dominant colors. Sometimes it’s a color opposite the dominant color on the color wheel, at other times, it’s a color next to it.

Also, don't feel like you need to choose a TON of colors. Some of the prettiest designs I include tints or variations of the same color. 

Wedding Color Inspiration

1) Choose Colors that Occur in Nature

Now you’re probably listening to this and thinking, that’s all well and good Desiree, but how do you pick colors that go together for a wedding color palettes? What if I don’t know what will look nice together? 

My first rule for choosing colors is picking colors that occur naturally in nature already.  So for example, I’ll search for “fall wedding flowers” on Pinterest and look at different arrangements and see if any of them stand out to me as matching the style of the couple.  Then I’ll save images of floral arrangements I like in a folder and then upload them to a website called Image Color Picker (imagecolorpicker.com). On this website, I use their color picker tool to pull colors from the flower arrangements.  Again, I’m not specifically choosing colors based on a color palette I have in mind, but based on what’s already occurring in nature. 

Back in the early 2000’s when I was getting married, it was all about bold, bright colors. But lately we’re picking colors that are richer and more mature. I don’t know any other way to describe it. 

2) Design Seeds

If you don’t want to go the natural route with seasonal flowers, another source of inspiration for colors is the instagram account Design Seeds (https://www.instagram.com/designseeds/?hl=en). This account is all about wedding color palettes. Basically, she’ll (I think it’s a she, but I have no clue actually) take an image and pull 5 colors out of that image. Again, it uses the principle of colors occurring naturally, but they’re not always in nature. Sometimes it’ll be a photo of just peonies and she’ll get various shades of blush and pink and orange from it. Other photos will be a red and white striped beach chair at the ocean, so she’ll pull some colors from the sand, the ocean, and the chair, which is also super pretty. 

3) Paint Chips / Color Palettes

Another source of inspiration for wedding color palettes is interior design. Farrow and Ball has beautiful paint colors. Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams also have different color collections with different paints paired together that work well, and you can play off those combinations.

4) Interior Design 

Going along this same vein, you can also get inspiration from interior design magazines like Architectural Digest to see what the interior decorating trends are and see if you like anything in there. A lot of the trends in events and weddings come from other creative fields like fashion and interior design, so that’s a great place to look. 

5) Encycolorpedia

My final tool for finding colors is a fabulous website called Encycolorpedia.com.

Sometimes I have a color in mind but I can’t quite find the right shade. Encycolorpedia is what it sounds like, an encyclopedia of colors. You type in a name, like blush, and it will give you all sorts of options for blush AND it will give you the PMS and HEX codes so you can make sure the colors are reproduced accurately. 

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Season Wrap Up

And now let’s get to the second part of today’s episode, which is a brief review of the most popular episodes of Season 1 and Season 2. I’ll do the top 5 for each season, but really, all of them were so good, it’s hard to pick just 5.

From season 1:

Episode 35 – 10 Reasons Why You Would and Would Not Hire a Wedding Planner

This was really popular when I first published it, and it’s still in my top 3 of all time. I gave 10 reasons why people choose to hire a wedding planner, but also why it might be a good idea not to hire one if you want things done a certain way, etc.

Episode 31 – Hacking the Wedding Hotel Rooms Block

This was a great episode because I talked with an expert who’s worked for multiple hotel chains and he gave us some insider tips on what to ask for and how to negotiate your hotel rooms, such as asking for points, upgrades, etc.

Episode 7 – 2021 Wedding Trends – Throwing Tradition Out the Door

This was another really popular episode where I talked about what trends I predicted would be popular in the 2021 wedding season. And I actually even predicted the Pantone Color of the year for 2021. True story. A lot of those trends are still current, so I highly recommend that episode.

Episode 11 – The Ultimate Wedding Planning Roadmap: A Checklist for Engaged Couples

This episode was super thorough and I basically gave you a play by play of what you should be doing and when during the wedding planning process. If you like this episode, which was very hands on, make sure you check out my Wedding Planning Checklist in the Wedding Planning Template Shop, which can be found at https://shop.verveeventco.com/wedding-planning-checklist. I’ll also link to it in the shownotes at verveeventco.com/66. 

Episode 27: 14 Crucial Questions You Forgot to Ask Your Wedding Venue

In this episode, I give you some really important questions to ask your wedding venue that you’re probably not thinking about. I talk about hidden fees and other fun stuff, so make sure you check that one out. 

SEASON 2

Top episodes of season 2 will be a little harder to gauge because we have some newer episodes that are super popular but haven’t quite leveled out like the others, but here are the top 5 so far of Season 2. 

Episode 48: These 2022 Wedding Trends Are Taking Over

You all really love a good trends episode and I don’t blame you. Whenever I see “trends” in an online article, like fashion trends, I can’t help but click on it. 

Episode 50: Common Wedding Planning Questions

In this episode, I answered common listener questions from you all that I thought would be helpful for everyone else.

Episode 46: Meaningful Wedding Ceremonies from a Celebrity Wedding Officiant

This was a really great episode with Rev. Clint Hufft. He’s the officiant that presided over the ceremony of the first couple from The Bachelor and he gave some really good tips about what to say and how to say it during your wedding ceremony. 

Episode 40: How to Put Together Your Wedding Guest List

In this hands-on episode, I walked through the different categories of people you’ll be inviting and how to decide whether or not to invite them, who gets a plus one, what about etiquette, and other stuff. 

Episode 56: 2022 Wedding Dress Trends 

I loved this episode where I interviewed Katie Wadhams, the owner of the Lovely Bride salon here locally in Rochester, but which is also part of the national brand Lovely Bride. In it, Katie gave us her take from what she saw at market in the fall and in the spring and where she sees bridal dress trends for 2022 and 2023.

A very lovely episode, if I do say so myself. 

Conclusion: Wedding Color Palettes

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