One of the first things a bride does when she starts planning her wedding is to choose her wedding colours. This sets the tone for the entire wedding and will dictate what colours the bridesmaid dresses are, what the flowers choices are, the decorations, the wedding favours, and more. The wedding colour choices are endless, but fall into these basic categories: tonal, harmonious, complementary, triadic, and neutral. If you have trouble visualizing how colours go together, using a colour wheel will help you visually see how the colours work together.
A tonal colour scheme is various tones or shades of a single colour. A harmonious colour scheme is one in which the colours sit next to each other on the colour wheel. Triadic colours are equal distances apart on the colour wheel, and a neutral wedding colour scheme has various shades of white, black and/or brown. The complementary colour scheme is found by choosing two colours that are across from each other on the colour wheel.
Some examples of a complementary colour scheme are: red and green, blue and orange, and purple and yellow to name the basic colour combinations. Of course, there are thousands of shades and tones of colour in each category, and it is important to keep the colour tones the same. For example, if you are using blue and orange, either use a soft blue and a soft orange colour, or a combination of bold blues and oranges. Mixed in with any colour scheme can be your neutral colours of black, white and brown. These neutrals can be of a different tonal quality that your complementary colours, and depending upon the tone of your neutrals, it will make a different type of decor statement.
Choosing complementary colours is a great way to add a splash of colour to your wedding theme, and a great way to express your personality and personal style.