There are so many fun ways to incorporate peaches into your wedding theme, from giving out peach cookies (that taste like real peaches) as wedding favors to dressing your flower girl in a pretty peach dress to an awesome peachy sash. So what if you are getting married in a clime where peaches never grow? Cute and fuzzy, mellow orange and bright pink… peaches are the pets of the produce world. Here are some quick ways you can enrich your wedding theme (or color scheme) with anthropomorphic fruit:

1. Peach cookies from Tickle My Tummy (top left)
2. A peach flower girl dress from I Love Gorgeous (top right)
3. Peach table cards like these from Blooms by Martha Andrews (middle left)
4. Peach reception table decorations like these photographed by Justin Marantz (middle right)
5. A beautiful peach sash from Icing 101 (bottom left)
6. Peach-in-a-nest table decor, again from Blooms by Martha Andrews (bottom right)

And yet, weddings are very often uber feminine affairs. There are big bunches of flowers, sometimes oodles and oodles of them. Wedding color palettes are trending toward gender-neutral hues, but there are still plenty of weddings with color schemes dominated by pinks and purples and pastels. Plus, so much of the wedding hype actively focuses on the bride — her experience, her wedding dress, the engagement ring, etc. — that the groom can seem like just another minor detail.

My take on it is that society frames weddings as being for women. Dads tell their sons and future sons-in-law to “stand back and shut up” while the wife-to-be goes on a tulle-fueled buying binge. Advertisers address the bride-to-be’s experience. Have you ever seen a commercial or print ad that featured a groom-to-be waxing poetic about wedding planning? I haven’t. We grow up thinking of the guys as secondary players in the wedding, so maybe it’s easy for some people to forget that the guy standing in the corner holding the Tiffany & Co. box might have some opinions about what his wedding ought to look like. At best, grooms-to-be are given one area to oversee… they handle the music or the menswear, while the bride-to-be has the final say over everything else.

I realize, of course, that there are some men who honestly do not care about their own weddings. They’re more than pleased to be tasked with showing up at the ceremony wearing whatever their sweethearts have picked out. And there have got to be grooms who think a feminine wedding is the only kind of wedding! But I also wonder how many guys are “standing back and shutting up” because that’s what they’ve been taught to do, just as us ladies have been subtly trained to do it all. Maybe the groom-to-be secretly hates the pink wedding invitations or the wedding cake that looks like a castle or the elaborate floral arrangements, but is hesitant to say anything because he thinks he shouldn’t care or that caring will seem unmanly or some such thing.

To brides (or grooms) who are dismayed, offended, or irritated by their groom’s lack of interest in the wedding, I say give him another chance. Before you put down a deposit on a venue or vendor, ask his opinion. Try once more to include him when you’re shopping around. Give him something to do, especially if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all your wedding planning to-dos. The flip side is, of course, that once you include him, you have to respect his opinions and choices just like you expect him to respect yours. Compromise will no doubt be necessary. But won’t it be awesome to have a wedding that you created together and that reflects aspects of both of your personalities?

(Images via)

Paired with brown detailing and tiny rhinestones, aqua and lime wedding invitations can be beachy but don’t have to be. This is a fun palette that maintains its elegance when you, say, leave the sea stars on the sand where they belong. (via)

An aqua and lime wedding palette can also be enhanced with bits of pink and purple. Used that way, it’s very tropical, great for a destination weddings or weddings on the beach. (via)

A short, kicky aqua wedding dress lined with a hint of lime? Yes, I’ll take it. Keeping things simple? Pair this fun frock with a lime green bouquet. (via)

Or, for those brides wearing the traditional white wedding dress, how about a pair of aqua and lime wedding shoes? Guests will be peeking covertly at the hem of your dress until the reception when you kick up your heels. (via)

Aqua and lime wedding favors don’t seem terribly easy to find (cakes, too) but you can make your own with lime favor boxes paired with aqua ribbon. Have we mentioned lately that filling favor boxes is an easy project for the groom or bridesmaids or your mom? (via)

The best thing about the aqua and lime wedding color scheme is that it can accept supplementary colors so easily. Here, the bride has added black on the sashes, dark pink in the bouquets, and a lighter pink on the flowers girls or junior bridesmaids. (via)

All in all, I’m loving this eye-catching, exuberant color scheme!

As always, we wish you and yours a wonderful new year! We expect that 2010 will be a wonderful time for all things wedding, but until all that’s in store reveals itself, here is some lovely silver wedding inspiration to see you into a whole near year. What’s this? Traveling in a roughly clockwise direction, there is a beautiful (though sadly unidentified) silver wedding dress, a Victorian-inspired bolero from Bonzie, a very pretty silver belt from Little White Dresser, delicate lily earrings from Elle Jewelry, wintery wedding invitations from Social Notes, flirty bridesmaids’ dresses from J.Crew, flashy silver lamé pumps from Christian Louboutin, and last but not least, a unique cloth bouquet from Milk Pod Studio. Enjoy!

So what do we have here? Traveling in a vaguely clockwise pattern, there are natural branches studded with tufts of fluffy garden stock blossoms from a party hosted by Tracy Metz, a striking pearl and bird necklace designed by kgarnerdesigns, a lovely soft pink wedding dress by Alisa Benay for 100 Brides for $100K, a pink wedding cake with delicate gold embellishments from The Wedding Cake Shoppe, a gorgeous handpainted wedding invitation from Momental Designs, freaking amazing shoes from Haberdashery Boutique, a delicate rose gold filigree bracelet, and a snapshot from a real wedding that included antique gold bridesmaid dresses from Vera Wang.

The pink and gold wedding palette is truly as sweet as can be!

This colorway can wind up looking like you’re getting married in the middle of a meeting of the Red Hat Society:
but it doesn’t have to. Don’t believe me? Take a look after the cut and see the possibilities.

Bridesmaid’s dresses are a great place to start with this combination. Choose a dignified shade of purple and mix it with deep red flowers.
or mix it up a bit with different shades and mixed blooms.

Continue the theme with the ceremony decor, like this amazing chuppah:

Don’t forget chair covers…

…or reception centerpieces. Whether you go tall…

….or short
my bet is that it will look fabulous.

Is this a color combination for everybody? No, of course not. But if you like what you see here, it’s a good one to consider.

However, even before you pick three or four or even more colors for your wedding, you should be thinking about the color families and levels of contrast that appeal to you in conjunction with the kind of wedding you want to have. Are you a bride who adores uber formal weddings? Or would you be happiest having a more rustic affair? Think carefully before you answer, because the colors you choose for your wedding palette will have a strong impact on the mood of your wedding!

To illustrate this point, I present what are essentially two identical wedding reception tables; the only thing very different about them is the color schemes used. First, a wedding reception table done up in pink and green.

My first impression is that of a daytime wedding, maybe one taking place either out of doors or in a light and airy greenhouse. The colors say springtime to me, though this particular color scheme would perfectly suit a summertime wedding. I’m picturing a bride in a not too elaborate wedding dress, maybe something a little shorter than is typical. The bridesmaids might be in a very light green or in unmatching white frocks. All in all, it strikes me a playful, fun, and not too too fancy wedding.

This red and white wedding reception table, on the other hand, looks more like it comes from an evening wedding to me, and I think it could be a much more formal function than the one pictured above. Why? For one thing, the colors are darker and deeper, and the lack of extreme contrast (red on red vs. pink on green) feels more elegant. I imagine the bride who chose this wedding reception table might also choose a more formal and traditional wedding dress for what would likely be a quite elegant wedding.

Isn’t that fascinating?

Images courtesy of Rebecca Thuss for Martha Stewart Weddings.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. Seriously, what’s not to love about this table? You tell me!

(via Ines Del Mar Weddings)

I like this color combo more than I like red and black, because red and black can be a little jarring if too much is used alongside white. The gray tones the whole thing down a bit without sacrificing any of the visual interest or drama. Particularly if you’ve chosen a deeper shade of gray.

These beautiful red and gray wedding invitations from Peculiar Pair Press were inspired by the copper facade of the new DeYoung museum in San Francisco, which is where (I think) the reception might have been taking place. It’s a creative idea — if you’re having custom invitations designed, why not incorporate some element of your wedding venue into the final product?

The easiest way to coordinate your bridesmaids would involve nothing more than pairing gray dresses with bouquets made of deep red roses. The more difficult route? Deep red bridesmaids’ dresses and, um, gray flowers? Or how about having your bridesmaids carry gray candles or tin lanterns instead?

You don’t have to go overboard with the red or the gray when it comes to your wedding cake… unless you really want to, of course. A few red flowers perched on each tier of a white wedding cake with simple gray embellishments will harmonize with your red and gray wedding color scheme without stealing the show until it’s time to cut the cake.

So what if you can’t carry fresh gray flowers? The quirky bride who loves red and gray will get a kick out of button bouquets from jamball. Some guests may do a double-take when you walk down the aisle, but you can’t beat a bouquet that will last forever and stay cute. Jamball uses vintage buttons and brooches (sourced themselves or by you) to make button bouquets to the bride’s exact specs.

A single gerbera daisy or a cluster of red hypericum berries translate into dashing boutonnieres for the groomsmen and the ring bearer when worn against a gray suit… the red tie is optional. You could also use these same flowers if you’re planning on giving your treasured lady relatives corsages to wear during the ceremony. (via)

Gray and red food? Hmmm. Thinking about sticking with candy and drinks that complement your color scheme, like these red izze sodas paired with chic gray straws displayed on the refreshments table at the reception. (via)

Finally, while you’re picking out your wedding favors and shopping for your bridal gown, don’t forget to whip up a free wedding web site. Your use of the red and gray color scheme will give your wedding guests a taste of what to expect when they walk into your ceremony and reception.

Love it!! The best part is that pink and green are so ubiquitous in wedding stuff and in that world that if they happen to be your wedding colors, you’re never going to have a hard time finding all those little things that make a wedding ensemble, a wedding ceremony, or a wedding reception great.

A quick search on Amazon returned a pretty flower girl dress, a pair of bouquets, a clutch for the bride or her bridesmaids, shoes that could peek enticingly out from under a wedding dress, a… colorful wedding ring set, and a necktie for the groom and his groomsmen. See, easy!