Happy 4th of July! In honor of the 4th I thought I’d share this wonderful wedding photographed by Liz Banfield and designed by Isabella Boyer Sikaffy of Florabella. The groom is from Australia and the bride from California. So as a nod to their nations shared colors they choose a red, white and blue color palette for their wedding. They chose a red and blue monogram that carried throughout the wedding, starting with the invitations. You can make custom stamps on zazzle.com, a website I’ve used numerous times for custom printed products. Zazzle even lets you use a photograph for stamps.

The couple had a church wedding and then a backyard, tented reception. Simple white carnation and mum balls hung with navy and red ribbons from the church entrance and also adorned the ends of the pews inside. (both of these flowers hold up really well in the heat) Navy bridesmaids dresses and red bridesmaids bouquets pulled the palette together for the wedding party. Cocktail hour featured a red lounge area with red sofas, pillows and flowers. A red themed cocktail, blue hydrangea, and white cocktail napkins with navy personalization (try foryourparty.com for printed materials) adorned additional cocktail tables. A white guest book that guests affixed polaroid pictures into kept within the color palette by providing guests with red and blue pens to write their messages to the bride and groom. (continue reading below)

Once you entered the reception tent though, the evening decor was all white- linens, chairs, plates, flowers and hanging globe lighting in different sizes and lengths. You can think of your wedding in stages- ceremony, cocktail reception and reception and make each uniquely different like this couple did. The church location was decorated in red, white and blue, while cocktail hour all red and the reception a sophisticated all white. As another example, I’ve attended a wedding that was all white and when you got to the reception it was full of color representing a burst of happiness and joy. You could also move from shade to shade within an event, moving for example from light blues to dark blues for the reception. Or, of course you could keep your wedding decor the same color palette throughout the event. The locations will dictate a lot of what you can do and what colors you might want to ultimately decide on for your wedding. By keeping lots of inspiration and photos of exactly the things you like will help your planner and florist immensely, so that they can visualize what you want. Bring this folder or binder with you on your initial meetings so that everyone is on the same page when it comes to the style and color palette you want.