I always love to hear marriage proposal stories. I love hearing how a guy closed a major highway so he could propose marriage to his girlfriend, and there was the guy who rented a billboard on a major highway with a public marriage proposal on it so his future fiancé would see it on her way to work, or the boyfriend who proposed during dessert at a popular Dallas restaurant and involved all the diners and restaurant staff in his plan. These acts are wonderful, inspiring and romantic. Yet most of these couples do not have a clue as to what comes next: color counseling for wedding planning.
Color counseling for weddings should not be confused with wedding counseling. Color counseling involves visually walking someone through the process of making color selections for their wedding. The process can be difficult and challenging because many people do not have the ability to visualize color combinations.
I have been a wedding and event designer since the 1990’s and I have been color counseling bride’s throughout that time. Let me give you a few scenarios.
My client Michelle loved black as a dress color and she wanted to have her bridesmaids wear black dresses. The problem arose when her mother did not agree. Michelle’s mother thought black was morbid and should only be worn at funerals. Michelle compromised her color choice and chose a different color for her bridesmaids to wear. I did not have a way of showing Michelle’s mom what black bridesmaid dresses would look like. If I had had better tools at the time, I might have been able to show Michelle’s mom how beautiful black bridesmaids dresses can look for a wedding.
Stacey’s favorite color was medium blue but she wanted to get married in the fall and was concerned how medium blue would look with fall color flowers. Stacey, like many other people, have a hard time visualizing what certain dress colors look like with various flower colors, so she decided to have her bridesmaids wear chocolate because it was a color she could envision with fall flower colors.
Chandra and Mike wanted a winter wonderland wedding but they were having a hard time coming up with flowers that looked wintery and with selecting flowers that would be available in winter.
In the past I would use a combination of colored pencils, sketches and cut out magazine images to help clients visualize what red flowers would like with blue dresses or what black dresses look like with bright jewel toned floral. It was a time consuming process that did not always solve the problem.
Well I discovered this Free web site that simplifies the whole process.
www.yourweddingcolors.net is a user friendly web site that allows the user to place different colors of wedding bouquets in front of different color wedding gowns and bridesmaids dresses. No more cut and paste or hand coloring needed. You can see what a fall color floral bouquet looks like with a chocolate dress or chocolate flowers with a blue dress. You can compare a jewel toned bouquet against a long black dress or a even a short black dress.
It is easy and fun to use. No more guess work. There is also an image library where you can see what flowers are available by season and what colors certain flowers are naturally available in. It is the best tool on the market to help with color selection and again, it is Free and it is pretty.
Oh, and you should be aware that their site asks you to register to save and print your image but once you register you can play with bouquet colors and dress styles as often as you want. It has definitely made my job easier. Have fun and pass it on to your friends and family.