Bride diaries: Choosing your color motif
Hi everyone!
It’s been a wonderful one month and 17 days of marriage, and we’ve barely scratched the surface of the surface. Coming from a year and three months of wedding planning (and seven months of full-on wedding planning), I’ve got a full head of information, ideas, experiences, and tips for brides and I-will-be-a-bride. I figured, what better way to share all this knowledge in my head (and my hard drive) than with a blog series? Here begins my series I’m entitling “Bride diaries”.
Every time I would compare notes with my fellow brides during planning, I always started with our color motif. While it’s definitely not the most important detail for everyone, it’s the detail most women are curious to know. The first question men always ask me is, “When is the wedding?” Most women start wedding small talk with, “So what are your colors?” Hello Mars and Venus.
But the reason I would start with the color motif was not because it was the most important detail for me, it was the preparation I made for the detail which I wanted to share and “pass on” to other brides/I-will-be-brides. To properly communicate my idea of colors to my then-fiance-now-husband, I laid out a fake entourage picture complete with a bride and groom, bridesmaids, ninangs (trans: female principal sponsors), flower girl, maid of honor, and one mother of the bride/groom. I put their photo against the actual garden of our venue to see how the colors would work (or not work) with it. (Of course hopefully, it would work because we had already paid down payments at this point!) Here is the photo:
From L-R: Three principal sponsors in champagne, four bridesmaids in light gray short dresses with black details, one maid of honor in champagne gown with black detail, bride and groom, one mother of the bride/groom in rose, four principal sponsors in champagne. Front row: One flower girl in gray dress with black sash. All round bouquets a mix of blood red and fuchsia roses.
Why did I painstakingly layout our color motif? Because men are visual creatures. I realized I couldn’t explain to Bojo my idea of “light gray chiffon short dresses with black satin details for the bridesmaids and blood red and fuchsia rose bouquets and champagne gold satin dresses with black details for the principal sponsors.” Really? Even if I said light gray, black, and champagne, he probably wouldn’t have envisioned and understood it the way I would’ve wanted him to.
After laying out this photo, I simply flipped the laptop towards his direction and asked, “OK?” and he instantly answered, “OK!” That’s how you get things done, woman!
Here are photos of how the vision was realized at our wedding:
From L-R: Maid of Honor Eliza, bridesmaids Faye, Leanne, myself, Mau, and Char (Eliza, Leanne, Mau and Char in Nina Peña; All flowers by Cheryl Ching)
Quick tips for coming up with your color motif:
- Consider your venue. Is it indoor or outdoor? If it’s indoor, be careful of throwing in more color to the venue with your motif since all your photos will have it as your backdrop. Think: red walls with a multicolor motif. That can overwhelm or look too messy. If it’s a stark white venue on the other hand, you might want to introduce color since it won’t just be your bridesmaid dresses, it’s most likely to appear in the decor and other details too. If it’s outdoor, is it a beach, garden, or a cityscape? Imagine what your colors will look like against your setting. I chose neutral “non-color colors” because I didn’t want to add to the colors of the gardens anymore. If you’re changing venues from your ceremony to your reception, you might also consider a color that works for both, whether it’s from the church to the reception venue or from shoreline ceremony to wooden pavilion.
- Don’t forget your flowers. I couldn’t imagine my colors independently of my flowers because I figured in most photos, bridesmaids always have their flowers with them, which actually completes the look. When I thought of my “neutral” colors, I decided to bring in colors with the bouquet. It was important to me to use local flowers as a means of cost-cutting and promoting our economy so I also had a limited number of colors to choose from for my bouquets. Whether you’re going for bouquets or corsages (which I think are cute too!), imagine your entourage in their full ensemble and then all together. It can actually cost you more if you don’t plan ahead and think of your clothing color before flower colors, since many of the beautiful arrangements we see online or in magazines are imported flowers.
- Prioritize your bridesmaids/MOH colors and work your way “out” when picking a color, since they’re the ones who are going to exemplify your wedding color motif best. Don’t be overwhelmed with the amount of people to assign a color to. Use your bridesmaids as the starting point then decide the secondary cast after, like your flower girls or secondary sponsors. Be sensitive also to colors which will complement your bridesmaids’ varied skin tones.
- Remember your principal sponsors/ninangs. Many of them may be women of stature, baby colors will no longer be appropriate for them. Try to choose a color or fabric that works for most skin tones but also fabric that’s forgiving for any body shape.
Our cute flower girl Gabbie Lo in her light gray tulle skirt dress with a satin black sash busily playing with her bouquet during the ceremony. We bought a peach rosette hair band to adorn her hair and keep the look from being too old or forlorn as some may deem the mix of light gray and black. Her white cardigan is keeping her from getting wet by the rain drops.
My mom Tess (right) chose a mauve shade for her gown by Pablo Cabahug, which he designed reminiscent of my bridal dress. My brother Ronan (left) wears a black and gray pinstripe suit jacket by Penshoppe with a black polo shirt and slim gray tie.
Ronna Capili is a Filipina lifestyle writer and a beauty and fashion magazine associate editor. She loves to learn, enjoys fashion and beauty, and believes in one God. She proudly stands less than five feet tall, thus the blog’s title and her moniker. Here, Ronna blogs about her musings and links to some of her published articles. She believes a girl can never have too many shoes.
Bookmarking this blog for the future!
(And if all else fails, expect your phone to be ringing off the hook when my time comes. Hehe. )
Hahaha, you should just bookmark me! But yes of course, my line is always available for you to call anytime/all the time!
this is sort of the colors that am going for. but am making the gray to taupe.. but we have yet to really decide for it.
but beautiful colors ronna! 
Hey Tin, I love your colors too! Muted tones are always so elegant. Thank you for your compliment, the flowers made the magic!