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The Most Cost-Effective Wedding Color Scheme

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How choosing a simplified color scheme will save you money, time, and sanity when it comes to planning your wedding.

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After “When’s the big day?”, it seems like “What are your colors?” is the next most common wedding planning question. If you’re a color-loving person, the idea of picking just two or three colors might stress you out. Even if you could pick two favorite colors, have you considered how much you might have to spend to ensure the honeysuckle pink on the bridesmaid dresses matches the pink on the cake? Or trying to ensure the pink on the invitations also matches while coordinating with the turquoise accents?

The color scheme dilemma is a totally avoidable problem. Despite your love for all-things-color… your best bet might be to go with the easiest, Most Cost-Effective Wedding Color Scheme choice we could think of:

black and white.

Now before you write it off as too boring, here’s why we think planning a black and white wedding is the perfect choice for the budget-conscious bride, even if you’re a color-lover:

1. You can ensure classic elegance that’s always in style

Ever look back at your parents’ wedding photos and laugh at the ‘80s-esque pastel colors used everywhere? Now, we’re not saying your future kids will never laugh at your wedding photos and the Bieber hairstyles all the groomsmen are sporting. That said, black and white are classic colors with lasting elegance so that you can hedge your bets a bit. After all, a white wedding gown has been all the rage since Queen Victoria’s reign!

Courthouse bride and groom photos
Photo credit: Megan Clouse | View the wedding

2. You can find a cheaper dress

This isn’t going to be for everyone, but if you want to save money on the dress, think about incorporating a little bit of black into the dress.  Black and white dresses tend to be sold more as prom dresses than as wedding gowns.  Since high school girls aren’t going to pay as much for a prom dress as they will for a wedding gown, you can bet that you’ll save a ton of money on the dress by opting for a white dress with black accent features.  It’s classy, unusual, and budget-friendly, all at the same time.

3. You’ll save on printing costs

Another detail many brides don’t consider is the cost of the invitations, but black and white invitations also tend to be cheaper than color invitations.  When you go to the copy shop, you pay more for a color copy than you do for a black and white copy.  The same is true for black and white invitations.  You have the option of choosing something very simple and saving money on the printing costs because they don’t have to be printed in color. With black and white invitations, you can even choose to print them yourself at home, along with additional items like place cards and table numbers. DIYing your wedding invitations and paper goods can save hundreds of dollars!

4. Your bridesmaids will love you

Choosing a black and white wedding also makes it easy for your bridesmaids to save money.  Most women have been in a wedding when they had to plunk down hundreds of dollars for an ugly, colored bridesmaid dress that they will never wear again.

However, when your bridesmaid dresses are black, you make it possible to choose the classic “little black dress,” which often isn’t sold as a bridesmaid dress.  This means that it is far less expensive, and it increases the odds that your bridesmaids will be able to wear it again after your nuptials.

5. You can still incorporate color

Even if everything else is black and white, you can bring in a splash of one color or many colors in the flowers. By limiting your bursts of color to the floral arrangements, they’ll make more of an impact, and you won’t have to stress about matching!

Would you consider choosing black and white as your wedding color scheme? Why or why not? Join us in the community to chat all things wedding planning!


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