Purple Wedding Color – Purple continues to be a popular and beloved wedding color, just as it has been for several decades. The color purple includes a wide variety of shades from traditional “royal” purple to the purples that have blue or red undertones. Whichever shade of purple you choose as your wedding color, feel free to mix it with other purple shades. They look wonderful together such as seen in the bride’s wedding bouquet below.

Even though there are many, many shades of purple, for this post I have narrowed it down to Purple, Pale Purple, Lavender, Orchid and Plum.

I chose purple colors that offer you a range of colors in the purple family. This will get you in the “ball park” of what color you want to use and then you may want to go lighter, darker or change the tone slightly. I suggest that you choose your bridesmaids’ dresses first before completely locking in your color. It will be a lot less stressful for you that way.

Purple, as shown below, is seen on a color wheel as a blue-purple (also called blue-violet) but I chose it for this post because it is “generic purple” and what most people think of when hearing “purple”. It is somewhat dramatic and usually is a wedding color that “wows”! It looks particularly beautiful with turquoise and royal blue but don’t limit your choices … consider orange, pink, red, silver, gold and more!

Pale Purple is a softer version of purple and it has a slight gray tone to it. This is a color that is often called lavender but they are not the same, as you will see in two collages below. Pale Purple is an especially good choice for spring and summer weddings.

Lavender is often called a “pinkish purple”. It is a little more sophisticated than pale purple and like most all purple shades, it works well with green or blue. As shown in a couple photos in the collage below, it also is stunning with gold!

Orchid is pink-ish purple shade that is similar to lavender, but it has a little more pink in it. It is a shade of one of the varieties of the orchid flower. If you love orchids, this would be a good choice for you! In 2014 a special shade of orchid called Radiant Orchid was chosen as the Color of the Year by Pantone.

Plum is the darkest of all the shades I am showing here. It is similar to the colors of aubergine, prune, eggplant, burgundy, and wine, to name a few. This is a good choice for fall as it pairs really well with gray and with orange. And  I think plum paired with silver is a particularly gorgeous combination.

And if you can’t decide on a color … try combining a few or all!

Collages Created by Sher Silver.

Click the photos for a large version and once again for a huge version!

Please note that in the collages I used just one color to help you see the impact of the color. In reality, you will likely want to mix it with other tones of the color and/or other colors.

Inspiration and Ideas on our Purple Pinterest Board.

Photo Credits: Purple: [2]Allyson Wiley [3]Corey McNabb Photography [4]burnett’s boards [5]Mark Tatterall [7]Bumby Photography – Pale Purple: [1]Style Unveiled [2]The Bride’s Café [3]Madison’s on Maine [4]By Leslea [5]Ruffled Blog [6]Wedding Wire/Ryon:Lockhart Photography – Lavender: [1]Silvana di Franco Photography ]2]Jen & Chris Creed Photographers [3]Hi Fi Weddings [4]Dilly Dallas [5]The Lady/Peggy Porschen [6]hitched.com.au [7]Imagery Immaculate/Ceremony Blog  – Orchid: [1]Belle the Magazine/Pam Scott Photography [2]Belle the Magazine/Rowell Photography [3]Ian Grant Photography [4]Elizabeth Anne Designs/Jacque Lynn Photography [5]Brides UK [6]Rachel A. Clingen Event Design – Plum: [1]Art Quest Flowers [2]Snippet & Ink [3]Kathy’s Little Cakery [4]Etsy.com/fr  [5]Carol Rame [6]Beija Flor [7]Jessica Smith Photography [8]Eating Richly – Shades of Purple: [1]-[3] I Do Weddings and Events/True Photography [4] Glamour [5]Bridal Musings [6] Katelyn James Photography –  Bouquet at top of page: Ruffled Blog – Photo by Ally Michelle – Flowers by Art with Nature Design (Artistic photo treatment added by Sher Silver for blog post.)

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