Wedding Colors: Not your property!

We are very happy to report that we have agreed on our wedding colors. It's actually two colors that reflect the both of us. As the fiance and I began talking about wedding colors purple instantly came up. It has been a favorite color of mine for ages (hello, The Color Purple fans out there!). Then I thought, why not purple and gold? We're both Laker fans, we both bleed the purple and gold! But then we shuddered at the thought. A room full of purple linens and flowers and gold bowties made us gag. Sure, Barney-purple mixed in with bright primary yellow looks hideous. But what about a deep aubergine or plum color accented with a champagne gold? That can look really hot!

My initial search for purple and gold wedding ideas initially discouraged me. How can you make these two colors look great without it being purple overkill? To offset the monotone purple look, we decided on shades of purple (with deep purple being the base). The accents of gold can come in the form of smaller flowers or ribbons. Subtlety is the word here. While I couldn't find the exact purple and gold palette I'm looking for, I found a few purple-inspired looks that can be easily interchanged with gold.

Days after we settled on the colors, an aqcuaintance of mine who is also planning a wedding casually asked me what my wedding colors would be. Of course I told her and the Laker backstory that came with it. I explained how we were going with shades of purple accented with gold. Little did I know that I had divulged too much. A mutual friend of ours is designing her invitation and what colors do I see on the invite? Purple and gold!

Yes, I was a bit tiffed, but my fiance was even more upset than me. It is a little fishy (I mean, if she was thinking of the same colors too, she could have said something, but she said she hadn't picked hers yet!) But I'm not going to worry about it. Purple and gold is not a combo we patented ourselves and quite a few brides have chosen that for themselves too. If someone else wants to use the same colors, so be it. While couples don't own wedding colors, or even other wedding ideas, the least couples can do is find ways to make those ideas their own.