Here at TNR HQ, we’re falling hard for all the blue wedding inspiration these days. Indigo, pacific, turquoise, french, and everything in between — it’s been a refreshing pause and a nice challenge to think about how this might expand into an events palette, for a number of reasons. It can be electric, or muted, it can have purple or green undertones, and the above quartet of images illustrate how we like to layer in these “bracketing” tones to flesh out a robust palette that definitively says Blue yet, isn’t all navy and white – you know?

We’ve also been thinking about how we might talk about how we would expand these inspiration photos into florals and other details, and questions or information that influence our approach to making design decisions for our events. And thus, without further ado …

Blue flowers

This is a perpetually difficult one. In reality, there aren’t a lot of truly “blue” flowers, especially in the wholesale world, aside from hydrangea, muscari, delphinium, larkspur. Most tend to have strong purple undertones and I find it’s best to fold in lavenders as complementary colors as it makes arrangements seem less jarring, and allows us to explore the full range without being limited. Medium / dark blue delphinium can come out as almost neon — it really is that electric! Appropriate in the right situation, but it really glows and is often difficult to harmonize with other flowers — I tend to prefer softer sky blues in lighter delphinium, larkspur, and nigella.

The Details

Another approach that I use is to limit the use of blue florals, instead emphasizing green and white blooms as a neutral base, while letting the linens, paper, and other items to showcase a heady mix of sky and ocean tones. This board shows how you beautiful a mix of green and whites with blue florals look in a ceremony arch, while the rest illustrate the gorgeous tonal range base that we just can’t get enough of!

Image One //  row 1 {dress by Stella McCartney + photo by Tim Walker for Vogue via Vogue archive, Morpho butterfly photo via Carnegie Museum of Natural History} row 2 {gradients of blue fabric via lidewij edelkoort, photo by Nicole Franzen via Flickr}

Image Two // row 1 {floral crown by FlowerWild + photo by Jose Villa, muscari bouquet from an unknown source} row 2 {floral arrangement by Joy Thigpen Environments with the help of Kelly Lenard of Intertwine Style + photo by Bryce Covey via Once Wed, floral arrangement by Ariella Chezar + photo by Meg Smith}

Image Three // row 1 {styled by Stacy Mccain Event Planning + photo by Jose Villa + floral design by Flowerwild via Once Wed, tile escort cards calligraphed by Emilie Friday via Martha Stewart Weddings} row 2 {sun print cake designed by Joy Thigpen via Once Wed, table setting via Martha Stewart Living}