Colors for a Military Wedding?

[Soon To Be]

Here's my dilemma. Our wedding's going to be in August. It's going to be a military wedding in the evening. The army's going to be in dress blues by then. So I want to pick colors that's not going to clash.

Really, the only thing I've thought of is maybe going with a midnight/metallic-y blue for one color. That can be the color of the vest under the tuxes of the groomsmen not in the service. And I think silver looks good with blue.

I'd like to try and think of other color schemes before I pick one though, and I'd like not to just pick blue because I can't think of a nice dark color that wouldn't clash with the uniform. Does anyone else have any good color schemes that wouldn't clash with dress blues? I like things that aren't necessarily plain colors like red, blue, green. I also tend to like a really rich, dark color paired with a lighter color. Like a chocolate brown paired a light blue or a coral pink. If you could give me ideas of color schemes to look at, I'd really appreciate it.

[AshyBekka]

My husband is a Marine and we had a military wedding. He and three of the groomsmen (out of 7) were in their blues, and the rest were in civilian tuxes. My bridesmaids actually wore brownish gold and everything looked amazing together. Here are a couple of pics.









Hope that helps!

[Soon To Be]

That does help a lot. That brown is gorgeous. And similar to what I had been thinking of. Did you pair another color with that?

[AshyBekka]

The sashes on the dresses were black-actually not what I asked for, but it really was gorgeous. Then we just played up the fall colors in the bouquets, and the ivory of my dress. The invitations, programs, cake, everything incorporated the brown, ivory and fall colors (vibrant orange, red, pink, yellow).

I see girls all the time in some of my military spouse support groups who think they have to "match" the dress uniform, but that's really limiting-there are lots of options! If you can, print out a picture of your fiance in dress uniform or a picture of the standard uniform (Army, right? Do they have blues??) and take it with you to look at swatches and patterns. It really helps!

[Soon To Be]

Originally Posted by AshyBekka

I see girls all the time in some of my military spouse support groups who think they have to "match" the dress uniform, but that's really limiting-there are lots of options! If you can, print out a picture of your fiance in dress uniform or a picture of the standard uniform (Army, right? Do they have blues??) and take it with you to look at swatches and patterns. It really helps!

Awesome! That's it exactly! I didn't exactly want to match the dress uniform. I was just afraid the colors I liked would match. But a lot of the colors you described were colors I was looking at. The brown color of the bridesmaid dresses were very similar to what I had in mind. And yeah, army has blues. That's the new dress uniform that everyone has to have by 2008. They used to have the green class A's, but I think the blue looks better. It's also nice because we'll have guys from different branches so at least the dress uniforms are similar color schemes instead of green army and blue air force for instance.

[wynelle]

My step-daughter married her Army Colonel fiance in an April wedding. The groom and two groomsmen were in the appropriate formal Army uniform for that time of year, the Best Man and one other groomsman were in tuxedos.

Military in uniform do not wear corsages, boutinerres or colored vests as it is strictly out of uniform--(and if the wedding is in a military chapel, the Chaplain's Assistants notice and will tell you), so the bride didn't have to worry about multiple wedding colors. Her bridesmaids were in an irridesent peach color and carried a mixed bouquet with peach, yellow and white flowers.

My first wedding, to a dashing Naval officer back in 1979-- he and his groomsmen were in mess dress--those short tuxedo looking black jackets with all the gold on the sleeve and minature medals on the lapel. Long black pants and gold cummerbund. My bridesmaids wore a deep teal and carried white flowers.

In thirty years of military weddings--- the only ones that looked tacky were the ones where the bride or her maids dressed like sluts and strippers.But the fun at those weddings was the snickering about 'WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?" and making bets on how long the wedding would last.

Don't worry about being matchy-matchy with the groom's uniform. Just sellect a color that you feel beautiful in.

[Soon To Be]

Originally Posted by wynelle

Don't worry about being matchy-matchy with the groom's uniform. Just sellect a color that you feel beautiful in.

Oh, yeah. I'm definitely not going to try to match the groom. I like ivory for the wedding dress. I was just try to get a handle on other colors. Your post makes me feel better though that any color tends to work.

[TheaterDiva1]

Personally, I think dark blue dresses and yellow bouquets for the BMs would look great with dress blues.

[litlbit]

Congrats! I love seeing weddings when the men get to wear their dress uniforms!

I have to agree with the last poster about yellow. You can even do pale yellows if you're afraid of it being too bright against the blues. Limey green, kelly green, lavender, any shade of pink... you have a lot of options.

[kiwigal]

Originally Posted by wynelle

My step-daughter married her Army Colonel fiance in an April wedding. The groom and two groomsmen were in the appropriate formal Army uniform for that time of year, the Best Man and one other groomsman were in tuxedos.

Military in uniform do not wear corsages, boutinerres or colored vests as it is strictly out of uniform--(and if the wedding is in a military chapel, the Chaplain's Assistants notice and will tell you), so the bride didn't have to worry about multiple wedding colors. Her bridesmaids were in an irridesent peach color and carried a mixed bouquet with peach, yellow and white flowers.

My first wedding, to a dashing Naval officer back in 1979-- he and his groomsmen were in mess dress--those short tuxedo looking black jackets with all the gold on the sleeve and minature medals on the lapel. Long black pants and gold cummerbund. My bridesmaids wore a deep teal and carried white flowers.

In thirty years of military weddings--- the only ones that looked tacky were the ones where the bride or her maids dressed like sluts and strippers.But the fun at those weddings was the snickering about 'WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?" and making bets on how long the wedding would last.

Don't worry about being matchy-matchy with the groom's uniform. Just sellect a color that you feel beautiful in.

Hi Wynelle
I need some help. I am marrying my Naval Officer in Hawaii in April 2009 and starting to plan everything at the moment. I have no idea how to organise the wedding attire due to that we are having a Military Wedding and my fiance is in Washington and i have returned back to NZ until later in the year and then return back to Washington DC. I have looked into having the bridesmaids wear the Apple color which is available at David's Bridal, dress style F11606, would this be appropriate for the matching with the Groom and Groomsmen's Navy Dress blues? Also, due to it being a Military Wedding, can his future step children be involved as per a civilian ceremony.

For my gown, i have chosen a Maggie Sottero gown called Royal Romance which is strapless. This is my first military wedding and i have been trying to read up on etiquette and formalities for it. How do i word the invitations as he is a Lt. but also a Doctor? Help!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks

Yvonne

I hope you can help.

[NovemberGal]

Hi Yvonne, welcome to Pash.

We have several ladies who can help you out, I'm sure, but you'll do better starting a new thread rather than posting at the end of a thread that's almost a year old.

[kiwigal]

Thanks for that Novembergal. I will do that.