The 2016 Pantone Color of the Year and Your Wedding Colors

Hello to our lovely readers! It’s almost the end of January, can you believe it?! Time is already flying right by. But, before the month is up, I wanted to talk about the 2016 Pantone color of the year and what it has to do with your wedding colors. As you may know, every year since 2000, Pantone has come out with a color of the year. The idea behind the color of the year is meant to be symbolic, a color representation of what they (Pantone) see taking place in our culture. It’s kind of like a word of the year or a trend prediction. Many industries have taken this color of the year and applied it to what they are doing – think fashion, interior design, beauty, travel and of course, weddings. There are always articles that come out in the beginning of the year that share wedding inspiration using the Pantone color of the year. If you’ve been consuming a bunch of media, I’m sure you’ve seen at least one or two of these.

If you look through my archives you’ll see that I’ve never talked about the Pantone colors before. It’s not usually something I do, so why am I talking about it now you ask? Good question. I’m here to help guide you so you can create your unique wedding and have a joyful wedding experience. And since I’ve been seeing more and more articles surrounding the idea of using these colors in your wedding I felt it was time to address it. Here is the thing you need to know, the Pantone color of the year has nothing to do with your wedding. Yes, you heard me right, NOTHING. Why you ask? Let me explain myself with two reasons.

1. First off what you need to know is that the Pantone color of the year is a marketing strategy. It’s actually a super smart marketing strategy aimed to get their name out associated with being a color expert and it totally works. But, what does this mean for your wedding? Absolutely nothing! Your wedding colors have nothing to do with Pantone, it’s marketing strategy or its color of the year. Your wedding colors are a result of the colors that make you happy. You’re not going to pick rose quartz and serenity just because it’s the colors of the year, are you? No, you aren’t. It’s like all of a sudden choosing to wear only black clothes because someone told you that was what you were supposed to wear this year. You’re going to wear the clothes you like in whatever colors you like. Similarly, you’re going to choose your wedding colors based on what pleases you.

2. My second reason is because it’s such a silly choice! Pantone decided to choose two colors this year (which in and of itself defeats the purpose of a color of the year), and they are both a soft pastel color. No designer is going to use these colors together unless they are planning a baby shower and even then maybe not. They just aren’t colors you’d see together (it’s not a combo I’d ever recommend to a client), so making them the colors of the year, just doesn’t work for me. So, even more so these Pantone colors of the year have nothing to do with your wedding.

So, the moral of the story here is to not worry about the articles you see about having your wedding include these colors. Just ignore them completely. Choose your wedding colors based on what brings you joy and you’ll be on your way to designing a wedding you love.

(Pantone’s colors of the year. Photo credit: Pantone.com)

NOTE: If you happen to have always loved one of these colors and were already planning on using it, then you should. There is nothing wrong with these colors (besides using them together), but I don’t want you to feel swayed by a color company just because it’s their chosen color of the year.

Need some help with designing your wedding? Contact us today and we’ll make sure your wedding is the perfect representation of who you are and your love story.