Purple Southern Wedding
The beautiful bride, Kimberly, had the right idea when she chose a purple reminiscent of a summer sunset, a Texas sunset to boot! Shades of purple, like lavender, lilac, and more make this photo inspiration stand out!
What to Look for in a Venue for a Purple Southern Wedding
When you’re looking for your dream venue for your Purple Southern Wedding there are a few things that you’re going to want to consider. Typically, Southern weddings are big affairs, so you’re going to need plenty of space for your wedding guests and enough breathing room so the ceremony venue or the reception venue doesn’t feel cramped.
You’re also probably going to want to find a wedding venue with some outdoor space to make the most of the beautiful Southern weather. Think about incredible gardens, cute backyard spaces, and anything that has those classic floral elements that make the Southern theme so great.
Color Palettes for a Purple Southern Wedding
Well, for this particular wedding theme, the clue for your wedding color palette is in the name – your main color is going to be purple. Certainly, there are loads of different shades of purple from lavender and lilac to plum and beyond, and the key to making this a successful wedding color palette is to use a variety of these shades.
If you just choose one of these purple shades, your Purple Southern Wedding scheme is going to lack depth and look pretty one note. This is definitely something that we want to avoid if at all possible, and with the details and flowers on offer, this is completely doable.
Details for a Purple Southern Wedding
When it comes to bringing your Purple Southern Wedding theme to life, the devil is most certainly in the detail. Think about bringing the summertime, backyard, southern hospitality vibe to your wedding scheme with pitchers of iced tea. Provide alcoholic and non-alcoholic, of course!
You can bring some good old fashioned country texture to your wedding ceremony and reception decor with some burlap and hessian notes. This will give it a rustic, shabby chic feel that’s informal without being super casual. It’s a cute touch that will make your guests feel right at home – after all, we’re all family here, aren’t we?
Food for a Purple Southern Wedding
Now if there’s one thing that people in the south know how to do and know how to do well, it’s food. From soul food to farm to table to tex-mex to straight up delicious seafood, there is so much to choose from when it comes to your wedding dinner menu.
It all depends on the formality level of your wedding. If you’re having it in a smaller backyard with a more rustic feel, you might want more of a family style set up with a buffet or an elaborate barbecue. If it’s more of a formal affair, maybe a sit down dinner with locally sourced ingredients might be more appropriate.
Budget for a Purple Southern Wedding
When you’re planning any kind of wedding, there are always ways to save some money here and there or ways to completely blow the budget out of the water. With a Purple Southern Wedding theme, this is no different.
For example, if you have your wedding in a backyard or a cheaper outdoor location, it might be less expensive than a hotel function room or big hall, but you might have to spend more money on decorations to make your vision come to life. It’s all about compromise and trade offs when it comes to planning a wedding on a budget.
Wedding Dresses & Accessories for a Purple Southern Wedding
This is one of the big ticket items when it comes to planning your Purple Southern Wedding – the perfect dress. Now, every bride is different and has their own unique preferences for their body type and a vision in their head of what they’d like to look like on their big day.
This being said, this theme has a tendency to be fairly informal, so a huge, couture style dress might not be the best fit for the atmosphere that you’re trying to create. Also, the south can be warm and humid, so big heavy dresses with lots of layers are probably not the best idea either.
Bridesmaid Dresses for a Purple Southern Wedding
As with the bridal dress, the bridesmaid dresses have a few practical criteria that you should be mindful of. Primarily, it’s warm, humid, and erring more on the casual side of things. With this in mind, tea-length, floaty, cute dresses are probably going to be the best way to go.
Of course, the color is going to be purple, but it doesn’t all have to be one shade or all the same dress. Every person is different and what looks good on one might not look good on another. Stick with the same length, core color, and material, and let your bridesmaid customize from there.
Wedding Invitations for a Purple Southern Wedding
When we think of southern hospitality, we think of politeness, formality and doing things right. That’s exactly the same idea behind sending out wedding invitations with plenty of notice for all your guests to get organized and be able to attend.
Although it’s one of the first things on the wedding checklist, it shows your guest what kind of wedding you’re trying to create so if you’re looking for an outdoor wedding, allude to that with some purple floral elements and let them know to dress accordingly. Also, don’t forget to send a pre-stamped envelope with your invite so that your guests can RSVP without any trouble or inconvenience. It’s the easiest way to make sure they reply quickly!
Wedding Cake Ideas for a Purple Southern Wedding
Who doesn’t love cake? And when it’s got multiple tiers and it’s big enough for its own table, it’s even better! Having a purple three-tiered cake in one whole shade might be a little bit intense on the eye, so perhaps get a couple of shades and have a cascading spectrum in the frosting.
Alternatively, you could have what looks like a traditional white wedding cake and either when you cut in you have a purple sponge or purple frosting in between layers, or around one side have a purple geode effect to tie it into the overall wedding color palette.
Wedding Reception Music and Entertainment for a Purple Southern Wedding
When it comes to choosing your wedding reception music and entertainment for a Purple Southern Wedding, it’s honestly up to the personal preference of you and your new spouse. Of course, formality level and budget come into it. If you’ve got a chill outdoor party going on in your backyard with a southern vibe then having a formal, classical string quartet might not suit.
Similarly, if you’ve got a formal setting, having one guy with an acoustic guitar playing cover versions of popular songs isn’t going to fill a huge ballroom. So, think about how much of a party atmosphere you want and choose your entertainment style from there.
Southern sunset (reader request)
I can’t think of a better to start the new month off than with a reader request! This purple wedding inspiration board was created for Kimberly who is getting married in North Carolina next spring at the gorgeously rustic Crest Pavilion.
From Kimberly: ” We are having our wedding in North Carolina where my fiance is from, but it’s really important to include Texas and general Southern elements. We live in Texas now, and I was born and raised here. I am drawing my color inspiration from the Texas sunsets that my fiance and I love – think dark purples, oranges, yellows, splashes of pink.
I’d like for my bridesmaids to wear shades of purple, but it’s a late spring wedding, so it can’t be too fall-like. We’re going for a Southern charm/chic rustic feel. I’d like to incorporate some mason jars in the centerpieces and maybe burlap table runners for a rustic feel.”
Kimberly basically did all the hard work for me! Using a Texas sunset as your color inspiration is absolute perfection. The important thing with this color palette is that you don’t stick with solid shades of each color. Take each of them and make sure you use the whole family – like purple, lilac, lavender, light purple, dark purple etc. This gives it the fading sunset feeling that you’re going for. With regards to adding red – this could make the look go a little autumn-like, but using it as an accent or pop color like the burlap heart in this inspiration board would be lovely.
Details to adore:
Congratulation to Kimberly on your engagement & brides-to-be: don’t forget that you can request your own inspiration board here!
Credits: photo credits: bridesmaids via Inspired By This, photographed by Iris and Light // invitations and sweet tea via Southern Weddings, photographed by Eric Kelley Photography, invitations designed by Slideshow Press, calligraphy by If So Inklined // place setting – unknown // floral centerpiece via Style Me Pretty, photographed by Trent Bailey, designed by Rebecca Shepherd Floral Design // burlap heart from Mountainside Bride, photographed by Step Into The Limelight // bouquet from Cloth of Gold Floral Artistry, photographed by Mandy Photo.