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Brown as a wedding color

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Gwyn

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So, this is a question for those of you who have used, plan to use, or have been to a wedding where Brown was one of the wedding colors?

What did the brides do about the men''s tuxes?

I really want to have brown and blue as my wedding colors, however I am unsure what to do with the tuxes. I would put the guys in black tuxes with blue vests and such, and my attendants in blue dresses but two of my attendants look horrible in the color.

My Maid of Honor looks stunning in blue, and horrible in brown.

My two brides maids look great in brown, but not good in blue at all =(

I saw a wedding pic where the guys wore brown vests with black suits. Though the brown stood out nicely against the black in pictures and things, I really didnt care for the color scheme.

I used to think that MOH''s had different dresses then other bridesmaids, but nowadays all are wearing the same dress. I really wanted to just give them a color and let them chose a dress in their style, but I cant get a color that looks good on all three of them.
 
I would not personally do black tuxes with brown vests, but that is just a personal thing I dislike. How about navy suits for the guys and have your MOH wear blue and the BM wear brown? I don''t think there is a problem with the MOH having a different dress at all if you like it!
 
There are dark brown tuxedos also.
 
i''ve seen lots of chocolate bm dresses with the gm in black tuxes. looked fine.
 
Honestly, I''m not too keen on brown as a clothing color at a formal event; I always think of those studies from the ''50s that showed a negative correlation with the color brown and perceptions of competency/financial success in business meetings, interviews, and the like. (It''s how IBM got to be nicknamed ''Big Blue''-- because the company''s workers were encouraged to wear blue, instead of brown, suits based on the aforementioned study.) Heck, depression-era movies depicting the "high life" would often dress the wealthy in tuxedos and the out-of-place poor professor or struggling young impoverished hero in a threadbare brown jacket or suit. Of course, I don''t think many people make these distinctions nowadays, but there definitely enough of a history that many people still have a sense of brown being out of place around something as formal as a black tuxedo, you know?

That said, I''ve been to quite a few weddings in the last couple of years that has brown as one of its colors (esp. brown/pink), and since the events weren''t black tie for the guests, it looked fine. I don''t think any paired a brown vest, though-- either they wore 3-button tuxedos (no vest) or had the non-brown color of vest. (Of course, this results in men wearing pink sometimes; my fiance is Best Man in an upcoming pink-and-brown wedding and has been grumbling about the pink bowtie and vest ever since he found out what the bride had picked out, lol.)

Anyhow... on your main question, frankly I''m a bit surprised at how nitpicky your BM are being. The odds are already overwhelming that they''ll never wear their BM dress again! (I know, true, but not necessarily helpful in your position.) I don''t know... I''d either (a) just choose blue because the odds are higher that a certain *tone* of blue will work suitably for all whereas brown tends to be all-or-nothing, or (b) choose one identical dress style for all, and let the MOH wear the blue version and the BM wear the brown version to make them happy.


P.S. Gwyn, that''s a beautiful stone in your avatar! WOW!
 
I plan to use chocolate brown and periwinkle as my main colors with elements of white and green for the flowers. The men will be in khaki linen suits. I plan to do either B for the BM with the MOH in P or vice versa with the other color either as a design element within the dress itself (think sash/ribbon) or around the base of their bouquets. The plan right now is to have a beach ceremony with an indoor reception so it''s overall a semi-formal event I''d say.
 
Our colors are dark reds and oranges, but I told my MOH she could wear whatever she''d like. She chose a chocolate-ish (it has grey undertones) dress and I''m putting the men in dark grey suits. Almost like a slate gray. You could easily mix that with blues, I think.
 
NEL, where in NE are you? I''m in Rhode Island.
 
I used chocolate as one of my main colors, accented with ivory, deep red, ad champagne -- loved the way everything turned out. The GMs were in black tuxes and the BMs were in chocolate dresses. I don''t have agood pic on this comp, but I can upload one in a little while if you''re interested.

How black tux with blue accents for the GMs and the BMs be in diff shades of blue? Diffent blues look good on diff skin tones. I''ve seen weddings where the BMs are in differnt shades of pink, from magenta to pale pale powder pink and thought it looked really pretty. I think this could work for blue also? And just use the brown as more of an accent (ribbon on the bouquet or bouts?)
 
I had chocolate BM dresses...the men had black tuxes...my DH wore a cream/gold vest...the cream really worked.

The brown really made the flowers pop -- so the blue would definitely stand out if you did blue there...or maybe sashes? My BM also wore different dresses...one wore a shawl with hers that had our other colors in it (autumn tones), one wore a bolero blazer, one wore a sash...


What stands out in the pictures is not the brown/black aspect, but rather the flowers.


Just something to think about...

Good luck with it all!
 
At my cousin''s wedding the BMs wore dark brown and the GM wore black tuxes. I am pretty sure that their vests complimented the accent color which was pink. Man, he had some good friends
emwink.gif

Anyhow, they looked great together.
 
Hey, Hudson, I''m in Boston. Where in RI are you?
 
Date: 8/13/2007 6:47:04 PM
Author: NewEnglandLady
Hey, Hudson, I''m in Boston. Where in RI are you?
Hi NEL,

I began a thread a while back for New England brides. Are you planning a wedding too, or just a casual reader of this forum? I''m in NH now. I used to work in Boston though.
 
Hi, Gwyn,

My best friend had a champagne & brown colored wedding, her bridesmaids wore chocolate brown, and I wore a champagne and silver dress as her MOH. The guys wore black tuxedos with champagne colored vests, I''m going to attach some pics so you can see how it all turned out.

I feel so bad blocking out my friends'' faces!

brownPS.jpg
 
OR I could upload the wrong photo with everyone''s faces showing--I hope they don''t mind! (Oh, and I''m NOT an amazon, my friends are all just really short compared to me, I swear!)

I''m having a hard time getting the photo of the boys a small enough file for PS, working on it . . .
 
I hope this works . . .

ETA: Okay, I CANNOT get a photo of the vests to upload. They were light brown/champagne in color, and take my word for it--they looked fabulous!

The guys wore these vests under black tuxedos, and everyone looked great!
 

Attachments

Just South of Providence in Warwick, but I work in downtown Boston and I lived in Reading, MA before then.
 
Hey Zoe and Hudson!

Zoe, I was just up in NH this weekend, we really love it up there. I''ll have to check out the thread for NE brides. I found this site a little while ago while deciding on a wedding band and doing a bit of research on my e-ring. Everybody here is so knowledeable! I''m sort of just a casual reader since most of the actual wedding planning is done (except for A LOT of details and finalizations). My FH proposed in Feb. and we''re getting married next month.

Hudson, I actually live on the south shore of boston, but commute downtown (back bay) for work. My hairstylist (who is in Boston) lives in Providence and says the commute really isn''t that bad. We try to get down to Providence because we like it down there as well.
 
I was in a wedding party last year where the BM''s wore a copper brown as the dress colour and the groom wore black tux with cream vest and the groomsmen wore gold. Looked quite nice!
 
I am going to be using Brown as my base color fo rmy wedding too. at first I was worried that brown was too blah, but I''m using a lot of pink hues to offset the brown to mak eit more springy. but i love the brown and pink together I think it''s feminine and earthy and springy. i was thinking of a cream or light gold accents also, so the guys didn''t have to wear pink vests and things. But I''m gonna stick wtih teh black tuxs even though the girls will probably have chocolate dreses. i think it''ll still go nicely. :D
 
My friend did brown and turquoise last September, and much as I wasn''t fond of those colors, it turned out great! Our dresses were the "Truffle" color from David''s Bridal, the bride wore a cream gown; her hubby wore a black tux with a white shirt and a cream vest & tie; the groomsmen wore black tuxes with dark brown ties and shimmery goldish-brown vests that picked up both the black and the brown in the wedding. Our flowers were all white, which stood out well against the dark brown dresses. It was actually very elegant, though I don''t know that I would''ve put that all together! She tied the turquoise in with her tableclothes, favors, etc...
 
If the MOH doesn't look good in brown, you could keep that color away from her face and instead have cream or something near her face and then the other two in solid brown? I've seen quite a few weddings where the MOH was not in an identical dress.

6454S-600.jpg
 
i''m using brown and green as my colors.. i personally didn''t like black tuxes with the brown... so instead groomsmen are wearing tan suits.

which you could very easily dress up with solid chocolate brown ties.. even a chocolate brown vest... very classy and fresh...
just my 2 cents....
 
I had brown tuxes in my beach wedding.. and it was GORGEOUS... do a search for my wedding photos and you can see what it looked like!

Brown was NOT one of our major colors... tiffany blue, teal and ivory were.. but the brown accent was beautiful!

HOpe that helps.
 
Date: 8/13/2007 4:24:28 PM
Author: fleur-de-lis

Anyhow... on your main question, frankly I''m a bit surprised at how nitpicky your BM are being. The odds are already overwhelming that they''ll never wear their BM dress again! (I know, true, but not necessarily helpful in your position.) I don''t know... I''d either (a) just choose blue because the odds are higher that a certain *tone* of blue will work suitably for all whereas brown tends to be all-or-nothing, or (b) choose one identical dress style for all, and let the MOH wear the blue version and the BM wear the brown version to make them happy.

I should probably have said that my bridesmaids/MOH do not care and will wear whatever I want them to. I, however, dont want them in a shade that makes them look bad. I have been to too many weddings where I have looked like crap in something my friend had me wear that I just cannot bring myself to do it to the 3 ladies that mean the world to me.
 
For my sister''s wedding, we wore chocolate brown bridesmaids dresses and the groomsmen wore black tuxes with black ties and vests and white shirts. It was a little more formal looking, but looked great and they didn''t have worry about mixing or matching colors, etc.
 
Thanks so much for the suggestions. I will google and look for pics. I did see a brown tux at a wedding expo I went to over the weekend. I wondered if anyone ever used them.

Hudson Hawk - those are the two colors I was thinking as well. Periwinkle blue and chocolate/expresso brown =)
 
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