It has been five years since my wedding, and now that I finally have some perspective on the most important day of my life, I’ll say it: I probably could’ve chosen better wedding colors. I will forever be haunted by that day… and the colors I did not choose.
I’m embarrassed to even tell you what my colors were. The thing is, I got married at the end of a teal-and-white wedding trend. Everyone was doing teal and white, and I wanted my wedding to be unique. But not too unique. So I went with teal and pink, thinking that I would be putting a totally fresh spin on a tried-and-true look.
I tried to ignore it, but I could see the disappointment on everyone’s faces when they arrived. The fact that my tinge of blue-ish green was so desperately trying—and missing—Tiffany box blue. That my pinks were just an obvious ploy to convince everyone that I could pick a better color than white.
I actually heard a guest call my favor boxes “seafoam green,” at which point I wanted to just cancel the entire wedding. Unfortunately I was in the middle of cutting the cake, so I was forced to continue the whole charade.
Do you know what chartreuse is? It’s one of the colors my sister chose for her wedding – a yellowish green that looks like puke. But when Laura chose it, oh my God, had anyone ever picked a better color for her wedding? Chartreuse and pink. My mother couldn’t get over how unexpected it was. But Laura just knocked off my wedding colors by making her green less blue and more puke-y.
“You can’t beat yourself up,” my husband says. “Pinterest didn’t even exist back then. How could you possibly have kept all those details straight in your head?” Sometimes I think he’s right. There was no way to imagine how two colors, or really one, with an accent color, would have played out.
I’ve resigned myself to a life of regret. I should have gone with teal and white, like every other girl who got married in 2009. Or maybe if I had been a little braver, I would have gone with champagne and pink. I’d probably be a famous wedding blogger by now if I’d done that.
When all is said and done, I am still married, which does offer some consolation. And in six months, I’m going to have a baby. And it’s going to be the most perfect and important day of my life. As long as I pick the right colors for the nursery.
