Red-Orange-Yellow what?

Posted by Tigritza

Dear readers, WE NEED YOUR HELP!

We've been putting this decision off for long enough, and now, we finally have to set it in stone: COLORS. Specifically, colors of best-people outfits. You may recall us mentioning that way back when, at a bar by the river in Bristol, after a few (too many?) glasses of wine, Tasha and I were finally able to 'envision' our wedding: the ceremony, the seating, the fabrics, and the colors! ...Well, the truth is that being able to 'envision' something, i.e. to conjure up a blurry image in the back of your mind, is not at all the same as being able to literally pick patterns out of a catalogue.

Since our wedding's a mixture of Russian and Indian, involving elements of Hindu and Jewish culture, we wanted to reflect that wonderful blend in our color scheme. Rather than going with more traditional wedding colors - like purple or blue - we wanted fiery colors. Fiery! Yep - we pictured oranges, reds, and yellows. Bright happy colors that celebrate rather than calmly state our wedding. After all, a wedding is a party. And we're all still young!

While it's easier to incorporate that color scheme into flowers, decor, etc, we've found that it's pretty hard to translate it into clothing, i.e. Best People Attire, without making everyone look a little too, well, orange!

For the 'best people' wearing dresses, Tasha found this beautiful 'convertible' dress that seems to be pretty popular! We didn't want to necessarily force everyone to wear the same dress, but we wanted some sort of continuity. So the convertible dress (below, image from Two Birds) is the best of both worlds - the best people will get to decide how to wear the dress (there are literally dozens of different ways to wear this single garment!) so reflect their own style and what they feel most comfortable with! All dresses would go till just below the knee, but the top half is totally customizable based on how each person wants to tie it. What do you think?

Now, what about colors? Tasha emailed ten different sellers on Etsy.com, but as it turns out, most sellers just don't have colors that appeal to us and can match our style. However, one seller had some great colors that were orange/red/yellow, but not too orange, and had some beautiful patterns. Below is a picture of her fabrics:

The patterns seem pretty casual, which matches the style of the convertible dress. So - what color do we pick? This is where we really need your help. Our favorite is the one on the far left: orange with patterns and not as overwhelming as just a flat orange. I actually think it's pretty beautiful in its own way. SO:

- do we pick just that one pattern and have everyone wear it?

- do we pick a whole bunch of different patterns (all three above, plus one more) and allow best people to pick their favorite and mix it up? This could be pretty cool, but will this look way too crazy and wildly inconsistent and distracting? Or will it just look cute and unique? Remember, next to the best people, I will be wearing a red-and-gold sari, and Tasha a white wedding dress.

- do we pick one color for the "best woman" (equivalent of maid-of-honor), and another color for the rest of the 'best people'? This would make her stand out, but I don't like making it seem like she's so much more special than the rest of our friends and family. Yes, she'd be the one that most impacted and built our relationship, but everyone up there with us (and the rest of the guests!) are important to us in very different and symbolic ways.

Once we've figured that out, we also need to think about the best people who will be wearing pants/suits. Our initial vision was that it would be pretty cool to have the best-people-pants-wearers (sorry but no gender discrimination here!) on Tasha's side wear Indian clothing, and the ones on my side wear Western clothing, all within the same color scheme. Specifically, we really wanted Tasha's older brother to wear Indian clothes :) Below is an outfit we bought for him in India! (The picture is of someone else trying it on.)

But then, what color could the rest of the pants-wearers wear? An orange suit seems kind of, well, ridiculous! What about a light beige suit with an orange-themed tie? (I've really never ever liked beige though...) Or just a vest + trousers + brightly-colored tie?

HELP US!

Lots of love,

Tigritza (& Tasha)