This is how to dress your bridemaids in purple

So it's purple for your wedding day? You just love the richness of this shade. And you're going to dress your bridesmaids in every hue of mauve you can find.


So it's purple for your wedding day? You just love the richness of this shade. You love the way you can move from lilacs and mauves through to a rich imperial purple, something dramatic that will hold its own on a winter wedding day.

It's a shade that lends itself perfectly to having an ombre bridesmaid line up as well. Depending on your girls' complexions you can choose soft pastel purples (we're thinking of sugared almonds here) or deep dark tones.

Hold some fabric samples up against the face to see which color works (you can get the color samples from Dessy right here). It might be surprising to see what works with which maid. Somebody might be convinced they don't suit pastels, only to find out they work beautifully. Another might always have avoided brights, only to realise that they should have been wearing dramatic colors always.

How a real bride did it on her big day

There's no doubt, such an exquisite colour palette is incredibly amorous - and so many violet-coloured flowers have a wonderfully delicate fragrance too. You'll also find a big selection of blooms in shades of purple - just talk to your florist about what's available. Whose heart (and nose!) would not be moved by the posies below, created by the lovely Helen Jane Floristry, with the perfumed muscari, syringa, roses and freesias?

This might be time to revisit the Sophia Coppola film "Marie Antoinette". It's a confection of pastels and purples and could give you some fabulous inspiration.

As for accent details, you'll find that metallics work well with purple. Silver, gold, bronze - maybe do things a little differently and put your maids in silver or gold sandals ...

Takeaways from this post

  • Purple is a fabulous accent color to choose for your wedding day for a number of reasons
  • You can go for an ombre theme and use every shade of purple from the palest lilac through to a rich deep purple
  • You'll find plenty of wedding flowers in purple shades - talk to your florist about choices for the time of year
  • Purple shoes peeping out from beneath a traditional cream or white wedding dress look fabulous (but think about metallics too)
  • Depending on the shade you choose, purple is just at home at a city wedding in winter, a country garden wedding or a destination wedding on a palm-fringed beach