Each month in my "Collect the Nectar" newsletter, I invite you to ask me anything, from flowers and floral artistry to business, health, wellbeing, entrepreneurship, writing, authenticity, branding — you name it. I select a question each month to answer and feature here, where I can share my experience and approach with you in accessible, cost-free resources that empower you forward on your creative journey. Here is the featured question submission and my answer for April 2025:
FEATURED QUESTION
Question: "What is your favorite floral color palette for night weddings and for day weddings?" — Patricia C.
ANSWERS FROM JEN
I love this question for every reason, particularly because I love color and believe it is one of the most essential and powerful elements of storytelling that we floral artists use to craft stories in the language of flowers for our clients. Color is a vibrational frequency of light. The colors we see depend on the wavelengths of that light, with longer wavelengths creating warmer colors like reds and oranges, and shorter wavelengths creating cooler colors like blues and violets. I mention this because our human bodies are highly sensitive to energy, and those energetic frequencies sync up with emotions that we physically feel in our bodies.
If through yoga or other healing experiences you have been introduced to the concept of the chakras, which are the energy centers of the body, you may have seen them represented visually by color, with red at the root chakra, ascending up through the body by each major color of the rainbow, from orange for the sacral chakra, yellow for the solar plexus chakra, green for the heart chakra, blue for the throat chakra, indigo for the third eye chakra, and ending at the crown chakra with the color violet. This system is one holistic representation of our embodied connection to color through the energetic frequencies colors cary.
When you think about it, what feelings does the color red, for example, inspire for you? Red is a powerful color with slower wavelengths and a known boldness and warmth to it. Red can embody passion, intensity, strength, and vitality. A floral palette based in the color red has a depth, warmth, and robustness to it inherently. Here is a little guide to the general emotional connotations of the main colors of the light spectrum:
ENERGETIC & EMOTIONAL CONTEXT OF COLORS
REDS — warmth, robustness, strength, depth, regality, vitality, groundedness
ORANGES — abundance, warmth, creativity, generosity, playfulness, energy, happiness
YELLOWS — lightness, brightness, happiness, optimism, courage, confidence, wealth
GREENS — compassion, peace, expansion, lushness, growth, harmony, renewal
BLUES — tranquility, authenticity, emotionality, intelligence, loyalty, freedom
INDIGOS — intuition, wisdom, devotion, security, elegance, reflection, mysticism
VIOLETS — imagination, spirituality, royalty, nobility, possibility, luxury, relaxation
SHADES, TINTS, & TONES OF COLORS
In working with flowers, as opposed to working with paints, we are not able to mix colors to create a flower's hue, but we are able to understand the principles behind variations in the appearance of colors and select flowers based on these varieties to suit our intentions. Here are three essential terms for color variants:
SHADES — The "shade" of a color indicates how much white is mixed into the color for softness and reduced intensity. This will give you lighter and more pastel versions of a color, depending how much or how little white is blended in.
TINTS — The "tint" of a color indicates how much black is mixed into a color for darkness and richness. This makes a color darker or more intense.
TONES — The "tone" of a color indicates how much grey is mixed into a color to give it depth and complexity. This will give you a more saturated or a more muted color, rather than a lighter (shade) or darker (tint) color. Tones allow us to work with a single color in a broad variety of brilliance and intensity, or diminished and softened versions of that color, which is particularly lovely in floral work.
THE POWER OF COLOR PAIRINGS & PALETTES
Working with flowers is visual storytelling. We use color, shape, gesture, and texture to convey emotions and inspire experiences. Color in particular is one of the most immediately impactful elements for the human eye, and as floral artists we can be as intentional as a poet is with words and sounds in the colors and color variations we gather together for a color palette.
In addition to the details above about color to consider, I teach all of my students in my workshops, mentorships, and online courses to also consider the following two elements when building a color palette and flower recipe:
VARIEGATION — As you assemble a flower recipe to represent the feelings and subsequent color palette of your event, having flowers and foliages that contain more than one color will be extremely helpful. You want to look for elements that contain more than one color so that the color of one petal will pick up in the variegated stripe in another leaf or petal, so that the golden center of one flower picks up on the blending variegation of golds and oranges on the petals of another. Sometimes foliages can have such beautiful variegations that break up what could otherwise be dark and heavy greenery.
BRIDGE COLORS — If you have a few bold or distinct colors in your palette, you will want to have a few flowers or elements in your floral recipe that give you a "bridge" or a more neutral color to allow your palette to blend harmoniously among the main color or colors of your palette. For example, if you have coral and watermelon tones in a palette with chartreuse and emerald greens, your palette will feel more harmonious if you also include flowers and textures that contain softer shades of your more saturated colors and even neutral tones like light peach, beige, white, or taupe to allow you bridge between colors.
With these elements in mind, here are three of my favorite color palettes for weddings:
01 FAVORITE COLOR PALETTE — Warm Peach Dawn: softness, sweetness, romance, warmth, playfulness, ease
Great for a spring or summer wedding, a shower, a daytime event, or an evening event in the spring, for a low-key but luxuriously dreamy vibe
02 FAVORITE COLOR PALETTE — Fresh Cumulous Dusk: serenity, refinement, elegance, luxury, freshness, classic and a touch earthy
Great for a winter or early spring event, an evening ceremony palette, a refined reception, or intriguing installations
03 FAVORITE COLOR PALETTE — Deep Romantic Ruby: passion, strength, vitality, romance
Great for a summer, later summer, or early fall palette, an evening reception, a punchy and vibrant ceremony arch, a higher energy & romantic event
A NOTE ON COLOR PALETTES FOR NIGHT VS. DAY EVENTS
Since your original question included this specification, I will add that layer in here. Just as it is wise to adjust color palettes to correspond with the energy and colors of the season in which the event takes place (example: richer, earthier tones in the fall versus lighter, softer tones in the spring), it is also wise to consider the time of day of the event and the style you are aiming to convey.
If it is a daytime event, I'd recommend taking cues from the feeling of daytime — the brightness, lightness, and liveliness that daylight brings. There would be a difference for me too if it were a mid-morning event (softer) or a midday event (more vibrant). If it is an evening event, I'd go with more sultry, softer but richer tones, potentially; and if it were a nighttime event, I'd go with either darker and more saturated or brighter and more saturated.
A good example of this is when you have a wedding with a late afternoon or early evening ceremony, an evening cocktail hour, and a nighttime reception. You can vary your color palettes and flower recipes slightly to reflect the energy of each of those times of day and the vibe the clients hope to invite their guests to feel.
USING COLOR WITH INTENTION & IMPACT
Above all, color is an intuitive element based in the body where we feel sensation and emotion. As you work to translate your clients' stories into the floral atmospheres you create for them, get into your body and feel what kinds of energy and what kinds of emotions they want to convey at their celebration. Translate that set of feelings and sensations into colors. And if clients have already chosen their colors intuitively, use the guidance in this post to blend and enrich those colors into palettes that support the feelings and style intended for their celebration.
Will you go with deep and saturated colors for boldness? Pastel colors for softness? High-contrast pairings for energy and impact? A tonal palette blending shades and tones of one main color for harmony? There are virtually infinite options, so allow the feeling to be your guide as you calibrate what colors, pairings, and variations will capture and convey the sensations you and your clients desire. In other words, start with a feeling and work backward into your colors and tones.
If you'd like to submit a question for me to answer here on the Journal, just join my newsletter. Each month in my "Collect The Nectar" newsletter, I include a link to submit your question. If your question is selected, you also receive a $25 gift card to the Nectar & Bloom shop for a transformative floral experience of your choice!
You can also learn more in my Poetry of Flowers holistic floral artistry courses and all-access membership. I'm excited to support your dream and the beautiful creative work you are here to bring into the world.
Keep blooming,
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Images captured by Sposto Photography.