I am planning on wearing an ivory dress, not a very deep ivory, but still ivory. Does this mean that everything at the reception needs to be ivory instead of white? Such as cake, table cloths, any decorations that would normally be white? My other colors are lime green and aqua blue, is that going to clash with ivory?

Also will any color of flowers go with ivory? I am using bright colors in my bouquet, will this go with ivory?

Angie Zimmerman, Wedding & Special Event Flower Designer, Instructor and Public Speaker, Angie Zimmerman Designs, DIY Wedding Flower Guide and Flower Arranging 101

Hi There, I am so glad you are thinking about this and asking these questions! The thing about wearing ivory is if you put white next to it, it can make the dress look dirty. The best way around this is to incorporate white and ivory together, but that doesn’t sound like what you have in mind. The colors you want to use – lime green and aqua blue won’t clash with the ivory. The white linen very well will, so why not consider using an ivory linen for YOUR table only. I don’t think I would be too concerned about the cake being white and your dress being ivory. And, truly, depending upon how ivory your dress is, you may not even notice the difference in shades. Believe it or not, there are various shades of white.

If you decide you want to use some ivory flowers, there are ivory roses (Vendella), white calla lilies, white hydrangea and white Asiatic lilies are more ivory in color than true white. I would stay clear of using stephanotis, white stargazer lilies, white roses, white carnations, white phaelenopsis orchids.

I hope this helps!

Brandi Hamerstone,
Owner/Senior Wedding Planner All Events Planned

You must have a good eye for detail since you are thinking about this! I’ve seen ivory and white weddings, I’ve seen all ivory and ivory with color. All of them looked beautiful. The thing is you are never locked into a color scheme if you don’t want it, it is your wedding and your design. What I would do, to get an idea of what to expect is take linen samples to your dress and see what white linen looks like up to your dress, what ivory looks like as well. If the white does make your ivory dress look “dirty” then you’ll definitely want to go with all ivory. If you can’t really see it being a problem and the colors contrast, then go for it! You can do whatever you want for your cake but if you do decide that ivory linens look best, you could keep the theme by doing the cake in ivory. You don’t HAVE to do anything, but to have it all flow and to get a more classic look it is best to stick with a theme.

Good Luck!