Red Wedding Guide

A wedding is so special and while most brides choose the traditional white, silver or ivory dresses, a new trend is beginning. Red weddings.

Red wedding collage

Red is an incredible color. Not only passionate, but vibrant and beautiful, and dignified. From receptions to the clothing, a red wedding has tons of themes to use. Valentines, romance, red hot, red and black, modern, Hollywood red carpet and more. There are also hundreds of shades of red that can be used in conjunction with themes.

While entire weddings can use themes and colors, specific parts of the wedding will need designs that conform to the themes. The wedding dress, bridesmaid gowns, shoes, jewelry, cakes and hundreds of other parts of the wedding will need to fit into the theme. There are literally millions of ways to design a red wedding.

Some of the most important parts of the wedding planning (and the most fun) is the clothes shopping. Of course there is the wedding dress, but there is also the bridesmaids, groomsmen and groom's outfits as well. It may be hard to think of different ways to use red in the theme, without overdoing it.

Recent years has seen a bombardment of red wedding dresses to wedding shops and boutiques. It used to be a bride had to settle for pageant gowns or quinceanera dresses for their wedding. Today designers are making red dresses specifically for weddings. They're not just big frilly messes either, they're sleek, sexy and even classy .

Bridesmaid dresses are one of the fun parts of wedding shopping. The bride's dress can be red, or have red accents, and the bridesmaids can wear any color they desire. As the bride wears the red, the bridesmaids can even wear white. For the bride accenting her white dress with red sashes, beading etc., bridesmaid dresses can match the accents.

Brides and attendants both will need the perfect shoes to match their dresses. For lovely summer weddings a red wedge sandal will go nicely. For funkier weddings a red platform heel sasses up an outfit. Winter wedding dresses are lovely with little wedge shoes, and for funkier weddings in winter, a red platform boot or heel will look really cool. Stilettos work beautifully in summer and winter and platform shoes don't have to be just for quirky weddings. Faith shoes has some lovely styles of platforms. Shoes are relative to the design of the specific type. For instance a platform can be funky or very elegant and beautiful. A good reason to wear either platforms or red wedge shoes is to have an easier time walking. Both styles of shoe make walking in high heels much easier.

It's probably not going to look best with a red tuxedo, but dark red suits might be really stunning. Better than an entire tux or suit being red, cummerbunds, bow ties, ascots and handkerchiefs will blend into the theme nicely. That way using two color themes means the groom can wear one of the colors and accent it with another. The groomsmen can wear the opposite colors as the groom. A red wedding doesn't mean everything has to be red, red accents are beautiful too.

Red weddings consist of more than clothing and it's helpful to know what options are available to use. There's also the favors, cakes, reception decorations, flowers and dishware.

There are bazillions of choices for red wedding favors. Cherries, apples, red hot candies, Twizzlers, strawberries, strawberry daiquiris, key chains and pens. The favors don't necessarily have to be red themselves. Other types of favors can be wrapped in red paper or with red ribbon.

Think a wedding cake is difficult to get red? Think again! Wedding cakes today have marzipan icing that can be colored to your exact specifications. But you don't have to stop there. Red velvet cake tastes divine and looks beautiful on plates. A really popular new style of wedding desserts is having a candy table or cupcakes. With either a candy table or cupcakes you can have color duos, trios or an entire theme of spicy, red chili pepper candies and sweets.

Deck the hall with (OK OK, I won't finish that, but I bet you're singing it now). In all seriousness, the reception hall is where your guests spend 80% of the wedding (f not longer). A typical wedding reception is six hours long. That's why so many couples choose to spend a lot of money on the reception decorations and food. So which decorations can be used for a red wedding theme? Of course there are always red streamers and roses, but there are many other choices. The chili pepper theme can be carried over from the food to the reception decor as well. They have little red chili lights on strands which are really cute. A really cool idea might be to carve a watermelon and serve the watermelon balls inside, throw some cherries in there too. Fruit trays are beautiful centerpieces, filled with strawberries, apples, watermelon and nectarines. A cherries jubilee centerpiece would be really cool as a centerpiece. There are always the standard flowers for centerpieces.

Roses are beautiful, but maybe you're looking for something a little more daring and exotic? Here are a small list of exotic red flowers:

Stargazer lily
Gloriosa Lillies
Hyacinths
Gerbera Daisies
Amaryllis
Parrot Tulip
Peonies
Sweet Peas

Many couples consider regular decorations, cakes, dresses etc., but few realize that dishes can be an incredible accessory on the tables. Since table settings are usually put out before guests arrive, red rimmed plates and beautiful red glasses can really set the tone and atmosphere. It's such a pretty extra way to add more red to the reception.

Lastly, you'll want to invest some serious time into the invitations. There is always the paper and colors to express the theme, but wording is also important. You'll want to figure out whether your wedding is formal or casual to determine exactly what type of invitations you want. Formal weddings have lovely choices like handmade wedding invitations. Casual ceremonies can have handmade invitations too, but perhaps done by family, friends or yourselves. Whichever you choose, it'll be gorgeous.

There are many other red ideas for your wedding and we'll explore them all in this blog. Red wedding dresses, red wedding cakes, red bridesmaid dresses, red wedding shoes, red wedding flowers and red wedding invitations.

When you're out shopping for that perfect dress, remember that the Internet offers a lot of possibilities. I bought my wedding dress over the Internet from House of Brides. I worked really hard to get an affiliate link to them. When I present their clothing, along with others, it's because I love their site and really belive in what they have to offer. I feel the same about very few sites among them are Amazon, Ebay, Edressme.com and theknot.com. (Since this is about weddings there isn't much point in touting the other site I love : Avenue.com.) Anyway I put this little blurb in here because when I put up sites, it's because I trust them.