A few short weeks ago, in Sidney, British Columbia, Ambur wed Kwame at a family home on the water. “It was freezing cold…but it didn’t rain,” Ambur said last week when we were discussing the evening. She kept most of the details a secret from her guests who were welcomed by cocktails and a jazz trio who stuck to upbeat music to literally warm up the crowd “We could hear them across the bay where we were doing pictures beforehand” she said. This was a wedding that wasn’t planned around a single theme, colour or era but took on a look and feel of it’s own.

A professional soprano, Ambur who is no stranger to creating a moving scene, used dark purple dahlias and paper poms with splashes of pale pink, white and lime green to suit the garden setting. She went for a “deep contrast and wanted a big dark bouquet because it’s an unusual colour [for a wedding] and because those colours suited us.” Ambur also wore a necklace of cut glass from Stella & Dot to accessorize her Farley Chatto gown.

Although the flowers were important (Ambur did them herself by clustering stems of dahlias she bought at the local flower market in silver bowls), it was the food that was the centrepiece. From a watermelon salad to 4 ounces each of halibut, flank steak and lobster tail to a gorgeous risotto, the meal was a huge hit, created by family friend and restaurateur and served family style at tables dressed entirely in white, save for the flowers.

It was also a fitting coincidence that the deep red of the wine fit perfectly with the chosen colour scheme – wine became another theme for the day, Ambur’s father toasted the couple with a bottle of 1978 Dom Perignon and the guest book were a pair of bottles smuggled in from the Sonoma Vinyard that the couple hopes will be shared at a party in a year’s time by the same people who signed them.

Throughout the night, guests, half of whom are performers themselves, were continually entertained by a selection of carefully chosen entertainment – an accordion player and an impersonator took the party into the night and a friend sabred a bottle of champagne to get the festivities started. And, instead of moving directly from ceremony to dinner, Ambur and Kwame launched the dancing early by switching from jazz to an Ipod of mixed dance music. Their official dances were also carefully selected and Ambur took advantage of her talented friends, prevailing on five girlfriends to sing Can’t Take My Eyes off of You for the first dance, which, much to the couple’s surprise, all the guests joined in at the chorus.

All in all, the wedding was highly personal for the couple, from the colour choices to the menu, as Ambur said, “I knew I didn’t want traditional … but something entirely comfortable.”

Photography: Hélène Cyr

Ooh lala! Swoon-worthy marshmallows are the sweet du jour; hands down, their popularity has taken over the catering world by storm and we love the old world charm of the handmade variety. These pastel beauties are from Nadège, Toronto’s first patisserie inspired by urban Parisian culture.

Violet flavoured, their smell, as much as their look and taste is captivating, the experience of eating a proper marshmallow will make you melt with pleasure … what a gorgeous treat to send home with your guests at the end of a night or to pile high, with Willy Wonka-worthy abandon, on a dessert table.

Created on PaperlessPost.com

Our final colour palette of the week was inspired by another bunch of orchids at Jackie O. We just love the variation in these purples and today’s ode to colour will include both bold statements and softer, ultra feminine washes of colour. Stay tuned for marvelous mauves and pretty purples through the day.

Send your image to us and we’ll publish it as a palette of personal inspiration!

Palette generator: DeGraeve.com

A gorgeous wedding shot through with variations of blue, this brings a whole new meaning to the old saying!

photographs by lifeimages.

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Today’s palette is inspired by the current cover of Vogue Sposa. The Italian-based Conde Nast magazine featured this incredible dress, along with a spread of other sumptuously coloured wedding gowns in their summer issue. Today, we say au revoir to wishy washy pastels and ciao to heavenly saturated blues.

Don’t forget, you can send your own image to this email address for us to consider running your personal colour palette.

Colour palette generated by DeGraeve.com

We couldn’t help but feature this lovely sea-coloured ocean front wedding from Coren Moore’s blog after spotting it on the Sash & Bustle blog.

One of the lovely things about the colours that make up the palette that is sea glass is that they’re easily blue or green; the phrase, “in the eye of the beholder” comes to mind and we love that it’s a palette that’s open to interpretation. Another lovely thing is that sea glass can inspire textural details as well, we love the bride’s smooth, translucent looking shell necklace, and the ruffles on the bridesmaid’s gown (above left). A sea glass-inspired wedding can be what you make of it, from stormy grey to sparkling turquoise, it’s the layering and colour combining that will make it spectacular.

Coren Moore bridesmaids’ dresses and tie

Photography by Megan Dey

Card created at PaperlessPost.com

Today we’re coming within a hair’s breadth of the colour all bridesmaids innately dread the mention of, remember that MasterCard ad? But if we promise not to make mention of the colour that starts with sea and (almost) rhymes with groan, will you allow us to present the delights of sea glass? It’s non-colour, if you will, that’s as changing as the sea.

Today is also dedicated to bridesmaids and our colour palette comes from a selection of wraps from TwoBirds, a company based in New York that has put the polish on their take on the dress that everyone from Dessy to American Apparel seems to sell a version of. Along with a range of beautifully coloured dresses available as full or knee length, TwoBirds has also created a colour coordinated bandeau to wear under each gown, just to keep everything in place, as well as a wrap to cover up in the evening.

Going even further, they also offer the option of adding rosettes to the hem of the dress and are coming out with a two-toned version shortly.

As always, we’d be thrilled to post your inspirational colour palettes, if you have an image you’d like us to put up, don’t hesitate to email!

Palette generated by Stephen DeGraeve.