Wedding Invitation Colors: 7 Palettes and 43 Designs

The best wedding invitation colors are one main color taken from your wedding, one neutral (ivory, white or ink) and, at most, one metallic accent, with the words set in a shade dark or light enough to read on a phone. Light palettes suit daytime and garden weddings; dark ones suit evening and black tie.

A wedding invitation color palette is the two to four colors that do the work on your invitation: a background, a text color, a main color and sometimes a metal. Below: seven palettes, the text colors that stay legible, and all 43 of our designs by color. For what makes an invitation feel refined, see our guide to luxury digital wedding invitations.

How to choose wedding invitation colors in three steps

Start from something real at your wedding, give each color one job, and test the result on a phone.

1. Take the main color from the day itself. The flowers, the bridesmaids' dresses, the venue's stone. If it isn't at the wedding, it doesn't belong on the invitation.
2. Choose the neutral by the hour. Ivory, paper white or sand for daytime; ink, midnight or theatre black for evening.
3. Give each color a job. Background, text, main color, accent. The decorators' 60-30-10 rule of thumb works: 60% neutral, 30% main color, 10% metal.

Wedding invitation colors at a glance: 7 palettes, 43 designs

Each of our 43 designs belongs to one or two of the seven color families, and 11 of them are dark. The table uses the same color families as the filters on our design collection.

Gold and champagne wedding invitations

Gold reads as celebration, and it works best as the accent, not the text, on a light invitation. On ivory, a typical gold measures about 2.7:1 contrast, too faint for an address; on black it rises to about 8.4:1.

That is the case for black and gold wedding invitations: the dark ground lets gold carry whole lines of type. On a light invitation, keep gold for the monogram, borders and the date, and set the words in ink. Our guide to black and gold wedding invitations has six palettes and black-tie wording to copy; Soirée opens a black pochette in a spiral of gold foil.

In our collection, Bulles opens a Champagne house in chalk, gold and bottle green. Céleste turns a brass astrolabe on midnight. Enluminure gilds an illuminated leaf at a touch.

BullesA Champagne house in the chalk, opened with a popSee Bulles

CélesteA brass astrolabe, and the real sky over your venueSee Céleste

LanternesPaper lanterns rising over a lake at duskSee Lanternes

EnluminureAn illuminated leaf, gilded and painted at a touchSee Enluminure

Burgundy, crimson and red wedding invitations

Deep reds are the rare main color that also works as text: a burgundy measures about 10.6:1 on ivory.

Oxblood and Bordeaux feel formal, for fall (autumn), winter and black tie; geranium and tomato red feel joyful and daytime. Google's autocomplete pairs burgundy wedding invitations with gold, green, navy and blush (checked 19 October 2026, US English): gold and green for fall, navy for a classic wedding, blush for a softer one.

Cachet is cotton stationery with an oxblood wax seal. Velours raises a crimson curtain on your names. Vendange pairs Bordeaux with harvest gold, the burgundy-and-gold pairing in one design.

CachetCotton stationery, an oxblood wax sealSee Cachet

VeloursAn opera house, the curtain rising on your namesSee Velours

VendangeKnife-laid oil, a crate of bottles bearing your namesSee Vendange

SolsticeA midsummer maypole, its ribbons unwound by your guestsSee Solstice

Blush and rose wedding invitations

Blush is a background and an accent, never a text color: pale pink on ivory measures about 1.5:1, which guests cannot read.

Charcoal or burgundy text gives a romantic invitation its spine. Searches pair blush with both burgundy and sage green; it suits spring and daytime, and softens a dark palette as rose gold or peony.

Toile prints rose toile on a folding screen in a salon. Sucre sets pistachio against rose under a misted cloche. Herbier presses flowers in faded violet and cotton. For roses, peonies and what each flower says, see our guides to romantic wedding invitations and floral wedding invitations.

HerbierPressed flowers, a flower press and typed labelsSee Herbier

ToileRose toile on cotton, a folding screen in a salonSee Toile

SucreSugar and glass, lifted by your guestsSee Sucre

ConteA pop-up fairytale in layered cut paperSee Conte

Blue wedding invitations: navy, cobalt and dusty blue

Navy is the safest color on any invitation; dusty blue is lovely but belongs in the art, not the words. Navy measures about 13.2:1 on ivory; a typical dusty blue about 2.4:1.

Blue spans the widest range of settings: cobalt for a painted garden, Prussian blue for the sea, night blue for an Alpine winter, pale bleu for a dawn ceremony. Searches pair navy with burnt orange, blush and gold; navy and burnt orange is a warm pairing for fall.

Carré unties a silk scarf in navy, orange and emerald. Cyanotype washes a sun print into Prussian blue. Porcelaine is blue-and-white porcelain with a painted garden. Ruban unties a French-blue silk bow, the bride's something blue; our guide to dusty blue wedding invitations covers nine blues and what to pair them with.

CathédraleSilk tulle, a single pearl, a cloister at dawnSee Cathédrale

PorcelaineBlue-and-white porcelain, a painted gardenSee Porcelaine

CyanotypeA sun print by the sea, exposed by your guests and washed into Prussian blueSee Cyanotype

CarréA silk carré printed for one couple, untied from its twillySee Carré

Green wedding invitations: emerald, sage and garden green

Deep greens (emerald, forest, bottle) carry text and formality; pale greens like sage carry mood. A forest green measures about 9.0:1 on ivory; a typical sage about 2.2:1.

Sage green wedding invitations

Sage green works as the main color when the words are set in something darker. Searches pair it with gold, blush pink, white and dusty blue. Avoid white text on sage (about 2.4:1); use forest green, charcoal or navy, and keep gold for the monogram. Roseraie pairs sage with old rose in a rose garden at golden hour.

For a deep green, Zellige opens a riad door on emerald and brass. Orangerie wipes the fog from a glasshouse in citrus and iron green. Selva follows a blue morpho through a cloud forest.

OrangerieA Victorian glasshouse, citrus in bloomSee Orangerie

ZelligeA riad door, two knocks, a courtyard of lanternsSee Zellige

NacreLiving mother-of-pearl, a pearl that risesSee Nacre

SelvaA blue morpho that leads the way through the cloud forestSee Selva

Ivory and neutral wedding invitations

Ivory is the color that makes every other color look intended. Black ink on ivory measures about 16:1, the most legible pairing in this guide.

Clay, washi, sand, pearl and cotton each carry a different warmth. Pantone named PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer, "a lofty white", its Color of the Year 2026 (pantone.com). Choose a neutral alone when the venue is colorful enough already.

Kintsugi mends stoneware in gold on clay and washi. Dune brushes the sand from a buried tablet in terracotta and sand. Calligraphe writes your names live in iron-gall ink. Dentelle lays ivory Chantilly lace over champagne satin.

KintsugiStoneware mended in gold, a quiet tea roomSee Kintsugi

DuneSand brushed away, one day of skySee Dune

CalligrapheA pen writes your names live, in iron-gall inkSee Calligraphe

Ink and noir wedding invitations

A black or midnight invitation says "evening" before guests read a word. Ivory type on midnight measures about 15:1, so a dark invitation can be as legible as a light one.

Ink and noir suit black tie, city rooftops and New Year's Eve. Keep the text ivory, never gray, and let one metal shine.

Minuit rides a gilded elevator to a midnight rooftop in black and gold. Écrin opens a ring box in midnight velvet and rose gold. Chapitre is a green morocco book, printed for your guests.

MinuitA gilded elevator to a rooftop at midnightSee Minuit

ChapitreA green morocco book, printed for your guestsSee Chapitre

ÉcrinA ring box that becomes a music boxSee Écrin

Clair-ObscurA peony that blooms by candlelight, a still life in oilSee Clair-Obscur

What ink color is best for a wedding invitation?

Black, navy, burgundy and forest green are the best text colors on a light invitation; ivory and gold are best on a dark one. WCAG 2.2, the W3C's accessibility standard, asks for 4.5:1 contrast for normal text and 3:1 for large text.

We measured typical shades with the WCAG formula; check your own in any contrast checker.

Light or dark: choosing the mood

Match the invitation to the hour and the dress code: light for daytime, dark for evening and black tie. The invitation is guests' first hint of what to wear; our guide to dress code wording on wedding invitations covers the words.

• Daytime, garden, brunch: light, with a main color from the flowers.
• Black tie and evening: dark, or light with oxblood or ink type.
• Winter: either. Night blue feels like snow at dusk, clay and gold like a quiet morning.
• Destination: follow the light of the place: ochre in Seville, emerald in Marrakech, marigold in Udaipur.

Season shifts the choice too; our guide to wedding invitations by season goes from spring to winter.

How to match the invitation to your wedding color palette

Give your designer exact colors, a role for each, and one thing to avoid. "Sage" means a dozen greens, so names alone are not enough.

1. Photograph the real thing in daylight (fabric swatch, florist's moodboard) and add hex codes or a Pantone number if you have them.
2. Assign the roles: background, text, main color, accent.
3. Name one color you don't want.
4. Approve the proof on your own phone, not a laptop.

Copy this palette brief:

Main color: dusty blue (#8BA3B8), for the art and borders
Neutral: ivory, for the background
Text: navy
Accent: brushed gold, monogram and date only
Avoid: silver and bright white
Mood: garden lunch, relaxed formal

On our Premium plan, your designer redraws the design in your colors, with your venue painted by hand on the cover. Essential keeps a design's colors as they are, and bespoke digital wedding invitations begin from a blank page. For starting points by theme, see our digital wedding invitation ideas.

Colors couples search for: sage, terracotta, olive

Sage green, terracotta and olive are the named colors that show up in invitation searches across languages. Autocomplete shows that a phrase is searched, not how often.

Roseraie is our one sage design, set with old rose; none is olive as it stands, and the Premium redesign described above is how to have either in your own shade. For terracotta, set the words in espresso or ink: terracotta reaches about 4.1:1 on ivory, enough for a large heading, not an address.

Sources

• W3C, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast, Minimum). Checked 19 October 2026.
• Pantone, Color of the Year 2026: PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer. Checked 19 October 2026.
• Google autocomplete (suggestqueries.google.com), US English: "wedding invitation colors" and sage, olive, terracotta, burgundy, navy and black and gold wedding invitations. Checked 19 October 2026.
• Google autocomplete, France, Germany and Brazil: faire-part mariage vert sauge, faire-part mariage terracotta, faire part mariage vert olive, Hochzeitseinladung terracotta, convite casamento terracota, convite digital casamento verde oliva. Checked 19 October 2026.
• Contrast ratios: our own calculations with the WCAG 2.2 relative luminance formula, on the hex values shown.

Frequently asked questions