Associated with royalty and wealth, it’s no wonder purple is a popular color for weddings. Not just for princess brides, however, blackberry is a rich dark shade of purple that’s ideal for anyone looking to add a little drama to their big day, or at least their color palette, anyways. Here are five different ways to incorporate the moody hue.

If you want to use blackberry purple, but still keep your palette fun and fresh, pair it with some sweet pastel colors like lilac and mint green.

For lovers of the jewel tone trend, this palette is your ticket to jump on the bandwagon.

Muting down your colors and adding in some grey will help play up the moody nature of blackberry purple and give your wedding a gothic romantic feel.

With beautiful shades of purple, pink, and gold, this color scheme is elegant, rich, and luxurious – definitely fit for royalty!

Sometimes the best place to look for inspiration is in your food, and we think lemons and blackberries make for a truly delicious color combination!

Photo one: sweetapolita.com; Photo two: weddingchicks.com; Photo three: 100layercake.com; Photo four: stylemepretty.com; Photo five: magnoliarouge.com

Be the ultimate love birds with this romantic wedding theme that is inspired by a sweet couple of the feathered variety. A love birds theme can be easily incorporated into any color palette or look and ups the romance without being cheesy. We love that there’s so many ways to personalize this trend and fit it in with your own style.

A white-on-white cake with a love birds cake topper, is a minimal and contemporary take. Gold confetti is fabulous as it is, but in adorable bird shapes… even better!

After several miserable weeks of wedding planning stress, Katie and Rodney decided that having a wedding just wasn’t worth it, choosing to secretly elope instead. Relieved of all traditional wedding day pressure, the couple dressed up for their Georgia courthouse ceremony together and celebrated their union with cupcakes and champagne.

Special thanks to Laura Fulmer for documenting their elopement so they could share their wedding experience with their family and friends (and us!).

Katie, 24 & Rodney, 33

Evans, Georgia

Wedding Date: May 8, 2014

Number of Guests: Just us!

Wedding Cost: $1500

Wedding Ceremony Location: Magistrate Court of Columbia County

Wedding Reception Location: We shared cupcakes and champagne at Crum’s on Central. We had dinner at Frog Hollow Tavern and dessert at Craft & Vine.

Why did you have an intimate wedding? 

For a while, we discussed every iteration of wedding possible – large, small, local, destination, etc. We put that conversation aside and tried to nail down some of the logistical issues, hoping that that would help guide us in our first decision. It was miserable. Miserable. When the idea of planning a wedding seemed too insurmountable, we’d joke about eloping. It was the only thing that relieved our stress. We’d heard from tons of married couples that they wish that they had eloped. We couldn’t imagine an entire year of the wedding planning stress we faced over only a couple of weeks, so we decided to take the advice. And it was great.

What are some the challenges that you faced planning an intimate wedding? 

Our biggest challenge was how we were going to tell our family and friends. Since we robbed our loved ones of a wedding experience, we wanted to do something special for them. We hired an incredible photographer to document our day with the intent of sending wedding announcements to everyone we would have invited. It took us a little longer to print the announcements and send them out than we thought (we’re both in professional schools, so time is limited), so we had to lie to everyone we knew for a month! It was awful. We had to equivocate at every: “When/where are you getting married?!” We let our families know either in person or on FaceTime, instructing distant family to connect with us before they opened the announcement. After giving our closest friends a week or so to receive the wedding announcement, we posted pictures to Facebook for everyone.

There’s still time to sign up for the Cuisinart Summer Giveaway via the BridalPulse App!  You can download the App here. Register for the giveaway in the App.  BridalPulse is a great way to find inspiration from IW and many other great bridal boggers when you are on the go! One lucky winner will receive a prize package including an ice cream and sorbet maker, a griddler, sparkling beverage maker, Belgian waffle maker and a blender/food processor. Hurry, you only have until August 25, 2014 to enter!

Having both been married before, Kelly and Mark decided that a big extravagant wedding was not the route that they wanted to take. In the words of the groom: “Been there, done that!”

Instead, the couple chose to elope in one of their favorite cities – New York – with a simple civil ceremony. They followed up their city hall nuptials by wandering around the city with their photographer Tahni in tow, riding the subway, eating pizza, and toasting their marriage with local patrons at an Irish pub. Now that’s what we call love, Big Apple style!

Kelly, 42 & Mark, 48

New York City, NY

Wedding Date: October 10, 2013

Number of guests: 1,  Tahni (our photographer)

Wedding Cost: Marriage license, flowers, and photographer, totaling $1100

Wedding Ceremony Location: New York City Hall

Wedding Reception Location: We held our ‘reception’ three weeks later at our home in Newport Beach, CA

Why did you have an intimate wedding?   

Well, we’d been-there-done-that as far as a big extravagant wedding goes, twice. We’re both in our  forties and we just wanted something for us and for us only. We both love New York, and we were already planning a trip to NY in Oct ’13, so we both said “Let’s get married there!”  Plus, I, the groom, have family roots in NY, so it all seemed too perfect, and very romantic.

What are some challenges you faced planning an intimate wedding?  

Not many, really, except one: Everyone so loved us together that they wanted to see us get married. But we stayed firm: We’ll get married in NY and come back and have a big, fun, informal reception at home.

Was it difficult to pare down the guest list?  

Not at all. ZEE-ROE guests!

Did you have any issues with the small guest list?  

Not after everyone understood what we wanted, and that we’d have a reception here in Newport Beach.

What were the highlights of the reception?     

For me, the groom, the entire day was the highlight. We held the party on Nov 2, 2013, a beautiful Saturday in Newport Beach, and it was a huge high. We did a New York, Married in Manhattan themed party. We had a huge canopy covering our front yard and we hired a bartender, but everything else was DIY. We had flowers from Trader Joe’s, cocktail tables all over, a little lounge area near the canopy, homemade cupcakes from our good friend and neighbor, New York themed cocktails, and pizza from a local pizza place that happens to be owned by a New Yorker – the real thing. We also did a good ol’ New York hotdog stand.  And, after sunset, we had When Harry Met Sally and then Woody Allen’s Manhattan playing on a big screen near the ‘lounge’ while our music list played from our Bose and iPhones.  Guests started arriving at 4, and the last of us hung around until midnight.  It was a blast.  The best part? Seeing my beautiful wife mingling and smiling and dancing and posing for pictures in her red skirt. Gorgeous.

For me, the bride, I’ll remember my red skirt, and dancing around in it. And my handsome husband in his John Lennon NYC t-shirt and suit jacket! Hubba bubba. And our hostess, our friend Melanie, and her so-sweet toast to the two of us. And our dance to Elton John’s That’s Why They Call It the Blues – it was the wrong song, but it was a great dance.  And setting up the canopy for the first time, the night before, and seeing how beautiful our party would be.  And arranging flowers with our friend and neighbor Lisa. And feeling so much love and support for our union from all of our friends. It was such a special day.

What was the best thing about having an intimate wedding? 

We got to plan it according to how we wanted it.  We decided it wasn’t about pleasing friends and family, it was about pleasing the two of us as a couple.  It may sound selfish, but considering how we’d both been-there-done-that, we wanted something that we could revel in, enjoy in the moment, and not worry about all the hoopla and circumstance of a big wedding.  We wanted it intimate, just us, so we could truly savor what we were doing as partners.  And it was perfect.  As that day went on, and even more today, we are so happy we did it the way we did it.  The memories of that day will live with us forever.

 What advice do you have for couples who are considering an intimate wedding? 

Do it how you want it.  Don’t compromise.  Its all about the two of you and how you want to enjoy and remember the day, not about what everyone else wants.  Do what’s important to you and your future spouse.  Do something original; meaning, something unique to the two of you as a couple.

Vendors: 

Photography: Joyeuse Photography

License and Ceremony: The NYC Marriage Bureau