Bride can use green, purple palette in her fall wedding

Q: We’re having an outdoor garden wedding in the fall, and the purple and green palette that I want is more fit for spring. Should I just pick new colors?

A: Not at all. If you want to have a fall wedding and still use purples and greens, go for it—those colors can actually translate to any time of year. It’s all about the shade; instead of two pastels, like lilac and mint (which feel more springy), opt for darker hues (think: aubergine and emerald).

If you’re really stuck on a pastel, though, the trick is to use a spectrum of shades from, say, lighter purples to darker ones. Or you could pair a lighter purple with a darker green (or vice versa) to keep the look more autumn-appropriate.

telling wedding guests what to wear

Q: Can I tell our guests not to wear the same color as the bridesmaid dresses?

A: It’s perfectly acceptable (and encouraged) to give guests some sort of attire guidelines based on the formality of the occasion (black-tie, cocktail, beach-chic).

Some couples are even asking friends and family to dress to match the wedding’s theme or palette (say, all black-and-white or Roaring ’20s attire) in order to get highly stylized photos and to excite guests about a unique wedding experience.

But it’s still not kosher to dictate to guests what specifically they can and can’t wear. Even that unspoken rule about not wearing white should remain ... well, unspoken.

If your invitations showcase your wedding colors, your female guests may catch on and steer away from dresses in those shades anyway.

But if you want to make sure your bridesmaids stand out, gift them matching statement necklaces or earrings, or get them sashes to wear with their dresses in another color from your wedding palette.

(Carley Roney, cofounder and editor in chief of The Knot, the nation’s leading wedding resource, advises millions of brides on modern wedding etiquette at theknot.com. )