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2-15-08 by Nancy

It’s the time of year when a lot of brides are choosing colors for summer weddings. That means choosing jewelry for bridesmaids. Today I decided to spend the afternoon visiting a few bridal shops to see which colors are popular this year. I went to 3 stores and asked the same question. What colors are in? I got 3 different answers.

As I walked in the door of David’s Bridal, I was confronted with a huge display of yellow, including Banana and Canary. Long dresses, short dresses, even a yellow vest with a black tux. The courteous receptionist pointed out another smaller display of what I would describe as a rather dark hot pink. They called the color Watermelon. One mannequin was wearing a white dress with black print.

The second store, Images, is a small locally owned shop. There were no huge displays, but the sales woman pointed out the most popular colors, a couple of hot pinks (none called watermelon) and bright light blue, which she called a Caribbean blue. Very pretty colors. Dark reds and browns are year round favorites there.

The third store is a large Cleveland based shop. They said there is no "in" color because brides all have their favorite colors, and they are all different. Their racks were jammed with many colors. The colors listed on the tags were either a number or letter code, or generic names like red, pink, aqua, etc. The tags also listed the date when the dress came into the store. If I had the patience to go through them, I might have discovered which colors had come in this year.

I learned two things today. The sales people in the wedding shops are all very helpful, even if you are not going to buy a dress. And the names of colors for bridesmaids’ dresses are not universal. Sometimes stores determine the name; sometimes the manufacturer determines it, and sometimes nobody does. So after using some high priced gasoline driving to bridal shops, I have decided that I’ll just make the jewelry for my wedding page in my favorite colors.

April 1, 2008

When I first started using Swarovski crystal beads to make jewelry, the first thing I made was a long necklace for myself. I bought as many different basic colors as I could find. I did not use the special coatings, like AB, or the opaque colors and pearls. That necklace has proven to be very useful. When I go to a mall or fabric shop, I wear my necklace to help in matching colors. I wore it when I went to the bridal shops to look at this year’s colors.

So, what jewelry will match the colors of the bridesmaids’ dresses? Since gemstones are natural, not man made, their colors vary. Freshwater pearls also come in many colors. Here is a list including some of the names for the colors of the dresses.