I’m currently not the biggest fan of weather.com–for the last two weekends, they have predicted torrential downpours for both New Haven and NYC when they couldn’t have been more wrong.  Given that the RG and I were planning on spending a lazy Saturday browsing the MoMA and then wandering Midtown as I took pictures of signs and such two weeks ago, having our plans thwarted needlessly made us determined to try again this past weekend–there were two exhibits at the MoMA that we both were dying to see, and given that they are only on view until May 12th added to our sense of urgency to try again.

(Logo obviously from The MoMA)

While it wasn’t gorgeous, sunny and warm for the entire day (it did look like it would rain by the time we left), we certainly were able to get in and out of the city with nary a raindrop on our heads, and we were able to see both exhibits:   Color Chart and Design & the Elastic Mind.  The latter isn’t really relevant to a wedding blog, but I did want to share some of the highlights of the former to perhaps provide some inspiration to any brides out there looking for a spark.

The works chronicle the use of color in modern art from 1950 to today–and since so much art in this period focuses on the color itself instead of other compositional elements, the works on view are serious eye candy to anyone who can gaze at the paint chip display at Lowes for far too long (this reluctant bride included).  They didn’t allow photography for much of the exhibit, but I culled these images from its website as some of my favorite works (all images from www.moma.org, again):

For anyone who would like to see the few pictures I was able to take (as well as shots from Design), feel free to browse here.

What inspired your color palette selection?

“Every true artist has been inpsired more by the beauty of lines and color and the relationships between them than by the concrete subject of the picture.”

–Piet Mondrian

When it comes to art, I tend to be drawn to strong color and line; it’s little wonder that this Picasso is easily my favorite work of art.  I’m also a huge fan of Frank Stella and the aforementioned Piet Mondrian–the former because he uses bold strokes of many colors but in simple geometric patterns so that the color and line are the focus, and the latter because of his strict adherence to primary colors as his career progressed.  The MoMA in New York is unsurprisingly one of my favorite places in the whole world, as I can awash myself in this minimalist goodness.  In fact, for any brides looking for inspiration who will also be in the New York area between now and May 12, this exhibit may be of help–I’ll be seeing it myself this weekend, and will post photographs of anything that particularly catches my eye.

All this said, when I first stumbled onto Brides.com, I was understandably very excited by this tool:

Between this and discussions with one of my bridesmaids who formerly worked at a local florist for years and therefore knows this stuff better than almost anyone, this is the basic scheme for the moment:

Navy is the dominant, with orange and purple providing the contrast and complementary notes, respectively.

Despite this love of color, I’m not going to overwhelm my reception location with it because the room does have color on its own (albeit muted) and it would be perhaps a bit much.  Instead I’m going to incorporate the scheme into smaller touches–one of the bridesmaid gifts I’m planning are self-designed bracelets (more to come on that later), the flower centerpieces and (potentially) the favor gift wrap.  It’s a start, but I now ask you, cyber-bridal world out there, for comments and constructive criticism and most importantly, creative ideas.  How else can I incorporate this, albeit in a subtle way?  What would you do?  What inspires you?