I’ve seen a thousand December weddings use shades of red. It makes sense considering the holidays, but red in December is becoming predictable. So I’ve been thinking about alternatives, and one of my favorites is aubergine. Especially when paired with white or cream, it can be supremely elegant but is still current and much more interesting than red.

When I saw this startlingly beautiful navy and gold dress from last year’s Donna Karan resort collection, I immediately plunged into a wedding inspiration board. I could practically see the letterpressed invitations, gold rose bouquets, and the hotel reception bathed in dim, gold light.

Traditional autumn color palettes have been done a million times. Navy and gold feels like fall, yet it’s much more refined. Especially in an indoor setting where changing leaves and warm fall light don’t have much of an impact on atmosphere, and especially when the couple wants to avoid reds and oranges, this wedding color palette is my new fall favorite.

When I’m wasting my time creating a wedding inspiration board, it’s fun to imagine what type of couple it might appeal to.

This bride loves romance and glamour but isn’t a girly-girl; she’s completely disinterested in pastels and peonies and gravitates toward the bold and dramatic. How nice, her groom gravitates toward the modern and masculine. Maybe she’s a stage manager. Maybe he’s an accountant. They vacation in cities that are energetic and exciting, like New Orleans and Miami. They love ‘80s music, Thai food, and black granite countertops. They’ve been together for five years and are finally making it official. Their big day looks something like this:

Mustard yellow is hot right now. I’m seeing it so much that it’s infiltrating my dreams; every night I close my eyes to images of blooming marigolds and streaming spicy condiment. The obsession was getting so out of hand that I finally dragged my toddler to the bus stop and made the long ride to H&M to buy a mustard yellow cardigan. Whew!

So, of course, a lot of my inspiration these days is coming from mustard yellow. I can’t show you the projects I’m working on, but I can show you why this color is awakening my creativity.

Mustard yellow in fashion (Fendi used it particularly well in their fall collection—gorgeous!):

Mustard yellow in home décor (I am envious of anyone in the market for a new sofa right now):

And, because I can never resist creating a wedding inspiration board, this shows how glamorous mustard yellow can be when combined with black and white (somebody plan an early fall wedding, please!):

I love the idea of a mid-summer wedding outdoors, with a bold, fearless color palette made pretty and wispy. It’s young, modern, fun, and honestly, that Calvin Klein hammered silk dress (below) is probably the lightest fabric you could possibly put your bridesmaids in.

Of course, if you had attended my wedding eight years ago, you would never guess that I cared. We were young, broke, and planned our wedding in three short months, so the end result was a simple backyard affair where my parents did the catering, where we bought every flower in every color at the florist that morning, and where, if family friends hadn’t arrived early to help, the wedding couldn’t have happened. It was absolutely perfect, a genuine expression of love so sweet and intimate that even if you were there and didn’t know us, you probably would have cried.

Yet sometime between then and now, I’ve become—um, not obsessed exactly; more like very interested—in weddings. I chalk it up to my interest in everything related to design (and not at all to my interest in clothes, paper, and food, because, you know, that wouldn’t make any sense).