Long gone are the days when white, cream, gold and silver were the only available colours to the happy couple for their wedding day. Over the last ten years, we've seen even the most traditional style weddings start to incorporate a little colour outside of the standard choices. These days, it's unusual to go to a wedding where there isn't a little extra colour to the proceedings!

However, for the couple who want everything to match, here are 5 ways to stop it all costing you a fortune!

1) Choose your colour scheme in the right order…starting with the most expensive items first.

2) Resist the temptation to commit straightaway to a particular colour until you're sure you can carry it through without breaking the budget.

3) Talk to all your suppliers first before committing to a colour. By this, I mean the venue, the caterers, the people supplying your outfits, whoever is supplying your invitations and other wedding stationery, and your proposed florist.

4) Be a little flexible - variations on a colour theme can be very beautiful and a lot less of a headache than if you try to get everything absolutely perfectly matched (it's probably impossible anyway unless you choose white, and even that comes in a variety of shades, believe it or not!!)

5) Be a little creative - if you can't get favour boxes, for example, in exactly the colour you want, get them in a complementary colour instead and tie them with an appropriate ribbon colour. Or make little tags and print them in the right colour.

So - getting it in the right order… you should consider:

A) Your outfits, and those of your bridesmaids/ushers/pageboys/flowergirls etc

Depending on your outfit supplier, you may not even be able to match the boys to the girls if you choose an unusual colour for either. Check with your supplier about making waistcoats/cravats in the bridesmaids' material, for example… but don't book anything until you know you can match it to other things!

B) Your reception colour scheme

Something many brides don't consider when choosing their colour scheme is the existing venue colours:

Don't make the same mistake! If your reception is in a hotel or other 'static' venue, often the basic colour scheme of the room is quite bland, but clashes are best avoided. Have a good think about what is going to work, and take into consideration the colour of the chair upholstery, the available tablecloth/linen napkin colours, and whether the hotel intends to supply menus or other table decorations. Have a good chat with your point of contact about what they are prepared to do for you on the day - some places will refuse to set out napkins other than their own, for example, and this is all best dealt with in advance!

If you're having your reception in a marquee, talk to the supplier about a coloured lining if you don't want white. Also, many caterers offer either only white or only ivory tablecloths, and standard chairs in white plastic, or burgundy and gilt, which can clash horribly. This is definitely something I would flag as a big headache for many brides when trying to plan the table decorations - make sure that you've asked to see the chairs the marquee company are proposing to supply, and have a chat with the caterers about your colour scheme before yo