Autumn Wedding Invitations: The Palette That Skips White

October, 6pm, and the light is already going. The invitation went out weeks ago, the group chat is quiet, and then someone asks the question you thought was obvious: what do we wear? One cousin turns up in cream, another in black, and in the photos they look like they came to different parties.

Autumn wedding invitations can settle most of that before anyone packs a bag. The palette sets the tone, the time tells people whether to bring a coat, and one short line takes the guesswork out of the dress code. It costs you a few words on the link everyone already has.

Autumn isn't orange: it's terracotta and olive

Terracotta, olive green, burnt mustard and plum cover most of autumn. Pick two and let them lead. Use five and the header starts to look like a leaflet. If you're celebrating somewhere with holm oaks and dry grass, olive and earth sit next to the landscape instead of fighting it, while a fluorescent orange loses against 6pm light every single time. Put the colour on the header, your names and the date, and keep a cream background behind them: a deep burgundy on cream reads first time on a phone screen.

• Terracotta or brick for the header and your names
• Olive or sage green for backgrounds and small details
• Cream or bone behind the text so it reads on a phone
• One weather line next to the time: 'outside, bring a coat'

At 7pm it's already dark — so say it on the invitation

In October, 7pm is properly dark. If the ceremony is at 6pm outdoors, write it in large type and add 'bring a coat'. That one line is the most useful information on the whole page, and the character counter in the editor stops it from eating the space for your names or the address.

If dinner is under a marquee, say it in the dinner scene. Then nobody is standing in the car park with their jacket in the boot, messaging another guest to ask.

Two colours, one honest line about the cold, and a link you can still correct on the morning of the wedding.

The dress code gets written down, not guessed

One line is enough: 'earth tones', 'autumn prints', 'comfortable shoes for grass'. Nobody arrives in white on purpose, but almost nobody arrives in white if you have said it. Skip 'elegant' on its own — it means a grey suit to one guest and a floor-length dress to another, and at an autumn wedding the difference shows in every photo. If the weather turns and the grass is soaked, you edit the sentence in the editor and guests read the new version at the same link, with no second message and no resent envelope.

Autumn photos work best on the cover

You can upload up to 6 of your own photos, mark which one goes on the cover and swap any of them afterwards, so the shot of the leaves can wait until the photographer sends it. Vertical photos of the field or the candle-lit table frame themselves, so there's no cropping before you upload. One photo of the two of you on the cover and the rest spread through the scenes works better than six in a row on the same screen.

Pick two colours from autumn, write the time with its cold-weather warning, and leave everything else in a link you can fix up to the last day. It's €29.99 per invitation, one payment, no subscription, and your guests install nothing: they open the link in a browser and reply from their phone. Try it free, look at it on your own phone, and publish once the date and the palette are settled.