"Do you think it would work to make the light blue my aqua and the gold my light blue?? Does that make sense?"
Yes, Carol in WI, it makes sense to me. There are two ways to create contrast by intensity or by color. Gold would be by color. What we don't know is if she intends the light blue to be shadow to the darker blue. As long as you gold would look good with all the other colors, it might work. Love Kassaundra's idea of possible using the back of the gold. Yellow's and golds can really pop and take over.