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Welcome fragchamp!
There is a huge difference between an 8 inch and a 12 inch scope in terms of what you will see at the eyepiece. A 12 inch scope gathers 2.25 x as much light for a start, so the objects will appear more than twice as bright, with far greater clarity in the images.
Of course a scope of any aperture will suffer if the conditions are poor, but on a good still night, the 12 inch scope will totally blitz the views through an 8 inch scope.
Colour perception is a very individual thing. Some people never see any colour in any nebulae. Others see quite a bit, but only in the brighter nebulae and some planetaries. I see a distinct green tinge in M42 with a 12 inch scope, but I have to get up to about 18 inches to begin to see pinks.
If I were you, I would jump straight at the 12 inch, particularly if you are not going to be lugging it around too much.
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