Elegant Wedding
Spring 2007
"White Lightning"

If just one color seems unnecessarily constricting, rest assured that within white lies a whole world of options. "White is endlessly adaptable," says Shelby Fraser, owner of Sweet Pea in Center City. "The look can range from more modern and linear, with calla lilies and orchids that are very bold and strong, to something fun, with poppies and white gerberas, to the more classic, layered look of white delphinium, roses, hydrangea, peonies and ranunculus."

Fraser cites a recent white wedding in which the bride was crazy about - well, green. "We had a whole range of greens, from yellowish hypericum berries to the cool blue tones of eucalyptus and lamb's ear, combined with a clean palette of white." The bride's bouquet mixed soft, woolly lamb's ear with seeded eucalyptus, white orchids, white roses and white spray roses. "Brides worry about going with a single color," Fraser says, "but you can add those greens, add grasses, add curly willow branches. Within white there are so many different looks, and lots of choices."

What's nice about white, says Fraser, is that the look is adaptable to any time of year: "You can start in spring with white tulips and daffodils, go through summer with white lilies and hydrangeas, have white asters and dahlias in fall, and then roses and winterberries." She likes organza table linens with a little sparkle in the overlay for a white wedding, and lots of candles: "Columns, votives, groupings." She'll often create bridal and bridesmaids' bouquets with similar flowers, but add one blossom only the bride has, like Bouvardia, as well as ribbons and jewels: "Pearl-head pins or rhinestone buttons - clear, not colored."