Color Inspiration: Pale Green

Pair green flowers with warm creams and clear whites, give them room to be wild and lush, and you'll never again equate modern with cold. While these centerpieces of viburnum, snowberry, bells of Ireland, asclepias pods, and carnations in salt-glass vessels could certainly hold their own in a downtown loft or art gallery, they're refreshingly free of attitude.

From a distance, this bouquet of viburnum and a Queen Anne's lace look-alike appears to be a bunch of soft, puffed snowballs; a close look reveals tiny blooms. Like real snowballs, viburnum needs to be kept cool. Keep the stems in water, and mist the blossoms every half hour until you walk down the aisle.

These tiny chairs may be too small for sitting, but they are the perfect size for displaying guests' names and table numbers. The seats are made from heavyweight paper -- we used pale yellow for ladies and pale green for gents -- and can be calligraphed or run through a printer.

Hydrangeas are ideal for single-flower bridesmaid bouquets. These green bouquets complement silk-shantung sheaths.

What it lacks in color, this bridal bouquet more than makes up for in texture and fragrance. A glorious cascade of stephanotis vine, fritillaria, and muscari tied with a cluster of lily of the valley is luxurious yet carefree enough to feel as if it's just plucked from the garden. Calligraphy by Grace Connell.

Like a tailored oxford shirt, an all-white wedding feels at once fresh and timeless. Bring the color's polished elegance to every aspect of your big day, from almond dragees to creamy centerpieces. Here, lilacs, garden roses, jasmine, and fritillaria, plus pale-green hellebores, create an arrangement that would have felt spot-on in an Edith Wharton novel.

Swizzle sticks topped with crepe paper flowers -- a spider chrysanthemum and a sleek calla lily -- add zest to lime spritzers.

This bouquet has a variety of textures and colors, thanks to the mix of muscari (grape hyacinth), lamb's ear, lily-of-the-valley, andromeda, helleborus, thyme, rosemary, sage, and scented-geranium foliage.

Pale green and peach bridesmaid gown from the Siri Spring 2009 Collection, siriinc.com, 415-431-8873

Florist Matthew Robbins created a simple and chic but still luxurious bouquet for bride, Doo-Ri, by wrapping lilies of the valley in a pale green patterned ribbon.

Letterpress invitations set the tone with a lavender and green palette and delicate images of lavender, which echo the actual plants that surround the property.

This cake from Eleanor and Rodney's wedding has octagonal layers, green icing, and sugar hydrangeas.

Like a tailored oxford shirt, an all-white wedding feels at once fresh and timeless. Bring the color's polished elegance to every aspect of your big day, from almond dragees to creamy centerpieces. Here, lilacs, garden roses, jasmine, and fritillaria, plus pale-green hellebores, create an arrangement that would have felt spot-on in an Edith Wharton novel.

Hardy, cloudlike hydrangeas are among the most enduring and versatile flowers for a wedding.

Christina's sister and maid of honor, Mary Donna Meredith (right), and two flower girls gather with the rest of Christina's family for a photo with the couple.

A pale-blue tablecloth and green cushions help the same palette convey a more traditional mood. A white footed bowl holds an arrangement evocative of shade gardens, with tweedia, hydrangea, ornamental green dates, maidenhair ferns, nigella, chinaberries, mint, and gomphrena.

A group of green boutonnieres perfect for an outdoor wedding.

For favors, a quote was written on Japanese rice paper, which was rolled up and tied, then placed in heart-shape dishes made by Christina's aunt. The box cover mimics the ring pillow.

A splash of Panicum flowers injects youthful exuberance into an otherwise restrained bouquet of cymbidium and lady slipper orchids with white nerine

This five-tier buttercream cake, made by Sylvia Weinstock of New York City, is covered with sugar hydrangeas, which we also added to French macaroons.

A white napkin is tied with striped green ribbon threaded through a store-bought grommeted tag.

Enamel pails overflowing with fresh green and white hydrangeas are charming for an informal reception table. The buckets do double duty as table numbers with the addition of numeral stickers.

A stunning single-flower clutch of creamy astilbes has a textural warmth that Magnolia's Gomes describes as "almost like cashmere."

A traditional tiered confection covered with pale-green fondant has fresh hydrangeas between the layers (each cake tier is topped with clear acetate so flowers don't touch the icing).

Pale-green silk leaves lend an ethereal quality to a bouquet of fragrant white tuberoses and sweet peas. As you proceed down the aisle, the bouquet will appear to float, gently anchored by your grasp.

The purple, green, and brown palette is lighthearted when bright colors dominate. In this setting, inspired by European pastry shops, colorful ceramic latte cups hold green carnations, mauve roses, and dark-purple scabiosa. A tiered candy stand holds dragees in shades of lavender. Favor boxes double as place cards; their calligraphed bands are tied with thin eggplant ribbons.

Ensure a cheerful end to the evening with confections. You can package them in endless ways. Polka-dot paper cones keep the candy a surprise.

This bouquet was made with maidenhair ferns, lady's-mantle, white lilacs, and green hydrangea blossoms. Velvet ribbons serve as counterpoint to the fragile flowers.

The edible pleats here recall the crinolines beneath a cream puff of a wedding dress. White wafer papers, cut with scallop scissors and folded, were painted with gold luster dust and petal dust in pinks and greens. They were then piped with white royal icing and attached to the mint-green fondant-covered tiers with more royal icing. The fluted pastry cups, filled with pillow mints, complete the pleated theme.

This simple program features letterpress text on textured paper. Have 8 1/2-by-11-inch sheets of paper professionally printed in three horizontal columns (or print text yourself using a computer); fold each sheet into thirds, creasing first with a bone folder for the cleanest lines. Then slip on a band of paper with names and wedding dates, secured with double-sided tape in the back.

This white bridal bouquet features lacecap and mophead hydrangeas; some blooms are fully open, others still tightly budded. Wired hydrangea leaves and snowberries offer contrasting color in pale green.

This classic white fondant cake is rendered truly glamorous with elegant curling Calla Lilies. Only the bottom layer is meant to be eaten; the remaining tiers are Styrofoam, which keeps the flowers from touching the cake. Rubbing the stems between fingers renders them bendable.

Use this gentle, evocative color combination with floral touches to give guests a taste of the warm celebration to come, then repeat the colors to personalize other paper pieces and carry the theme throughout.

Lilies-of-the-valley evoke water droplets trickling over hydrangea florets, which are plucked from a single bloom and wired to form a loose grouping. The florets' muted green and rosy hues seem softened by the sun. Vintage velvet millinery trim swirls underneath like frothy sea foam.

Here is a playful way to distinguish the flower girls' dresses from the bridesmaids'. This adornment looks best on simple dresses with little other embellishment.

The groom wears a cymbidium orchid boutonniere.

An octagonal fondant-covered cake has mini marzipan pears with vanilla-bean stems.

The leaves of a four-leaf clover are said to stand for hope, faith, love, and luck -- a fitting sentiment for a wedding.

These rosette-shaped 'Echeveria' resemble a favorite cut flower, but the similarity ends there. The endurance of the succulent plant is unequaled and will leave guests with a lasting and easy-to-care-for reminder of your wedding -- all they need is good drainage and sun.

This charming cake is reminiscent of the flowered hats of the early 1900s. Sweet daisy clusters are tucked into grosgrain ribbon hat bands. The leaves are fashioned from gum paste in three shades of green and coated in sugar, giving them the look of mottled velvet.

The bright whites of grape hyacinths, papery sweet peas, and pearl-like lilies-of-the-valley look even fresher when paired with green-and-white hellebores and fritillarias with their graceful tendrils. This featherweight nosegay has a just-picked charm and a delicate perfume. Its ribbons -- scalloped faux suede over grosgrain -- are trimmed with a dotted button.

From left, we used phalaenopsis, cymbidium, and 'Japhet' (we also hung them from the ceiling) to decorate these cakes. Added bonus: The cakes are delightful for decorating as well as for devouring. Small cakes like these serve as table decor as well as dessert.

Give guests sprightly bouquets of their own: arrangements of 'Ping Pong' mums, chamomile, and lady's mantle (or other blooms to fit your color scheme). The flowers are held in small plastic floral tubes filled with water.

An embossed outer layer of Valrhona white chocolate covers a coating of white-chocolate buttercream. The baker used organic ingredients to create two flavors for the cake layers inside: chocolate butter cake filled with an espresso Bavarian cream, and lemon pound cake filled with lemon sabayon.

This carefully tailored bouquet of chartreuse amaryllis is an elegant fashion accessory for brides who favor the modern silhouette of a simple silk gown.

An ethereal pale green dress from the Lela Rose Spring 2009 Collection, lelarose.com, 212-947-9204

Jennifer carries a bouquet of orchids and hydrangeas.