15 Years of Wedding Centerpieces

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.

What begins at one end with a few drops of pink in the blooms of sweet peas, hyacinths, and nerines culminates in a deluge of fuchsia peonies, ruby fringe tulips, and raspberry cyclamens. You could also create this gradient look, set in a low container here, with an aisle of vases. Complete the effect by wrapping favor boxes with our ombre-inspired paper.

Yellow flowers for a summer affair might sound trite, but when they're in a dramatic centerpiece of phalaenopsis orchids, mimosa blossoms, and gold and white French tulips that arc and bend perfectly, the effect is wholly original. To make a real splash, pair with an ombre tablecloth and set with our watercolor-style place cards that require no artistic talent -- just a printer.

This crisp, springtime arrangement spilling from the urn combines lemons, black elderberries (inspiration for the paper on the box below), cattleya orchids, tuberous begonias, gloriosa lilies, and "golden celebration" roses. The floral designer flanked it with clutches of blooms in thematic colors: from left, white acidanthera, buttery cymbidium orchids, and black-centered ornithogalums. Macaroons in cellophane bags and black place cards with white type welcome guests to the table.

This sunny bunch of large and small blooms boasts creamy white, muted yellow, pale orange, and mossy green ranunculus; the texture comes from a mix of budded and open blossoms. White garden roses and yellow begonias add volume, while weigela leaves complement the color scheme. The stems, which are nestled in floral foam inside a footed compote, are cut to varying lengths, allowing for a loose symmetry.

This arrangement makes a modern statement. Each container displays exquisitely shaped fruits and blossoms that match votive candles.

Sometimes a vessel can be the inspiration for its centerpiece. Here, an antique transferware bowl holds an abundant cluster of richly colored fruits and flowers: Chocolate cosmos are planted among miniature grapes, plums, black bananas, and figs.

Placing this generous centerpiece in a footed compote allows the fruit to cascade, and lends the arrangement some height. Cabbage roses are mixed in with peaches and other fruit still on the vine.

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.

This clear glass footed bowl is overflowing with fresh green fruit -- quince, grapes, Anjou pears, apples, and chinaberries -- and delicate flowers. Variegated ivy and white blooming clematis vines form graceful twirls around the mount of fruit.

As romantic as roses or peonies, but not nearly as commonplace, these bulb-grown blossoms work in tight, formal arrangements or when placed in a simple, clear vase -- all the better to show off their curvy stems.

With its frosted goblets and white-and-cream palette, this tabletop has a crisp, clean sensibility that's softened by a centerpiece of gardenias, calla lilies, ranunculus, Dutch tulips, and lisianthus. White peacock feathers interspersed throughout and gauzy fabric wrapped around the vase add an ethereal quality.