When a friend asked me to help with her daughter’s wedding I immediately said yes. Mother and daughter agreed that a blue and white wedding reception was a must because of the bride’s beautiful Oscar de la Renta gown of embroidered white organdy trimmed with a blue satin sash.

After some research I found that the people who make our classic brown and white vases had added the perfect blue to their collection in a series of new sizes and shapes. As the wedding was in May I used a mix of my favorite spring flowers. Masses of white lilac, lily of the valley, white sweet peas and glorious peonies were combined with the classic florist flowers- carnations, roses and stock. Each table was composed of a group of vases in varying shapes and sizes and filled with a different variety of flowers. No two tables were alike as I wanted the room to seem as if you were in a private space and not some ballroom where everything had been done to death! The idea was to make it appear as if the mother of the bride had gone into her garden to do the flowers for the party. We did not want some over the top floral extravaganza.

The mother of the bride suggested an old fashioned wedding luncheon. Delicious chicken hash, a lovely salad and of course a beautiful but understated cake from Sylvia Weinstock completed the meal.  For wedding favors I ordered dragée in the same blue of the vases and tablecloths and we embossed the couple’s initials on homemade sugar cookies. The embossing idea came from our friends at Martha Stewart. I packaged these goodies in our beautiful quilted party favor boxes and pillows, and tied them with blue satin ribbon and a cluster white flowers. The programs, tags for the favors, table numbers, place and menu cards were created on the computer in matching blue and white.

See more photos of the wedding here