Inspired by a fountain the orchid centerpieces cascade like waterfalls presented on bold-toned linens with coordinating chair covers.

Location: Preston Bailey's Studio; Table and Floral Design, Linen and Chair Covers: Preston Bailey; Table Setting and Chairs: Party Rental Ltd.; Photography: John Labbe

The best designers spin standard wedding reception tables into magical entertainments filled with the dramatic qualities of good theater. They strive to create impact that sets the tone for an entire evening with a single glance. New York-based flower and event designer Preston Bailey has seen his clientele grow continually more sophisticated over the years. They have experienced the best of the best, so he constantly pushes the envelope creating new elements to excite them. What I do is space transformation. When you walk into a reception, I want you to feel as if you have entered a different time and place, he says.

This year he sees a return to lushness that includes rich fabric trims, mixed floral and fruit arrangements, and layers of texture with linen treatments incorporating both under and overlays on the same table. Centerpieces are no longer a single repeating style; they are now about structure and creative use of containers. They can soar above the table, run the length of it, or take on never-before imagined shapes.

Where seating options were once standard and limited to a few styles, they have morphed into a new and infinitely variable palette for design. Chairs can be decorated with a simple sash or bow or swathed in creations to match the brides gown, decor or color scheme. Impact is created at an event by dressing chairs in several motifs rather than duplicating the same look at every place setting. Always searching for the unexpected, designers also introduce different seating formats such as benches or ottoman-like stools.

When it comes to color, event planners may take their cues from current runway fashion shows and then pay attention to how these translate into the world of interior design. Whats hot in fabrications, color and texture will always show up in bridal trends, says Jennifer Brisman of Jennifer Brisman Weddings in New York. This year she is seeing sophisticated use of monochromatic color schemes with lots of green for spring. Green has been done, she says, but this years grouping of avante garde tones from chartreuse to avocado, used together will freshen it up.

Spring and summer will be about elegant and glamorous looks with metallic accents and the colors of gemstones still in the mix. Brisman likens the use of metallic details to the little black dress. You can always trot it out, but its just a question of where and how, she says. For the upcoming season, it will be more lighthearted, showing up in applications such as a silver or gold thread running through the linen, a brooch used to fasten a chair cover, or a small charm worked into floral arrangements.

Sasha Souza, celebrity wedding planner and owner of Sasha Souza Events with offices in Northern California and Beverly Hills, has thrown away past conventions that call for pairing a dark color with a light one and uses harmonious tones. She is seeing cool blues and greens for spring, as well as the warmer tones of melon and pomegranate. Her eclectic take on wedding design calls for organized chaos. Not everything has to be the same, she says. Make floral vessels round and square with some presented in copper and others in pewter. Mix up the glassware and flatware and the effect is much more surprising. You just have to have an eye for doing it. Otherwise it can become schizophrenic, she warns.

Souza often eschews linen in lieu of alternative table surfaces, but she says, The people we design weddings for have been to so many events and they are looking to differentiate their wedding from all the others. Respectively, she has created focal tabletops at events made of tile, plexiglass, moss, sod, ice and mirrored glass.

Flower choices for spring will run to the classics: roses, hydrangea, peonies, lilies, orchids, but with novel interpretations. We will be glamming up floral arrangements for spring, Brisman says. For a recent wedding, she mounted colored jewels on little sticks and tucked them into the centerpieces. Souza is fascinated by natural florals and worked on one event that had almost no flowers used at all. Instead, the arrangements consisted of hundreds of herbs, succulents and materials that were gathered from a field; for Souza this represents a return to a more natural, garden style.

Despite the long list of decisions that a couple has to make for their reception, when it comes down to it, Souza says the key to setting the perfect tone for every event is to Keep the elements beautiful, elegant and interesting to look at and you cant go wrong.

Written by Francine Kaplan