• When you meet with your florist, bring any magazine pictures that inspire you, pictures of your attire and possibly swatches of your dress and your bridesmaids' dresses. Take along pictures of your location if you have already chosen it.
  
• Monochromatic flower combinations are quite popular with brides — red on red, for example.
  
• Consider pink grapefruit, lemons, artichokes or champagne grapes as your centerpiece. They're fresh, which is what today's wedding are all about, and also save money over traditional arrangements.
  
• You could select beautiful bowls of moss with little tiny ferns growing in them. Or how about a whole antipasto display, the first course laid out as your centerpiece? You could even display individual wedding cakes in the center of each table — when you cut your cake, all the guests cut their cakes, too.
  
• If your space is beautiful, you don't need to overdo the flowers.
  
• Hint: if you are having an outdoor wedding, dryer sheets are a natural mosquito repellant. Put them in the bridal bouquet or around the centerpiece arrangement to keep the bugs away.

The Bridal Atelier
Mark Ingram, President
127 East 56^th Street
New York, NY 10022
212-319-6778
www.bridalatelier.com
Top bridal shop, by appointment only

Wedding Emergency Kit

No one has ever achieved the perfect wedding. There have been wonderful weddings, and outstanding and great — but never perfect. So keep that in mind and you'll enjoy your day a lot more You'll also have a lot easier time relaxing if you're prepared for a wedding-day crisis with the following items in an "emergency kit":

• Jumper cables, in case the limo won't start
  
• Black socks — groomsmen are notorious for forgetting theirs
  
• Antihistamine and saline solution
  
• Nail files
  
• Super glue and duct-tape
  
• White chalk to use as an emergency stain cover for the bridal dress
  
• An eraser to help with scuffed shoes
  
• Baby wipes