Say it with roses, carnations, hydrangeas...

MANILA, Philippines — Now, the couple is done dealing with the fashion designer. They also did a round of food tasting before arriving at a final list that would eventually make up the buffet spread. The only major area of concern left for them to attend to are the floral arrangements, including the table setting and indoor as well as outdoor decor  at the reception venue. Who do they turn to?

The task of designing and executing a look that would hopefully reflect the couple’s personalities and chosen wedding theme falls on the lap of an event stylist, either an in-house talent from the hotel or a named freelancer.

As such, that person is more than just a floral arranger as he or she tries to combine various elements beyond flowers to sometimes include light design. The objective of such an exercise, of course, isn’t simply to fill spaces and provide guests with eye candy, but also to try to evoke a mood and hopefully create an aesthetic statement on behalf of the couple.

Allure interviewed several event stylists to give today’s engaged couples options and ideas as they settle on a look and feel for the first big party they’re about to throw as man and wife.

Larry Pagsanjan of Sofitel

Larry Pagsanjan, including his five-person team and several personnel from the hotel’s banquet department, went for a “clean, modern and classic” look for his table arrangement. To achieve his vision, he made use primarily of off-white roses from Baguio, which he and his team formed into several multilevel topiaries.

The Peninsula Manila’s Anna Fay Rosal’s ‘vintage elegance’ theme, one of the more popular among couples nowadays.

“I chose to go clean and white because the look is a ‘brand magnifier’ of the hotel,” he said. “The balled topiaries made of roses may look simple and easy to do, but the challenge here is to produce topiaries of similar sizes.”

There’s no exact formula regarding the number of roses to be used per topiary, added  Larry, who rose from the ranks after starting out as part of another hotel’s maintenance team. The size of each topiary depends on the sizes of roses used. If you use, say, more buds than blooms, then you’d end up with a smaller topiary regardless of the number of flowers.

Like in most five-star hotels in Manila, weddings are big at Sofitel Philippine Plaza. Apart from the grand ballroom, which can be divided into three (Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao) for smaller, more intimate receptions, the hotel offers would-be couples such wedding venues as the Harbor Tent, Sunset Pavilion and the Boracay and Davao function rooms.

For bigger weddings, Larry and his team would virtually venture further afield by using imported roses from Ecuador, orchids from Thailand and tulips from China. Everything would depend on the couple’s budget, of course, but as seen in his work, one can use relatively cheaper locally sourced blooms and still come up with a beautiful and elegant floral arrangement.

He’s also partial to local phalaenopsis, carnations and hydrangeas (known locally as milflores) in off-white and such pastel shades as baby pink and periwinkle.

“When it comes to colors, again, that would depend on what the couple want,” he said. “I’ve noticed that younger couples today prefer white and lighter shades like baby pink. I’ve also done arrangements using richer, darker shades such as red, orange and even purple.”

For his VIP table, Larry and the banquet people used such elements as multilevel glass cylinders filled with water and lit floating candles as well as white and mirrored boxes, again in varying heights, that doubled as platforms for the topiaries. In lieu of candelabras with real candles, they made do with five battery-operated candelabras for safety reasons.

The same off-white Baguio roses, this time more spread out and topped by a string of white phalaenopsis, adorn an off-white coffee table accompanying a couch for the “couple’s arrangement,” a separate area where the newlyweds would normally wait for groups of guests to have their pictures taken with them.

The so-called sweethearts’ table is no longer in fashion these days, Larry reveals. Instead, to the delight of designers and stylists, couples simply sit on a two-seater couch on an elevated platform. Not a few grab quick bites in a holding area before facing their guests at the reception.

Anna Fay Rosal of The Pen

Anna Fay Rosal and her team went for “vintage elegance,” one of several themes, including English garden, country garden and “pure romance,” that are popular among couples these days.

After all these years, and despite the stiff competition, The Peninsula Manila still remains, thanks to such picture-perfect outlets as the Rigodon Ballroom and The Conservatory, one of the country’s leading reception venues of choice among today’s couples.

Ever since she can remember, Anna Fay, an architecture and interior design graduate, has been in love with flowers and various ornamental plants. But she only learned the art of actually putting these elements together a few years after she joined The Peninsula Manila nearly two decades ago.

For this photo shoot, she combined tried-and-tested flowers as white Ecuador and esperanza roses, local white roses, rosal leaves, eucalyptus leaves, white, green and powder blue hydrangeas, white gypsophila, green-eye berries and green carnations with such vintage-looking elements like wrought-iron robin and leaf containers, low candleholders, birdcage stand, tapered glass containers, globe containers and vanilla-colored candles.

Complementing her table arrangements were several long-stemmed white roses placed in a number of cylindrical vials filled with water. The vials, in turn, were held by a series of black planters made of coated steel. Dubbed as “Crokies,” the planters were designed by world-famous Filipino furniture and accessories designer Kenneth Cobonpue.

Although she doesn’t subscribe to trends, Anna noticed that a growing number of young couples these days go for either vintage classic or English garden themes.

“Personally, I remain partial to the vintage classic theme as well. I like the randomness of it. I also love using shades of pink and white. But as an events venue, The Peninsula Manila can do almost anything the client wants. After all, it’s not my wedding, but theirs. We are here to make them happy,” she said.

For her featured setup, Anna also resorted to a mixture of low and high elements to produce a VIP table with a warm, intimate feel. She also incorporated a few visual punches. Several sprays of gypsophila (or more popularly known as baby’s breath), for instance, were placed in three long cylindrical glass vases in varying heights. Again, she and her team were mindful to space various elements together so as not to impede people from seeing and talking with each other.

Adding touches of warmth and the imaginary couple’s personalities to the entire setup were VIP giveaways seemingly placed at random all over the table. They included such items as bottles of champagne, small boxes of chocolate, ceramic container with truffles, silver bookmarks, golf balls and a key chain. Except for the keychain, which is from Rolls-Royce, the rest of the high-end items can be sourced from The Peninsula Manila, including the Brut Champagne by Deutz.

(To be concluded)