Event magician Preston Bailey showcases some of his most fabulous party flowers in his latest book
Preston Bailey Flowers: Centerpieces, Place Settings, Ceremonies, and Parties by Preston Bailey and Annetta Hanna
Preston Bailey Flowers: Centerpieces, Place Settings, Ceremonies and Parties is beautiful and inspiring on many levels. With 30 years experience in the floral event business and numerous international celebrity and royal clients, Bailey is truly a master of his art. Brimming with inspiration, Preston Bailey Flowers transports the reader behind the scenes of tremendous events.
Full-page color photography depicting large views and tiny details fills this coffee table-sized book. Definitely not a step-vy-step guide to flower arranging, this is an amazing record of a very skilled team of artisans accomplishing Bailey’s designs around the globe. Many of these designs are relatively short lived–designed for a wedding, a benefit dinner, an amazing gala–and this books serves to record what might otherwise be ephemeral. Most feature theatrical lighting, glass tents, thousands of tiny crystals, mirrored panels, stage sets, and a acomplete transformation of space.
Parties include a destination wedding in Carmel, a soireé at an old New York bank, a royal wedding in Qatar with a crystal pavilion, and a Central Park benefit with an avian theme. Since the designs are presented in their entirety, it seems as if the reader is the first guest to arrive and marvel at the splendor.
Preston Bailey
Bailey mentions that he cannot improve upon the perfection of a flower but hopes to inspire an awe of flowers in others. Drawn to the shape of trees, he strives in several of his designs to bring nature indoors. His trees have branches made of hundreds of ribbons and canopies or floral branches that dazzle with crystals. Bailey uses blossoms to create refined sculpture, like his functioning carousel with horses made entirely of flowers, as well as his underwater vision of shimmering, huge fish composed of orchids.
The overarching theme of this book is finding pleasure in flowers, whether one is a florist, a grower, a designer, or a lucky guest. Bailey says, “Regardless of its size and complexity, the perfect floral arrangement is the one that makes you stop for an instant and smile with surprise and delight.”
I especially enjoyed learning a few of Bailey’s hard and fast rules: Always use a dining tent. Remember roses are especially durable and can last up to 24 hours without water. Flower arrangements should never compete with an already sublime setting, and containers must not interfere with conversation. Add touches of humor, and incorporate local elements.
One of the most striking concepts could successfully translate from this monumental scale to an intimate dinner party. For Ivanka Trump’s wedding in Bedminster, New Jersey, Bailey devised Plexiglas moats and ran them down the center of rectangular tables. They were filled with water, white pillar candles, and submerged bouquets of lily-of-the-valley, ranunculus, and lisianthus. Gardenias floated along the surface to dazzling effect. Definitely do try this one at home!
“I love using red flowers to convey warmth, festivity, and excitement. They seem to charge up the energy at any event,” Bailey says.
