Preston Bailey's Fantasy Weddings

Fiancees who dream of fantastic flower displays spilling over their engagement parties, rehearsal dinners, wedding ceremonies and receptions will want to peek at the nine floral-packed weddings Bailey features in this book. Lavish color photographs are the main appeal here, with Bailey's bland text doing little or nothing to add or detract from his over-the-top creations. Each chapter presents a specific wedding theme, including a ""Hamptons Countryside Fantasy"" with five-foot tall centerpieces, a ""Tropical Latin Fantasy"" with gigantic red rose sculptures that seem to have been borrowed from the Rose Bowl Parade, and an ""American Royalty Fantasy"" in gold and white, which actually took place in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. Bailey's fantastic designs recall the grandiose MGM studio productions of yesteryear, and he appears to delight in using flowers to construct architectural, decorative and religious objects: lamps, chandeliers, cornucopias, chuppahs, pillars, ribbons, place mats, paintings. In a final chapter, Bailey presents a few suggestions for creating some of these elaborate, time-consuming objects on your own. But those longing to be princess for a day (and who have the considerable funds it would take to realize one of Bailey's fantasy weddings) may find it easier just to hire him. Photos.