Taking John Singer Sargent’s painting “Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose” as inspiration, we decorated the Hilton ballroom to feel like a twilit garden in the english countryside. Framing the debutante’s entrance with a grove of 24 ft oak and maple trees, we then festooned the trees with hand-painted, incandescent japanese lanterns and embowered the stage with a mossy ruin, overgrown with foxgloves and wild, brambly roses. Soaring camelia and magnolia arrangements towered over tables, alternating with low masses of world white lilies, french carnations and hanoi ranunculus