"Summer is the best time for flowers because your options are practically endless,” says floral designer Shawn Marie Cossette. “So don't limit yourself -- go big, and go lush."

Here, clusters of garden roses, viburnum berries, and dahlias fit right in with an outdoor setting. But grass is not required: "By mixing in pieces made from natural materials, like the wooden table and stoneware salt and pepper shakers, you can bring a country feel to any venue, inside or out," says Cossette.

Restoration Hardware "Madeleine" chairs.

To give your bouquet an aromatic addition, Cossette suggests substituting fragrant herbs for foliage. Take a cue from this posy, in which basil fills out stems of garden roses, sea oat grass, butterfly weed, and viburnum berries.

Although cohesive style is key to a well-designed wedding, every arrangement doesn't have to be a carbon copy of the others. To make things visually interesting, create a unique focal point in one main area, like on your escort-card table or the bar shown here. To keep things consistent, incorporate at least one element that appears elsewhere, says Cossette.

To create this arrangement, she filled a wooden bucket with bright red garden roses, creamy hydrangeas, figs, pokeweed, and ornamental grasses.

"When I think summer, I think peaches," says Cossette, who placed one on each plate and nestled them into compotes next to flowers. Not your favorite fruit? Choose another. "If you can eat it, you can use it in a display," she says.

Bambeco plate. Knorr Beeswax candle.

Floral designer Shawn Marie Cossette, who grows many of the blooms for her rustic-chic creations herself, runs Beehive Events with her husband, David, from their sprawling farm in Scottsville, Virginia. If you love the notion of an idyllic setting but have no country retreat to call your own, consider renting their property along with all the accoutrements for rural revelry.