Question
My daughter is getting married outdoors and has purchased two 3' tall, relatively narrow black vases/pots to put on either side of the entrance.  She would like to have some kind of modern flower/plant arrangement in these.  Her colors are black, light green, dark purple and orange.  What would your suggestion be?

Answer

bird of paradise Hi Lee
Those colors are often found in tropicals,which lend themselves nicely to a more modern arrangement. If you want to go with a plant,keeping it simple and less expensive, I would get a couple of beautiful bromeliad plants in orange. Otherwise, if you have a good florist, you could have arrangements made, incorporating green anthurium, purple orchids (dendrobium or mokara) and either bird of paradise or haliconia for the orange. Some other flower options would be purple anthurium and green orchids( cymbidiums),orange pincushion proteas, or even a small(in a 4" pot)orange bromeliad. There are also very dark burgundy ti leaves they could use with those colors to really make them stand out.
Those colors are very popular now, so they are also many other flowers too numerous to mention that could work for you.
Hope this gives you a start...
I'm including a photos, and am happy to identify any flowers (in another email) you see that you may need the name of.
Best Regards
Peggy