Hi Michael.
IMHO, there is nothing that is perfect. When you used film the technician at the processing lab did the color and density changes to get the print "perfect". With digital, you are now the technician.
From what I read, most people leave the camera color, saturation, etc., controls in neutral and do the color correcting in an image editor.
White balance is for correcting the color of the LIGHT SOURCE; much like using tungsten film or a flourescent(fld)filter to correct the color temperature of the light source by bringing itup to daylight specs.
When left in auto white balance the camera will correct for color filters making them near useless for tinting a scene.
Your camera manual is a good source of info to determine which setting you should use for what light sources. It is also possible to get some creative effects by using the "wrong" white balance for the ource of light.
Check out the Olympus web site for some free photo lessons on this topic.
When I wish to create a CUSTOM WB I use the ONE SHOT Target Calibrator. It has 3 stripes, one each of black, gray and white. One merely fills the frame with the target and presses the Custom WB balance button on the camera. Exposure is also determined with the target; the histogram for the Target will be 3 straight lines, one for each of the tones. You adjust exposure so that the histo is centered as much as possible.
There are 3 other methods to do a custom WB: a white piece of paper, putting a coffee filter over the lens or using the purpose made filter.
There are positives and negatives to each method. All will give you a custom WB, the filter thing is expensive and you need one for each diameter of lens that you may have. The paper and coffee filter trick will not help with expsore dertermination. The ONE SHOT gives both WB and exposure.
Hope this helps.

To put it in a simpler way. Every image needs post processing and now you don't have to depend on a minimum wage worker, who know nothing about photography, to make artistic decisions for you. You can now have total control over how your images end up.

Thanks for your help guys.
I was just getting frustrated because I see all these photos from photographers and the color is just so amazing. Plus i am getting married and upon looking for photographers, saw how their coloring was. They all use Canon's for their stuff and was wondering if i was out of the loop. I figured a lot of images were just too good to be true and that they edited the color with them but still wanted it as best as possible as soon as it stores to the memory card. you know?

Well thanks for clearing things up for me and realizing that everyone takes their images to photoshop and stuff like that after their photo shoots. I feel a lot better now and will try white balancing better to ensure true whites and all that good stuff.

The Canon vs. Nikon issue is not about equipment, but the skills of the photographer using it. A good photographer show you good color with a consumer digital camera.

Larry, I concur whole heartedly about the skills of the photographer being paramount.
Michael, using a custom white balance will not ensure that the white wedding dress will be "white". The WB only addresses the COLOR TEMPERATURE of the light source, not wether the wedding dress will hold texture and detail. To hold detail in shadows and highlights one needs to be sure that the subject contrast range fits into the parameters of the media, film or digital, and that the exposure is correct.

Got it. Thanks for the info.

I have never had exposure problems, I am very good with my settings on that end. I just want colors to stand out more because I am a perfectionist and my biggest critic.

Then the best answer is an image editor program.