Bouquets - silk or real?

I have considered using a mixture of both. For example, I want wreaths to hang on the barn doors of our reception and I want to make those out of fake flowers and stems so that we can re-use the wreaths at our house for years to come. But for my and the bridesmaid bouquets, centerpieces, and aisle runners, I am leaning towards buying bulk flowers from Costco. I have a little experience in floral design, and this is the only part of my wedding I am planning on DIYing two days before the wedding. I want either mostly greens or lots of baby's breath and then 1-2 colors of roses to fill in as well. I think by simplifying what goes into them you can cut the price down significantly. We should be able to do all our flowers and greens for the wedding and reception for about $300-400.

Are you using flowers in your centerpieces? Only asking to get a feel for the style/decor. Also are you open to your bridesmaids carrying something else? Or only floral bouquets?

View Quoted Comment Wow that’s not a bad price at all! How do you plan to keep the flowers fresh until your ceremony, do you refrigerate them? My first wedding it was super hot and mine started to wilt quickly now I’m worried about it. I wish I had artistic touch but I’m so horrible with trying to put things together on my own.

View Quoted Comment I was thinking more of a simple centerpiece since it’s outside on a farm. I’m open for suggestions!

View Quoted Comment Hmm, that will be the tricky part for you for sure. Our wedding will be in December, so we won't have to worry about wilting. If you want to do real flower bouquets, they should be alright, just keep them indoors in AC and in water and plant food until it is time for pictures. I would advise against refrigerating them, as the humidity in the fridge can mess them up. Since it will be so hot, it might be better to do fake flowers for any centerpieces and decorations. And you could have everything done weeks or months ahead of time! Hydrangeas make for really beautiful blue blooms! If you go the live flower route and still want to DIY still, I would prep everything and keep it in water and AC as long as possible. At that point, you may want to try to find a friend or ask the DoC if they would set things out for you an hour before guests start arriving. But it would be nice to be able to give them pictures of how it should look and where things need to go in that case.


There are lots of options if you keep your mind open! Pinterest is a great starting point for gathering ideas too!

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much!

Real 100%. I personally don't care for the look of silks. Plus if flowers are kept in season or done via wholesale (fiftyflowers.com) they end being cheaper than silks, contrary to popular belief. Also unless you are cutting them all out of your garden, flowers grown for commercial use (florists, etc) do not have the pollen that causes allergies.

I got fake ones because it was so much cheaper

I personally love real flowers over fake, and I’ve had friends tell me I’m wasting money. I got my bouquet, bridesmaid bouquets, centerpieces, ceremony decor and a fireplace piece for the reception for about $800 because the florist does a lot of work with our venue, so she gave us a discount. Grocery stores and places like Costco and Sam’s club can do fresh flowers as well if you really want fresh! If you do fake, do you have any crafty friends or family who can help you put things together? My best friend is extremely crafty and very conscious of costs so she did all of her bouquets and decorations for about $150 by getting the fake flowers at end of season sales.

I definitely suggest at least getting a quote from a florist. I was all set on doing fake florals for the price (even had them picked out online so I knew how much it would cost). Then I reached out through email to a local florist just out of curiosity and it ended up being just a little more for real flowers so I decided to splurge a little there since they do generally look nicer.

View Quoted Comment Thank you! My best friend and I are going to try to do this today as well as hit up hobby lobby to compare prices!

View Quoted Comment That’s what I was worried about was the appearance since it’s on a farm so it’s easy to tell theyre fake. I’m horrible at putting things together in an artistic fashion, too. Thanks the info!

View Quoted Comment Thanks, Allie! My best friend is crafty, but I lack that piece of talent myself lol

I would definitely recommend not skimping out on a quality bouquet of real flowers for yourself, because let's face it, your bridal bouquet will end up being in the majority of your formal photos. If you want to scale back on the quality of flowers for the bridesmaids' bouquets or elsewhere or even do fake, that's another option. But I would recommend doing real for your own bouquet

View Quoted Comment I agree completely. Most couples would rather have quality photos on display and are not interested in keeping the bouquet.

View Quoted Comment I was thinking of an alternative “bouquet” that would tie into the farm venue, like a fan or lantern. Neither one requires many flowers and therefore artificial flowers could work since they’d be used minimally. Additionally, the bridesmaid lanterns could be used as decor for the reception (ie. on the head table.... or some on the bar.... on the gift table, etc). Fans are inexpensive and you could easily hot glue artificial flowers at a low cost.

I went with rented artificial for mine from Boomerangblooms.com. The bouquets and centerpieces looked beautiful!