fake or real flowers?

You can do a mixture. center pieces real- since people will be sitting right there and looking at them and do the bouquets and boutiniers fake. it's really up to you.

Having real flowers is always a greater experience than having fake ones. But it's true they are expensive. If you want to be able to use real flowers maybe you should consider arranging them yourself (friends and family can help). You can find many options online for wedding flowers even combos and arranged centerpieces pretty affordable. There are tons of videos in youtube that teach you step by step how to arrange flowers: centerpieces, bouquets, even bouts & cors. That would save you a bunch of money. Going with a florist is always a more expensive but also safer option.

I am having real flowers, ordering in bulk from fifty flowers.com

We had wooden flowers and no one could tell and everyone thought the bouquets were beautiful. So inexpensive but I would say with centrepieces it depends on what type of centrepieces you are doing.

I've generally found bulk fresh flowers to be cheaper than fake, actually. If you want a florist to arrange them and peonies, not so much, but DIY roses, hydrangeas and the like are $1-2 fresh and sometimes as much as $5/stem for fake. I know some girls have found really great fake flower deals, but I didn't have such luck when I was looking.

My mom and I just played around with fake flowers for my arrangement and it turned our really pretty. We got some good deals at one of the craft stores.

@Aussie where did you get the wooden flowers, I haven't seen any in a long time and I like them.

@ Kathryn I got mine from http://www.touchedforeverflowers.com/ they were great and came very quickly

Im doing all the decorations in fake flowers. Ive gotten some great deals hitting the end of season sales at craft stores. Plus Joanns always has great coupons, I get them in the newspaper, mail and email. Im doing the bouquets, corsages and bouts in fresh flowers.

For center pieces I am doing potted flowers. They are cheaper than the flower from the florists. I am giving them away as presents to all those people who have helped us with the wedding. For the bouquets and coursages, I am getting them from a florist. I just love fresh flowers. I think there is nothing wrong with fake flowers if that is what you choose.

Im doing fake (silk) flowers for my centerpieces, since they will be submerged in water, and I am doing real flowers for my bridal party flowers.

My wedding party will have fake flowers, but my bouquet will be real.

Thanks for all the ideas keep them coming.

I've always wanted real flowers, so to keep in my budget, i'm doing small simple bouquets. I worked with my florist and we decided on 5 gerbera daisies w/ greenery per BM & then mine will be a little differnt. Plus the boutiniers will be real cheap too!!!

Doing either has its advantages.

Going with fake, you run the risk of not having them in the flower that you want or the true color of a flower. But you'll have them the rest of your life.

I'm going with carnations and have never seen a fake one that does it half the justice.

Check with your local grocer. I was going to have them do mine. 1 bouquet, 1 MOH bouquet, 5 coursages, 7 bouts and they quoted me at $170ish. After much consideration, I'm having them order the flowers for around $80ish and doing them myself.

Guess its just a matter of how important they are to you.

I think fake flowers would be the cheapest, pls real flowers die and i believe it would a waste of money.

I am using the fake floral centerpieces at the venue but the arch flowers, ceremony flowers, bridal party flowers will all be real.

I'm doing fake (silk) flowers for the centerpieces, bouts, and for my hair because I wanted orchids and well they can be super expensive. So I got some nice silk ones with some 50% off coupons at Joann's and spent maybe a $1-$2 each. For the bouquets I am doing real flowers because I wanted some Calli Lilies and I like the look of the real ones better and I had four people offer to donate some Calli lilies, roses and this other flower that I can't remember the name of, so I will be getting the real flowers for free.

We are going with the wood flowers that Aussie posted because they are cheaper than real and yet they look amazing.

@Aussie thanks for the website they are beautiful. They use to have a stand at our local mall of the roses and my FH said if he was ever going to buy me roses he would buy them because they last longer.

We're doing silk flowers. Ordered silks online from www.efavormart.com and created my own centerpieces. Bought vases from www.save-on-crafts.com Ordered silk bridal party flowers as well from www.wedideas.com

The quotes we were getting for fresh flowers was just way out of budget. So we went with the next best thing! Silks! They do have natural touch flowers too that look like fresh flowers but they cost a bit more then silks.

Good luck!