Real or fake flowers??

Definitely go to those craft stores like hobby lobby and Michael's they sell a lot of nice looking fake flowers for cheap.
I think it's a good money saver but as you noted about hassle, that's another story. DIY is usually more time consuming in general. It's just a matter of time vs money and what's worth it to you.
You could also do real flowers for certain things and fake flowers for others

I was in a similar boat— this was not an area I wanted to blow the budget on, BUT I have a strong preference for real flowers over fake. So, I ended up ordering bulk real flowers from FiftyFlowers.com and putting arrangements together myself. There’s time, labor, and logistics to consider with this particular approach, but I was really happy with my flowers, and didn’t spend more than $300. I kept things really simple, centerpiece and decor-wise and watched a lot of YouTube videos on bouquet making (and did some trial runs ahead of time to get a feel for it)— it was doable but requires some extra hands

View Quoted Comment I was thinking the same about splitting it up. Maybe real for mine and bridesmaids but fake for centerpieces and flower girls. Thank you!

View Quoted Comment Oh wow that’s great! I’ll have to look into that. I do have a very crafty and artistic sister, mom and future mother in law so I’m thankful to have their help. How far in advance did you make your bouquets?

I've gotten some beautiful fakes from amazon. We are doing a mix of real and fake ones, mainly fake.

View Quoted Comment I made them the day before the wedding (I only had 4 to make which I suppose is an important detail! I’m sure I would’ve felt differently if I had 10 bridesmaids! Haha)— timing, I think, was the biggest challenge because I had to work with the flowers’ Schedule 🤣. When ordering, the company asked for the event date and suggested delivery date for each flower type I was ordering (spread out between the Wednesday and Thursday before our Saturday wedding), and the get arrived “sleepy” and needed prompt care of stem trimming, and getting into water, and then being left alone for a while to adjust. So I wanted to give them ample time to perk up before I started manipulating them. Overnight, I left the bouquets in water in our cool basement and they held up great. I dedicated my Friday afternoon to arranging them and it definitely took a decent chunk of time, and despite my “I can do everything myself!” attitude, I was grateful that my family butted in to assist and was certainly a huge help (we basically had an assembly line for the center pieces with MIL trimming stems and SIL watering vases and me placing flowers which went nice and quick), and I took on bouquets on my own but found I needed a second pair of hands when it came to taping them together and wrapping with ribbon.

One thing I didn’t think of until another bride in here posted her experience doing her own flowers was transporting them— we had a backyard wedding so the flowers were already where they needed to be on the morning of the wedding which I’m sure was a huge help and a detail probably not to be overlooked!

I should also prrrooobbably mention I made a big old mess of my basement workshop 🤣🤣 stem clippings everywhere!

pics: how they arrived; staging area while they’re in buckets “waking up”; centerpiece assembly line; bouquets themselves (in retrospect I probably would’ve made them smaller— if you do go this route, have a mirror handy so you can really feel out the sizing as you go)

My venue is doing centerpiece I bought all the rest off Etsy spending under 400.

My sister recently told me about using Sam's Club to order flowers in bulk. I was having the same debate until she told me I could get 80 stems of sunflowers for $79.00 and we could just arrange them ourselves. My bouquets are going to be mainly sunflower focused so at that price it's a no brainer.

View Quoted Comment Omg everything looks beautiful!! Thanks for all the info! I’ll definitely need help but this gives me hope

I have never done any kind of floral arrangements, and this isn’t even finished I want to make a few changes, but I Purchased these all from Michael’s and it was really easy to put together. Watch tutorials! I did hoop bouquets for my bridal party but still need to make a few changes. My bridal bouquet cost me roughly $50 for what is pictured, though I will add a few more burgundy and pink flowers.

View Quoted Comment Omg that is beautiful! Great job!

View Quoted Comment Thank you!! I feel like I need less white. I still have 5 months to get it right. You can totally do your own flowers though, tons of good tutorials on YouTube!

We're going with fake, wood flowers. My FH's neighbor has a wood flower business, and you would honestly never know they weren't real! She's sending me quotes tonight. See if there's a craft vendor in your area that does this type of thing! I know in NJ, there are aways craft fares and flea markets where they can show off their work. It might be a bit pricier than DIY from craft stores, but I believe it will be cheaper than real flowers.

I ordered sola flowers off of Etsy. They are half wood flowers and half dried flowers. They look so nice! I did not want to spend a lot on flowers either and this way I can keep my bouquet displayed in my house after the wedding. I bought 3 bouquets, 6 boutonnieres, and 6 corsages that all match each other for $400 dollars. The one quote I received for fresh flowers for one bouquet was $225 so I am pretty happy with $400 for all the bridal party. For my centerpieces, i just bought cheap flowers from Walmart that cost about $40 overall.

View Quoted Comment I started looking on Etsy and they have some really pretty ones. I’m also going to look around at the local craft stores. I didn’t realize there were so many great fake options and still save money!

I didn't want the hassle of DIY'ing everything and personally I hate the look of fake flowers and I can always tell. I didn't want to splurge either but my flower taste is expensive. I have since been deciding ways to cut back on my real flowers again. I was just at Michael's last night and literally all the flowers don't look real. I am DIY'ing the flower girl crown to cut out the $40 cost for a real one. It took me awhile to pick greenery/flowers I thought didn't look entirely fake. To buy those real touch flowers that are supposed to look more real could end up being a pretty penny anyhow. You could always do a mixture of both, or some arrangements fake where it can look fooled! It's a complete personal preference though!

Ill be making as many things with realistic looking fake flowers. The arch where the ceremony will take place for instance. And real flowers for bouquets. Im trying to cut back on costs.

I was going to do the DIY route but decided against it since we have enough things to worry about for the wedding. Instead I went around my area and got quotes. We went with the florist that had the best price that we like working with. Overall it was only $350 more than had we purchase the pre arranged bouquets from Sam’s club. I think it’s worth it.