Real VS Silk Flowers?!

It's not about 'cheaping out'. I'm using a mix of silk and paper flowers. And it really isn't about the cost - it's about priorities.

For me personally, I don't like real flowers at the best of times. I think they are wasteful, and I really don't like the smell (I find it very cloying most of the time). So for me, I just wasn't bothered enough to want to spend money on flowers. I'm having non-floral centerpieces anyway.

So it's really down to you.

I can't give you advice on doing them yourself vs professionally yet, because I haven't attempted mine yet.

Chose to go with real, ultimately in the end they were about the same cost if not less and I won't have to deal with creating the centerpieces myself, etc. Definitely didn't want the stress of a centerpiece DIY project.

Real, even if they're from the grocery store... real. However, there are some ladies on here who have nice silk bouquets but the majority (not necessarily any on WW, I'm not bashing anyone's bouquets!)... are meh.

edit: On the other hand, I don't think spending thousands of money on real flowers are necessary at all. If anything I'd do real flowers for the bridal party and then non-flower centerpieces if you want to cut costs.

My pictures don't show them as well as I would have liked, but here are my centerpieces and my bouquet. I did silk because I knew I could buy them early and work on them whenever. Plus, I got them from Michael's and they almost always have 40% off going on floral stuff, so I got all of my silk flowers (for 13 centerpieces, 7 BM bouquets, my bouquet, and boutonnieres, plus a few extra) for just under $400. Saved me a TON of money, especially if you wait until they send out one of their % of entire purchase coupons.

I have a close family friend who used to be a florist, so she put everything together for me; I can't tell you if it was easy or not, she did that while I worked on other projects. But she did everything in about 4 nights. I think they look beautiful, I can keep my bouquet forever if I decide to, and I don't have to worry about them being wrong the day of when the order would get delivered!

JS I love those table numbers!! Did you buy or make them?

Silks can be great - I initially was going to do all silk and ordered some flowers from afloral.com and bought some from Hobby Lobby. After FH bought me fresh flowers one day, I realized how much I wanted fresh flowers for my bouquet. They were just so much nicer than anything I could DIY. I'm still going to use silk and paper for my centerpieces because I'm a cheapass and don't care much about decor.

I love also non-floral options... lanterns, books, pillar candles, etc for centerpieces. I'm using lots of mercury glass votives too.

I personally prefer real, however there are benefits to silk. You can take your time to DIY, no allergy concerns, no wilting.

My bouquets are silk as are all my decor flowers except for some baby's breath I will plan to use.

@JS081615 Those turned out great!

@Monica Those are nice! Did you make them yourself?

For me its not about cutting costs or anything, it's just that I can't stand the fact that real flowers cost so much when they don't last! I hate that they would go to waste and cannot be reused. That may just be me though! Using silk would take the worry away from any wilting as well. I just don't want to buy some and them not be of high quality and have that obvious "fake" look to them.

I've been doing a little research and I found a website that makes custom orders:

www.bloombridal.com so I'm going to contact them I think and get a quote! Might end up being quite a bit though since I'm set on floral centerpieces! Lol.

We'll see though! I might just end up buying everything myself and attempting to DIY since I think I would quite enjoy it!

I have been stuck on the same thing! For me its not about cheaping out- I genuinely love flowers, but FH's aunt is doing our flowers and she does silk. Everything she's ever done is BEAUTIFUL and it will be easier for her, since she is coming from out of town. But I think I'll be a little sad if my bouquet is fake...so I'm thinking about just ordering fresh flowers for me & FH.

I would recommend to sit down with a florist, see what they can do and you might decide that you absolutely want real flowers or you can be like me and decide you don't flowers at all.

I'm doing real flowers, but for my bridal pictures, I used silk flowers with a mix of real greenery from my parents' grapefruit tree (since that will be the greenery we use in the bouquets and centerpieces the day of). I was shocked at how much my silk bouquet ended up costing. Even with a 30% off your entire purchase coupon, I still ended up paying about $50 for my silk flowers, which is actually more than how much my real bouquet will cost (I'm buying my flowers wholesale form Fifty Flowers and DIYing them). However, I was also surprised by how real they looked. I got a lot of compliments on them and a lot of people thought they were real.

Real flowers were one of my must haves, as I've always been around plants, I love flower arranging, and I've had real flowers in my place of living consistently since I was 18 (old enough to budget out flowers as part of my grocery shopping), so it was really important that I had it in my wedding. I spent about $1000 on flowers from Fifty Flowers and Costco (that will be for 26 centerpieces, 10 church alter pieces, a unity candle ring, flower petals, 5 bridesmaids bouquets, 1 bridal bouquet, 5 groomsmen boutonnieres, quite a few corsages for moms and grandmas, and about 20 boutonnieres for family members). One thing that would swing me towards fake flowers that has nothing to do with cost is the planning - you can do your flowers WAY ahead of time and not worry about them the week of (that's why I made my bridal bouquet with silk flowers).

Here are some pictures from my bridal shoot with the bouquet. The leaves are real, the pink and white roses are not.

I'm using a paper florist through Etsy (her store is called Centertwine). She's amazing. I'm so impressed with the quality and amount for the cost. We are getting all florals (ceremony and reception - no skimping for $900 (shipping included). See below for pics of my bouquet and my bridesmaids bouquets. Check her out! Good luck!

@Rebecca, my friend made them using her cricut (sp?) she is awesome!

My coworker made me 36 silk floral arrangements for my wedding. We're having a destination/diy/small budget wedding, so once she offered to do that as my wedding gift I was more than happy to accept. We're going to glitter the mason jars and add some small led lights inside. Voila, awesome centerpieces.

We're opting for paper due to allergies and budget. Spent around $400 for everything.

I'm using silk and renting. Some will be purchased (mine, moms) but bridesmaids bouquets and table centerpieces I'm renting. She shows up, sets everything up, and takes it away at the end of the night. I don't have to worry about picking stuff up or trying to sell it later on craigslist. I'm not using real because flowers aren't a priority, I don't particularly care for them, as a guest I've never cared too much about the centerpieces (vs quality of food, entertainment) and as a bridal party member, my flowers always died before the reception. My 2 cents. Sorry, I'm not so romantic about it.

Doing your own flowers can be easy depending on how much your doing. how many centerpieces, bouquets, corsage, boutonnieres are you thinking you'll need to make?

I'm using silk, from Hobby Lobby. I have one less vendor to deal with, saved tons of money, and I made them look exactly what I want them to look like. It was fun to make them!

Also, I'm living across the country from where I'm having my wedding, so having them done a year ahead of time when I visited home was a big relief. It's one less thing to worry about in that cluster of days right before the wedding where you have to check in with every single vendor.

Real flowers are always preferable to fake ones. Yes, guests can tell they are fake. If I couldn't afford real flowers, I would go with non-flower alternatives rather than use fake. You can always have your bouquet preserved afterwards (which is what I'm doing!). Also, I couldn't imagine trying to mess with DIYing them or setting up floral decor on the wedding day.

Real are always preferred, but some silk and other alternatives are great like the paper or wood ones. People are amazed by wood, paper or fabric ones when they are done well and look real.