Silk or Real Flowers?

I am going to answer this question for a personal and a professional view.

I got married almost 2 years ago and my mother (a floral designer) insisted silk flowers. I protested all the way to the wedding, she WON, and I LOVE HER FOR IT!!! They look and spelled so wonderful!! My bouquet,bout is in my wall cabinet for all to see and as fresh as it was that day! The best part No one new they were silk! We heard so many comments "those floral bouquets are beautiful, they must have set you back a few" LOL.. we laughed alot at those comments....

Now on a professional view: Fresh flowers are VERY expensive right now. They are very stunning and wonderful scent about them. Your right How long will they last? Do you want to spend so much more in flowers that will last 3-5 days. If you wish I can send you pictures of the artifical floral bouquets she has done and currently had put together..

Best wishes

Being a decorator/florist I get asked the question a lot-what should I use. This year, I only have 2 brides using fresh florals, all the others are going aritificial. The silks that florists get are high end and you can't tell the difference. These are not Walmart silks,they are much better quality. Some artificial for example like the Floramatique line, can be more expensive. There are real touch-made from latex, and then the Floramatique that are not.The real touch look and feel real. If you go fresh, there are companies that will preserve your bouquet in pristine condition, however it is expensive. Another alternative is to put the bridesmaids in artificial and you could have fresh florals. If you look at my blog under alternative flowers, you will see the difference between real touch, and Floramatique- www.specialdaydesign.wordpress.com the processing of these flowers is explained there.

I had fresh floral, but that was because I didn't want to deal with keeping the silk arrangements afterwards. I did have some silf floral though, and I agree fresh flowers can be a waste of money. I had a vey small budget for flowers, for that same reason. What I would suggest is maybe having the bouts with fresh flowers, I don't think guys would want to keep a silk bout for a momento. Maybe if your going to have a special women wear a corsage or chest corsage, have that with real flowers.

Thanks for your honest opinions ladies. It really helps me with the decision making. These little details are the ones that make all the difference!

Tammany,

Can you send me the pics please? Email them to me at *******@*****.***.

Thanks.

Im going with the silk floral for the decorations and centerpieces and for the wedding party im getting real flowers . the flowers are not that big of a deal to me maybe u could give the fake floral away at the end of the reception people may want to take some home

Another thing to think about is allergies. Maybe some of your guests are allergic to pollen? That's something I considered in making my decision between real and silk. All of the other ladies provided wonderful suggestions. Just thought I'd throw the allergy thing out there (one of my bridesmaids pointed out her allergies to pollen).

Silk flowers are so fine, and you could mix silk with real flowers also.

another tip i will give you is check your local supermarket. the florist in a supermarket is so much cheaper than a floral shop. and you could just pick out your flowers and make your own arrangements.also the florist could do a replica of something you saw in a book for less than half the price. as a planner I am always looking for ways to save my brides money.

God Bless your Union

I am doing silk flowers for my wedding and so far, everything is looking good. I haven't spent that much money on them either because everytime I have went to buy them, they have been on sale. I'm not sure where you are located but if you have a Hobby Lobby around, that's the place to go. They have tons of flowers...more than a Michael's or Jo-Ann Fabrics.

Silk flowers are great to use for your wedding flowers. They are really inexpensive and some look like real flowers. I did a wedding using silk flowers for the wedding party and fresh flowers for the brides bouquet. Silk is the way to go.

I offer brides a choice of silk or fresh. I've found lately that more and more people are going with the silk florals. It's good because going silk means that you can have whatever flowers you want. You don't have to worry about the extra expense of something that's not in season or something that's exotic, etc. Just make sure that your floral designer is using high quality silk flowers. You want them to have the look of real flowers even though they're not.

Thanks everyone for the responses. I am having issues not only finding someone who is available to do my flowers on my wedding date and also someone who will do it in my budget. They are mostly telling me that silk is more expensive because they use a top quality silk flower. So my question is what is an appropriate amount for florals? I am not doing centerpieces or a while lot decor wise. I need a bridal bouquet, 7 BM bouquets, 11 bouts, a toss bouquet, and maybe a little something for the arch and the guest book table (nothing big or extravagant). Any help with this would be appreciated since I have no knowledge of flowers, real or silk. Thanks!

you probobly already dicided, but I just wanted to say that when I began planning my wedding I had the same problem but I thought to my self yeh I want the flowers to last but regardless of weither it's real or fake they don't last forever, fake would last longer but it also gets old and boring after seeing the same flower all the time, for me I always like things fresh "the only thing that is constant is chanege" I have fake flowers in my home and after a while I throu them away and get new ones s0 I spend money all the time but if I buy a plant I get to see the different changes it goes through. anyway I went for fresh flowers it ended up being less expensive for the designs that I wanted and I got to use real excotic typs of flowers that I loved, everything was so beautifull and the florist that I used really put himself out, used realy great preserving method and gave me advise on how to make them last longer, some of them like the orchid are still at home. I will post pictures.

I am using silk flowers and have already done a mock one. If you would like to see a photo email **....****************@*****.***

Hi,

Try this link. The flowers are made of silk and latex.

http://www.silkflowersexpress.com

Check out these awesome bouquets

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5748524

I didn't know that silk flowers were cheaper. That is nice to know! I think I might want real instead...still have plenty of time to compare and decide!

Another good website is www.angelsaccents.com The bouquets are beautiful. I am going to be getting all of the flowers for the wedding from there. Just about everyone in both of our families are allergic to flowers. I ordered a few stems from them to get the idea of what the quality was like, and I am very pleased so far.

Hello friends. I've been reading this website for a while & a lot of you guys have given great advice & ideas to most of my questions. Thank you in advance.

Another question I have is about silk flowers. If I order them now will they still be the same color in 15 months? My wedding is in 2018. Thank you.

View Quoted Comment I also have the same question. I was thinking of doing artificial for the cost value. My fiance says, artificial will be more expensive. Would you mind sharing the pictures with me of your artificial flowers? Where did you get the flowers?

Thank you,
Kathryn (*****************@*****.***)

I am doing silk flower's as well and so happy with my choice. I say do whatever makes you happy!