FLOWER DILEMMA--advice please! :)

kaitlyn&henry

Hey everyone...the other day my florist emailed me saying she was going to use silk/fake hydrangea in my bridesmaids bouquets as well as mine.

 I know we never talked about putting fake flowers in them and i am a little uneasy, but my florist said yyou wont even notice and she wants to use fake because real hydrangea wilt quickly when out of water. 

I have already discussed removing the silk with her and expressed my concern and she said ok, but again said hydrangea wilt...what do you all think?

kaitlyn&henry

oh and thanks in advance!!! ill be meeting with her on the 25th to finalize the decision. 

sarahk915

I'm sure she knows what she's doing and has used silk with real flowers many times. 
I will say, though, that we had real hydrangeas in our bouquets.  They were in water until pictures...back in water until the ceremony.  We put them in water for the reception and they still looked great the following day.  The groomsmen also had hydrangea in their bouts and they lasted the whole day.   
I think if you can keep them in water whenever possible, they should be fine.
Good luck!

unplainjane

I feel the same way about fake flowers. My FMIL wanted to tie fake roses to the pews in the church and she said everyone uses some fake flowers and that I won't notice the difference. I had none of it and we decided to not tie anything to the pews anyway. It depends on the person. Some people use fake flowers and are fine with it and there's nothing wrong with that but i don't feel comfortable doing that. It sounds like you're not either. Tell her to use real or use a different flower that will hold up better.

fallbride1109

I had hydrangea in my centerpieces and they still looked nice the next day when we used them for brunch.

sueflo

That's ridiculous..Any good florist knows how to properly condition and store hydrangeas to minimize wilting... get another florist now... 

( Ps I am a cape cod florist and 9 out of 10 weddings are filled with hydrangeas....It's not a big problem if you know what you are doing!)

Catwoman708

I love hydrangeas, but they CAN be unpredictable and need a lot of water, so you never know if they will last well in bouquets or not. 

If the florist is not comfortable with using fresh hydrangeas or cannot guarantee they will stay fresh, then I would take her word for it.  Personally I would rather do without the hydranges that mix silk ones in with real flowers.

If you want something that look similar to hydrangeas, I've used a flower called "stock" before, that have the clusters of smaller blooms.  Only they are a longer linear flower, so I cut the pointy tips off of them, leaving them about the size of mini hydrangeas.  They're cheaper than hydrangeas, but they don't come in as many colors, usually only white, pink and purple shades.

 

LizziebeeUT

I like silk flowers, and will be using them for my bouquet (making everything else out of tissue paper)

but, if you have your heart set on real flowers, don't let anyone else talk you out of it. She either isn't experienced enough to do what you want, or is trying to lower her own costs.