real vs. fake

sarita86

I'm on a budget and was thinking of only having real flowers at the reception and fake flowers at the ceremony.

The fake flowers would be used to decorate the church. My dad and FI don't really like the idea too much, but real flowers are so expensive and the ceremony will only be about 30-45 mins. long.

What do you guys thinks.

Maggie0829

Is there a way that your florist could make two alter arrangements and then after the ceremony is over re-use them at the reception?  This way you are decorating your church with real flowers which your FI wants and are getting your monies worth by using them to decorate your reception hall as well.

Also, since your ceremony will be in a church, which is already a pretty place, too many decorations may be overwhelming and distracting from what people are there to really see, which is you and your FI get married.

Oh, and make sure with your church what type of decorations are allowed...some churches have restrictions on flowers and other decorations.

soozy87

I am not a big fan of fake flowers. We did what PP said and reused some of our flowers from the ceremony at the reception.

Are you talking just decorations? or also your flowers and your BM flowers? What about the GM and other people who would wear flowers?

Can you do something other than flowers as centerpieces? Or go a more simple route and use fewer flowers in different places? A less expensive, more in season flower?

Wiscisbliss

Fake flowers are totally fine. 

FWIW, I didn't have any ceremony decor.  That was my budget friendly solution. 

WildMagelet

We're getting our real flowers wholesale from Sam's.  They're actually cheaper per blossom than a lot of the silk flowers I'd found on-line.  I'm buying silks from the local dollar store to do mock-ups that I'll end up recycling to use in my TTD session.

graysquirrel

I agree with flutterbride-- buying wholesale and DIYing is actually cheaper than fake flowers. They are less than a dollar a stem often times; unless you hit a major clearance sale, most silks will be more than that. We did all of our own floral reception decor and flowers for the WP ourselves and didn't have any ceremony decor (outdoors was plant-filled as it was).

FaithCaitlin

I don't think fake flowers look nearly as good as real flowers but if it's a budget concern, I'd go with fake flowers.

As a PP mentioned, look into buying your flowers from a wholesaler and DIYing them. Much cheaper than going through the florist!

dees14

I just went to a wedding that had fake flowers at the reception. I would never had known they were fake if the sister of the bride (my friend) hadn't told me. They looked great!

annmarie714

In our area, fake flowers usually run about the same as real, if not more.

If you go the fake flower route, get coupons from the paper and go to craft stores (JoAnn's, Michael's, etc).  Or try a wedding wholesaler (Flower Factory) in the area.