Fake vs. Real Flowers?

Psychoangel2u · August 2013

Ok ladies, the flower board isn't super active... so I thought that I would post this here.

I've been toying with the idea of using fake flowers instead of real for just my centerpieces. Is anyone else going this route? Why or why not?

Also, is it worth the extra money for the 'real touch' flowers vs. the regular fake flowers?

If it matters, I'm thinking of just using white hydrangeas as the flower portion of my centerpieces. So nothing expensive, but still very pretty.

hardlyhannah · August 2013

i'm doing all real flowers, but that was something that was important to my mom and she's paying. However I am saving money by assembling my centerpieces myself (carnations, eucalyptus and hypericum berries).

For my brothers wedding they used fake flowers as our bouquets, and they were light purple hydrangeas. I thought they were beautiful and didn't make a difference that they were fake. I actually still have my bouquet as a decoration on my desk at work!

Clpapke83 · August 2013

I am using fake flowers for everything. But I want to keep my bouquet without having to pay a fortune preserving it. And for everything I got it didn't cost me much and it is gorgeous.

kstan08 · August 2013

I'm using hydrangeas also and am going the fake route. Real touch are nice. But you can find some just as nice without the large price that real touch can bring. I found mine at Hobby Lobby during 50%off floral sale. They usually rn that one every other week. They have some beautiful ones right now that look very natural and not plasticy and ugly. I'm using all fake except for corsages for the moms and grandma. I've spent about $150 on all my flowers (which included my bouquet, toss, four bridesmaids, 9 bouts, center pieces, aisle shepherd hook flowers).

schellzinator · August 2013

Thanks for posting this! I'm not having flower centerpieces - but I wanted to have sunflowers at other places - but I wasn't sure if I was going to go the fake route or the real route...I'm definitely planning on checking out hobby lobby. I'm leaning towards fake - because I can use them in my house afterwards (do you see a theme based upon my Gift Card Box post)...

I am having real flowers for my bouquet, the girls bouquets and corsages for Mom and Grandmom. I'm going to make my dad's corsage out of a starfish and FI and his guys aren't wearing anything.

schellzinator · August 2013

Well...they are wearing clothing - just no bouts. Orange Hawaiian shirts - so I figured the bouts would get lost.

[Deleted User] · August 2013

schellzinator said:

Well...they are wearing clothing - just no bouts. Orange Hawaiian shirts - so I figured the bouts would get lost.

hahaha, I'm glad you clarified.

No floral centerpieces for us. The only flowers we're having are the bouquets (3) and possibly bouts (6) and corsages (2). And, right now, the bouquets are all fake, though I have no idea what I'm going to do for the bouts. The corsages will probably be fabric flowers that I'm going to make. I just need to get on it....

Stina51286 · August 2013

We have fake for everything and for 55 centerpieces, four BM bouquets, a flower girl bouquet, and tossing bouquet, it came out to just under $700 with shipping and some peacock feathers and gems. Thats three flowers in each centerpiece (165), 9 in each of the BM bouquets (36), three in the flower girl and throwing one (6), and 15 in mine. I had 30 leftover since I purposely over bought just in case. So I bought 252 total.

My friend is doing hydrangas and got them from the same company I got mine. They are from Afloral.com if you register your email, they send emails with coupon codes all the time.

thejucheidea · August 2013

My bouquet is made of sola wood and the bridesmaids and groomswomen have paper roses for theirs. We aren't having any real flowers because some of our guests have severe flower allergies.

shaylagirl · August 2013

My sister is putting together all the flowers I'll be using; my bouquet, a toss bouquet, 2 BM bouquets, 2 corsages, 5 bouts and 1 pomander ball for my FG to carry.

I gave her 100% freedom to purchase what she wanted.

She went real touch flowers BECAUSE they hold up better. Her reason as she explained to me was that with just plain silk flowers, even they begin to look "wilty" if exposed to the elements, and, she wanted everything to look nice. Also, we both -really- like the way the flowers feel. There's a bit of a 'heft' to them that silks don't have.

She opted to buy some of the "pre-made" bouquets from some of the websites, disassemble them, and remake them in to what she wants as it worked out to be a bit cheaper than buying by the stem per flower. She's said there are some AMAZING tutorials out there on how to make a bouquet and bouts (I'm having one that's a big mound of flowers with a little bit of 'drape' towards the front).

Honestly, for what she's paid for real touch flowers, we could have bought real ones I'm sure; BUT, we're adding in peacock feathers, and, she bought the magnet bases to build my bouts on so we don't have to use straight pins, she bought the ribbon and bling she'll be using...basically, she bought EVERYTHING she'll need (excluding a few styrofoam balls) for about $300. It feels like a lot of money to me, but it was her gift to me, and she felt that if she was going to do this, she really wanted to try and do it right with fake flowers.

I'm seriously super excited to see what she comes up. She's incredibly crafty, which I -so- am not!!

SewInLoveWithDMB · August 2013

For some odd reasons, real flowers were important to me. I could have considered fake flowers for centerpieces, but not for bouquets, bouts, corsages, etc.

My sister had faux flowers for her centerpieces, but even they were composed of some real dried flowers mixed with faux flowers. The cost per each however was less than what mine will be, but only by $10-$15 each. For that price, I was happy to have the florist make them AND deliver them to our venue for us the day of. (My sister set them up herself the night before - our venue would not allow that.)

Bouquets were extremely important to me - that is an area where I did not want to cut costs. They will appear in all pictures of me, and the bridal party needed really nice, full, large flowers.

Those are my thoughts.

rustytammy · August 2013

I am using fresh flowers for everything. I am using only gerbera daisies, except my bouquet, so pretty inexpensive.

simplykayla · August 2013

We are using fake flowers for everything (FI is allergic to pollen) - bouquets, bouts, corsages, and reception flowers. My mom and I have shopped sales and used coupons at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and Joanns for all the flowers. I think I've spent about $150 max on everything. We only have a couple of the bouquets done so far, and I think they turned out pretty good! I'll probably have to fluff up some of the flowers a little the day before or day of, but other than that the fake flowers have worked just fine.

[Deleted User] · August 2013

prettybirdy27 said:

We are using fake flowers for centerpieces but only a few. My centerpieces are birdcages with a few fake flowers in the bottom, and they're largely blocked by bars, and I thought getting real flowers in there would be a pain. However, we are using real flowers for the bouquets, bouts, etc. I finalized my flower proposal last night and for all the bouquets and bouts alone it was $700, so I can't imagine what 13 floral centerpieces would cost me.

How many bouquets and bouts are you getting? What kind of flowers?

jessyk1065 · August 2013

I want to do real flowers and had originally planned on DIY-ing our bouquets and bouts with real flowers ordered online....but based on the following I'm thinking it may be a bit more than I can chew:

1 bouquet for me, 8 bridesmaids, 10 groomsmen, groom, father of groom, grandfather, 2 moms' corsages.

So I am just now contacting some florists to see what they can do and if they can work with my budget......yikes! I just want carnations for the most part so hopefully it won't be too bad!

jenphotochick · August 2013

I'm using fake! They aren't the real touch but they aren't the super cheep silk either. Something in between

Psychoangel2u · August 2013

Well, after some thought we have decided to go with fake for our centerpieces. It allowed me to get more flowers that I wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise, and they look so much better than the real flowers would have! In all I think I spent $80 at Hobby Lobby as opposed to $200+ at the florist.

[Deleted User] · August 2013

Pictures?

beckyk0385 · August 2013

We are doing fake and dried. I have an Aunt that is super crafty and does beautiful arrangements. She has done the flowers for every one of my cousins weddings. I've gone up to her place a few times to brain storm and she has had some amazing options. I can't wait!!

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