dumb?

samantha1008 · September 2010

Okay so I have a dumb question for ya'll. I really want real flowers in my wedding, but I know that fake ones are cheaper. Would it look right if I wanted to have real and fake flowers? Or any advice, you can tell I am so clueless in this area! HELP!

retro_bride09 · September 2010

The only dumb question is the one that goes unasked!

I am using both, but in seperate situations. (I wouldn't mix silk and fresh in one bouquet) Flower girls pomanders are silk, but everything else is fresh. My total comes to about $850, but that's literally everything but the flower girls.
I strongly suggest talking to several florists, and be up front with your budget. Use the internet, and really look at what's in season for your wedding, and different ways to add volume, like foliage.
Oh, and sometimes silk is not cheaper, the really realistic flowers can be pricy.

Catwoman708 · September 2010

It's fine to do either one, but not mixed. Personally, I feel strongly about flowers to be used as gifts for people to wear (the WP flowers) and altar flowers for a religous service should be real.

Otherwise, if they are purely for decoration, then silk is fine. Like for centerpieces, aisle decorations, or to decorate the food or guest book tables.

And to get good quality, realistic looking silk flowers, they are not much, if any cheaper. Where you save is if you are DIYing silk flowers, florists charge roughly the same to arrange silk flowers as they do fresh flowers.

jbrych2006 · September 2010

That is not a dumb question. I have decided that my bouquet will be out of silk flowers because I want to be able to keep it. The bouts for the guys will also be silk, just because most of my guys dont like the way real ones smell. My girls will be carrying real flowers , aisle decorations and my centerpieces will also be real. We have also decided to grow our own flowers. I think whatever you decide will be gorgeous and turn out great!! Good luck dear.

Ashes_3 · September 2010

First off, fake flowers are not always cheaper! I think there are some that look real and you can make it look good.

marissa_claire · September 2010

I would not put them in the same arrangement, but maybe do fake for things like bouquets (since no one sees them up close really) and then do centerpieces with real flowers.

samantha1008 · September 2010

Thanks you guys this was very helpful!

Tisha. · September 2010

I'm doing both. All of the bouquets and bouts and corsages are fake (real touch calla lillies) but the centerpeices are going to be real mini white calla lillies. And the real ones are cheaper, not the other way around. But still, my entire floral budget is under $250 (and that's for both!)

You can see my fake bouquets in a post just down below this post.

jessiyuk · September 2010

My sister had silk flowers for her wedding.

They ended up being more expensive than real! Shop around!

amjung2103 · September 2010

I am doing mostly real flowers (bouquets, bouts, corsages, petals) with a few silk for the decorations around the arbor -- I am also DIYing the bouquets and bouts (leaving the corsages to the florist) - my wedding budget kind of exploded on me, and this was my way of trimming it - I am getting all the fresh flowers and aisle runner (rented) for 450$ - rather than the 900$ if they did it all - well worth it to me!

goetzr19 · September 2010

I disagree that fake flowers can be more expensive. It all depends on where you live, and what flowers you are using. We are using fake calla lilies, and for 5 BM bouquets, 2 Jr BM bouquets, 25 corsages/bouts and a toss bouqet, it came to $655 for fake rather than $1400 for real. DEFINETLY not more expensive.

I agree with pp's that you should shop around, and get references and pictures. HTH!

JRSonday · September 2010

My MOH did ours out of paper, and they turned out AWESOME. Everyone loved them at the wedding, and they were super cool keepsakes too. Total including shipping from OR to MI? $42.

VMHR2011 · September 2010

I'm doing real flowers for everything on people (except MIL, she's alergic) and fake for the centerpieces.

Chantel Sewell · September 2010

You can purchase flowers in bulk at some places. If you don't mind rehydrating flowers, you can go to SamsClub.com for bulk flowers. 100 rose stems are $74.07 under their wedding packs, that's about $0.75 per flower!!

Brooklclark · September 2010

Would agree that occasionally silk flowers can cost roughly the same as real it all depend on the look you are going for. I was at Michaels recently and there flowers were priced from 1 to 8 dollars a stem. Another way to keep the flower budget down is to rent. Our center pieces are white birch branches and we rented the cylinders. The florist is doing all of our flowers we are having an early morning wedding and didn’t want to do it ourselves. Thanks another thing to think about will you have time to do a lot of it yourself before the wedding

Sonita12 · September 2010

I agree with pp that fake flowers are not always cheaper. I did my homework and researched what flowers are cheapest and in bloom during the season for my wedding. There are also several types of flowers, such as hydrangeas, that pack a lot for the money. They're inexpensive and can fill up a bouquet quickly.
I was also very honest with every florist I visited about my budget and I think my florist's ideas are beautiful and not as expensive as I thought they would be!
Good luck!

sambaudoin · September 2010

Have you looked on www.etsy.com and went into the wedding category? I also didn't want to do real flowers, for the expense and had a different vision in my head. There are some of the most amazing bouquets you will find on etsy. I bought mine through a shop called Croska, you can find her if you search for her. I can't say enough about etsy and Croska. I've got a lot of wedding stuff on this website, unique and breathtaking!

Sweetcheeks521 · September 2010

Hi,

there are fake fllowers out there that look real! You would never be able to tell the difference either. Talk to a florist and see what they would suggest. I'm sure they would be able to give you some good ideas. Maybe you will have everything fake, neve know!

Good luck!

heylo487 · September 2010

I HAD THE EXACT SAME QUESTION!

i found silk flowers that i thought looked beautiful and i was very content with the idea that i could assemble them myself months ahead of time and check it off my list.

but then i had a friend's mom offer to assemble real flowers if i bought them. so then i started looking into places to order bulk flowers, and found that COSTCO offered bulk flowers at a FRACTION of the cost of these "low price" bulk flower websites.

i did the math and found out that getting silk flowers would have actually been MORE expensive than the real flowers, it's just a matter of finding someone who would be able to put them together for you!

my total cost for 120 peach roses, 65 stems of brown hypercium berries, 20 white hydrangeas is less than $170!

1peteach · September 2010

I am using both fake flowers and real flowers. I was quoted $850 for just my bouquets, bouts, and corsages! I thought that was outrageous because I am picking in season gerbera daisies and I just wanted simple, Afloral.com has the gerbera daisies that I am using as well as calla lillies for extremely cheap ($.59 a stem for daisies). I ordered a few flowers ahead of time to see what they look like, and they look like real flowers, no one will ever know the difference. I am using the real touch calla lillies in my bouquet with other real flowers. I was just at a wedding that used fake calla lillies in real bouquets and you couldn't tell one bit. The florist sprayed something on top of the flowers to make them shine like real lillies would. The cost of my flowers went from $850 to under $200. I would say it is definitely worth it!!

amandaisengaged · September 2010

I really wanted real flowers so i made a compromise with myself. all of the flowers we used are real, Instead of using flowered centerpieces we rented really pretty candle centerpieces, we saved a ton of money this way. the room is gonna sparkle, I am so excited

rachpass · September 2010

If you don’t get stuck on my type of flower it can be much cheaper for real flowers!. Look for things that are in season and locally grown!

ndelucia · September 2010

Definitely not a dumb question! But honestly, I didn't think I would be able to afford flowers either cause they're so expensive. So, for my centerpieces, I put them together myself, no flowers, but flower petals scattered on the table. When I went to the florist, who came highly recommended, they really went above and beyond to cater to my budget needs. They asked me what are you looking to spend per each bouquet, arrangement, etc. Then they work from there. I never thought I'd be even able to afford the bouquet I wanted for myself, but they really worked with me. You in fact can get what you want, or even close enough to it, just speak with the florist!!

I just personally wouldn't use fake flowers, especially for centerpieces, it just reminds me of going to my cousins' weddings in the 80's!!! If you want to cut costs, do like I did, and do centerpieces sans flowers, it's actually becoming pretty trendy!! Either way hope it all works for you, and you get what you want!!! Just don't "X" anything out before finding out all possible ways to get it done within your budget!! Best of luck!!!

frankrebecca · September 2010

Two of my sisters wanted the cost of silk but the smell of real so they used fake flowers accented with real in their bouquets and centerpieces. They found silk flowers that looked fairly close to real and both looked great.

I don't have a huge budget so I am only having people flowers, our centerpieces are pictures of the two of us growing up.

Amelia24 · September 2010

ha ha I'm not even having flowers... Just my bouquet... lol... We are having a masquerade theme, so instead of holding bouquets the bridesmaids are going to have the hand held masques and the guys are wearing top hats and coattails... they will also be carrying canes

woot! Lol. So, my flower cost is going to be $50. Yay!

Oh and I'm getting a box of $10 rose petals for the flower girl to throw on the ground... Yeah... I'm cheap so what haha.

The masques are only $20 each... so... yes... cutting corners... that is how I do it! :-D

Anyways, that long blah... just to say do what makes you happy! if you think they look good mixed... then mix them... if you don't... then dont... it's your day.

linneadl22 · September 2010

I haven't really started the flower search yet, but I heard that if you get flowers in season they are cheaper. I want real flowers while still saving money as well. In most cases I think you'd be able to notice fake flowers, but if it's done really well, maybe it would look really nice! In my opinion, if you really like real, then you should see what flowers cost when they are in season. That's what I plan to do. Good luck!

CaraBeth1982 · September 2010

All of the flowers used in my ceremony (bouquets, boutennierres, flower girl, etc) will be real.

All of the decorative flowers (wreaths and candle rings) will be silk. These wreaths will be hanging up on windows at the front of the room, so I figure no one will be able to tell if they are real or silk.

All of the flowers used in my centerpieces at my reception will be real flowers.

I am fine with this. I don't care if it seems weird.

AngieAyrton · September 2010

I used all silk flowers because 1 they are cheaper and 2 my wedding colors are teal purple and black and there's not a lot of teal flowers. I think silk flowers have really progressed over the years I remember when I was younger how fake they looked but now I think they are more realistic and they last FOREVER! I think if you're going to do a mixture maybe to a couple of arrangements in silk and then do the bouquets and boutonnieres real flowers but don't mix silk and real in the same arrangement.

proudgonzo · September 2010

If you truly want REAL flowers, a good florist will know (and be willing to tell you) cheaper solutions to expensive flowers. For example, I love gardenias and wanted some in my bouquet. Then my florist told me they're $30 per blossom and I reconsidered. Choosing flowers that are in season will help cut down costs too. For example, don't try to get tulips or other spring flowers if your wedding is in the fall. The advantage of silks is not really the cost but the fact that they won't wilt and you can keep them afterwards without having to dry them.

melissa_clare · September 2010

We're doing a destination wedding and taking silk flowers with us isn't really an option, but the flower prices we were quoted were pretty huge. In the end I'm getting rid of flower centerpieces (candles, photos, some petals instead) and got really unique, beautiful, and cheaper bouts for the guys (peacock feather) at etsy.com. Someone else mentioned that site and I totally second the recommendation. You'll find something you want there or someone who will make it for you. Prices are reasonable and you're supporting artists and buying something you can hang on to. I'll still have real flowers for bouquets and the wedding arch.

chiwawa · September 2010

You can get really nice real flowers from Safway, Costco, or Trader Joe's for MUCH cheaper than from a florist! I'm getting mine from Trader Joe's and then my day of coordinator is going to bind the bouquets and all that jazz. Before we hired the coordinator, my bridesmaids and I had planned to spend the night before watching chick flicks and doing them ourselves.

I am personally generally opposed to silk flowers, but I may end up using a few for things like the arches that no one will be looking at that closely. I don't think you'd want to put real and fake ones right next to each other, but I don't think incorporating some to save money is such a bad thing. Hope this helps! :-)

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