SOME ALTERNATIVES

I'm using silk flowers for my wedding, and the ones I have look real to me, unless I have my nose right in them. I've seen people do paper flowers, pinwheels, and other items and I think it looks super pretty, but silk flowers just always look off to me. If they look like fake flowers in the pictures, that will be because they are in fact fake flowers. I think fake flowers are always obvious in pictures, and many people have a negative opinion of them. I decided right when I got engaged that I wanted paper flowers for the centerpieces and real flowers for the bouquets. I wanted tiger lilies in my bouquet, and that was just never happening with silk flowers; they don't look good or like the real thing. I think faux flowers look a little obvious.

Hopefully when I look at my wedding photos I will focus on myself, my fiancé, our guests, and not on flowers.

I hate silk flowers. I'd rather go to Costco or Kroger, and get some fresh flowers on sale and go for simplicity, than spend money on silk flowers. I say either do real flowers or do an alternative bouquet like a paper bouquet, wooden bouquet ( This is mine , feather bouquet, buttons bouquet etc. I personally am not a fan of fake flowers in bouquets. I used all fake flowers from Hobby Lobby for my bouquets. I'm doing silk flowers. I am not too crazy about silk flowers because they remind me of these floral arrangements I see at the flea market. But my friend had silk flowers and I had no idea! I'm doing silk flowers for all the bouquets/boutonnières, etc. I had a mix at my wedding, as the bride & groom flowers were real, but all the others were fake. Try looking on Etsy for more artistic versions or other alternatives like paper flowers, broach bouquets, etc. I think they look obviously fake, and kind of cheesy. I'm doing a mix of real flowers and paper flowers. It still adds up but they're the most real looking faux flowers I've ever seen, and you can sell them afterwards. I saw silks once that were completely unrealistic, but that's because they weren't good quality and they weren't really mimicking real flowers. My friend did real flowers and didn't want to get rid of them but didn't preserve them either. Actually, I think they look better in person than in the pictures, but I suppose you're wondering about how they look in pictures anyway. 150 dollars for 4 bouquets and 2 boutonnières and enough loose flowers to do centerpieces for 8-10 tables! I found this incredibly generous of them and ended up having a lot more usable flowers than I had originally ordered.

After I ordered my bouquets I'm glad I did it that way.

I'll have to check out the local Home Goods to see what they're offering by way of dried flowers. Of course, that's coming from my personal opinion where I don't really care about flowers, and actually determined that even if I had an unlimited budget for real flowers, I'd go for silk. I have been to 2 weddings with fake flowers were you couldn't tell at all! Going this route, your bouquets will be more simple but to me, this is better and very nice looking. If you get cheap ones, it might be more obvious that they're not real, but I don't think it's that big of a deal.

I know Michaels has a decent collection of dried flowers, but I'm willing to bet that they'd be much cheaper over at Home Goods. However I am using foam flowers not silk. Yet, my vote is not silk flowers Did you buy or make these? And if they don't look 100% real, then they still look really good for fake ones. Another friend used silk and everyone kept touching my bridesmaid bouquet because they couldn't believe they were fake. That way you have fresh real flowers, without paying a butt load of money. I was really worried about people's opinions of having fake flowers, but so far people who have seen them really love them--maybe they're just being nice. The dried bouquets are very reasonable and you can create them in advance Where did you pick up the materials for your bouquet ? I had one friend who used silk and they looked fine from a distance but looked frayed in close up pictures.

I spent over $700 on bouquets, the guys flowers, and the family corsages. Unfortunately, the farms in my area don't usually have stands, or else I would be all over that opportunity, too! I think they look amazing.