As you’ve been planning for your wedding, you’ve had to make a lot of choices. Do you want chocolate cake or vanilla cake? Do you want a mermaid wedding dress or a princess wedding dress? Do you want an indoor ceremony or an outdoor ceremony? Well, this article is just going to present you with another choice that you have to make before your wedding. Do you want to use fresh flowers or silk flowers for your wedding? Hopefully, this article will shed a little light on the subject and make it a lot easier to make this decision. 

First of all, it is important to get familiar with the differences between fresh flowers and silk flowers. You might not have even known that you would have multiple options when it comes to the types of flowers that you can use at your wedding. Chances are that you’ve never even heard of artificial flowers like silk wedding flowers before. Well, here are a few important details that will help you to make this important decision about your wedding flowers. 

Real Vs. Silk Flowers For Your Wedding

Let’s be real, there are benefits to using both fresh flowers and artificial flowers for your wedding. Both types of blooms will end up looking gorgeous on your big day and in your stunning wedding pictures. Nothing sets off your wedding dress like a stylish and dramatic bouquet of flowers. So, without further delay, here are the pros and cons of using real vs. silk flowers for your wedding. 

Real, Fresh Flowers

Fresh flowers have been traditionally used in weddings for hundreds of years. They are soft, romantic, and fragrant, and will create the perfect aesthetic for any wedding, no matter what your style is. However, fresh flowers are a little bit more temperamental to work with. Some flowers only bloom during a certain season, like peonies. Peonies usually bloom in late spring. So, if you’re getting married in late summer, but you want to use peonies in your bouquet, you’ll either have to pay a lot extra to get them shipped in from a different location or you’ll have to go without them. 

Fresh flowers also require a lot more hands-on work to keep them looking beautiful throughout the day. If you’re having your wedding in a hot location, like a beach ceremony or a desert elopement, your flowers will likely struggle to stay looking perky and fresh. You’ll have to water or spray them throughout the day, and they still might look droopy and start falling apart. These same issues can occur even if you’re having a winter wedding. Some fresh flowers are simply more fragile than others.

One of the biggest issues that comes along with using fresh flowers for your wedding is that they’re expensive. Wedding flowers, in particular, are prone to increase in price due to inflation. When there are a lot of weddings going on during the same season, wedding flowers get expensive. If there is a certain kind of flower, like a specific dusty colored rose that are very popular, they’ll shoot up in price since they’re being used for so many weddings. Plus, wedding florists can charge you a lot more since they specialize specifically in weddings. You won’t only be paying for their flowers and labor. You’ll be paying for the expensive market that they work in and for their years of expertise. You can usually save some money by buying and arranging your own flowers for your wedding, but not everyone has time to do that during their wedding week.

Silk Flowers

There are a lot of benefits that come along with using silk wedding flowers. Silk flowers are created from high-quality silk fabric, which is smooth, soft, and luscious. This fabric creates flowers that look highly realistic and feel pliable and beautiful. Silk flowers are created in many different shapes and styles that imitate real flowers, such as roses, peonies, daisies, orchids, and more.

Silk flowers are a lot more inexpensive than fresh flowers. Plus, they are reusable. This is particularly helpful if you know that you’ll have certain arrangements that you’ll be using for more than one day. For example, if you’re having a bridal photoshoot beforehand, you’ll need a bridal bouquet and boutonniere for the groom for your photos and for your wedding day. If you use silk flowers, you won’t have to pay for an entirely new bouquet and boutonniere. You’ll just be able to reuse your same arrangements, which is much more cost-effective. 

After your big day, you could even repurpose your silk wedding flowers to make different decorations to be reused for other events. You could turn a wedding table centerpiece into a pretty silk flower wreath. The best part of using silk flowers is that they’ll still look beautiful over time. You can put your bridal bouquet in a vase at your home and enjoy the remainder of your wedding day after day.

Silk flowers, however, will never be fresh flowers. So, if you have your heart set on using fresh flowers, maybe try having your bridal bouquet be made out of fresh flowers, and do the rest of your florals with silk flowers. This will be more affordable and environmentally friendly. 

Alternative Artificial Flowers

If you’re looking for another idea of artificial flowers that you could use for your wedding, try looking into dried flowers or wood flowers. These artificial flowers can look perfect for any style. Dried flowers have become quite trendy over the past few years. They are quite fragile, but they’re stylish and are often a lot more inexpensive than fresh flowers.

Wood flowers are hand-shaped to imitate the styles of fresh flowers. They’re made of natural tapioca root and can be dyed to match any shade. This is a perfect choice if you know that you’re going to have really unique wedding colors. Don’t pay extra to get fresh flowers in a color that is “close enough.” Get your wood flowers dyed to match your exact desired wedding color scheme. Wood flowers are a lot cheaper than fresh flowers. You can get hundreds of wood flowers that could make multiple bouquets for half of the price that you’ll pay for one fresh flower bouquet. So, make your budget go further by ordering cheaper flowers. This way, you’ll be able to have even more beautiful floral arrangements at your wedding.

If you love a good craft, wood flowers will be perfect for you. You can order a DIY bouquet kit and put together your own bouquet with the items that have been carefully selected and crafted just for you. If you feel like you need some additional help putting your bouquet together check out this article that will walk you through the steps of how to create a bouquet. These same tips will apply whether you’re using silk flowers, wood flowers, or fresh flowers!