Wedding Flowers: Real Versus Silk?

When you are planning your wedding, one of the big decisions you will face are your flowers. Not only the type, colors, and varieties, but also the decision to with real or fake flowers.

There are a lot of flowers involved in a wedding. You not only have your own bouquet and the flowers for your bridesmaids, but also the centerpieces, corsages for your mom, mother-in-law, performers and others, and also boutonnieres for your groom, groomsmen, and all other honorary men.

There are definitely both positive and negative attributes to both. All things considered, I decided to use fabric flowers for my own wedding. Let's take a look at some of the major pros and cons.

1) Scent
Real: Real flowers win this category hands down when it comes to pure, unadulterated scent. Nothing is quite so lovely as the gorgeous fragrance of fresh flowers.
Fake: While they do not have any scent of their own, there are ways to add scent to them. There are many different fabric sprays that will leave your flowers smelling marvelous. I kept my bridal bouquet in a bag with a rose scented sachet, and my flowers smelled absolutely wonderful on my wedding day.

2) Color
Real: Gorgeous color that is guaranteed vibrant, unless your flowers start to wilt.
Fake: Silk flowers are often available in colors that real flowers may not grow naturally in. You also don't have to worry by the colors bleeding or being affected by the weather.

3) Durability
Real: With real flowers there is always the risk of them wilting, being crushed, losing their petals, etc. You also have to consider that after your wedding day, the only way to preserve them is by drying them.
Fake: Fake flowers are not often fragile and are therefor one less thing to worry about on your big day. I also have the security of knowing I can store my bouquet for always and it will always look exactly the same.

4) Preparing
Real: Real flowers aren't available for pick-up until the day of the wedding, so if something were to go wrong, you would have much less time to resolve the issue.
Fake: I was able to prepare all of my flowers weeks ahead of time and get a major step checked off of my list.

5) Cost
Real: Depending on the amount of flowers and the type of flowers used, the cost for real flowers varies significantly, but it almost always going to be more expensive than fake flowers.
Fake: Because cost was a major deciding factor for my own wedding, it made fake flowers an ideal decision for me.

I hope that this list helps you determine what is the best decision for you and your wedding. Best wishes to you!