Fake Wedding Flowers or the Real Deal?
Wedding Bouquets:
Over 300 Designs for Every Bride
Silk flowers look remarkably like fresh flowers and last the entire ceremony, even in the outdoor sun. Fresh flowers leave a gentle scent in the air that is unique. Silk flowers give you any flower, any time. Fresh flowers out of season are much more expensive. And the debate goes on.
Here's a recent example of a bride who wanted a stephanotis bouquet with single orchid center and orchid arm bouquets for the attendants. Each arm bouquet with only 3 orchids was $215. So they compromised.
The bride's bouquet was made of real flowers, her throw-away bouquet was silk and the attendants' arm bouquets were silk (for $25 each). This mix of real and fake fooled most of the guests, several wanting to look closer at the beautiful orchids!
In the photos, all of the wedding flowers looked fabulous for a price that actually came in under budget, saving enough money to add 10 more guests for the lunch reception!
Anyone Can Create Gorgeous Wedding Arrangements with Ease
The New Book of Wedding Flowers: Simple & Stylish Arrangements for the Creative Bride
Amazon Price: $10.15 (as of 07/11/2009)
List Price: $12.95
"The book has beautiful pictures and wonderful ideas. I wish it would identify all flowers and amounts used in the boquets. I thought it might be more of an instructional book. It is a good reference."
Release Date: 12/31/1969
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Ranunculus Wedding Bouquets
For that fresh picked, all natural look, you want a ranunculus wedding bouquet. Even that maven of wonder, Martha Stewart, shows how to tie a wide ribbon around ranunculus for an elegantly simple bouquet.You can even find hot pink, bright orange or sizzling yellow ranunculus to add that unexpected pop of color among the usual whites and greenery in the bouquet and repeat the color splash in other floral arrangements.
Simple Stunning Wedding Flowers
These are hardy plants, once cut can last up to a week which is great to know if you are making your own centerpieces. The only problem is that ranunculus are seasonal, so they are only available from winter to spring.
If you want the look of ranunculus in the other months, you'll have to use silk flowers. The ranunculus is a popular, cost saving alternative to roses. Each ranunculus blooms opens wide to reveal dozens of delicate petals.
These flowers are great for outdoor weddings remaining fresh when other types of flowers tend to wilt in heat. You can find ranunculus for about $1.20 per stem at the florist. If you purchase these wedding flowers from a vendor or in bulk, you can negotiate a better price.
For Every Bride:
The Knot Book of Wedding Flowers
Amazon Price: $19.77 (as of 07/11/2009)
List Price: $29.95
"I found this book useful in that it was simple, straight forward guide to the most common flowers used in weddings. The first half is essentially a glossary of flowers. It provides basic information that made it easy to compare flowers: photo, meaning, colors available, when in season, and price range. The book also provides information on bouquet styles, color schemes, and flower arrangments, but I found the single flower photos most educational."
Release Date: 12/31/1969
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Seasonal Wedding Flowers
With overnight shipping and advanced growing techniques, you can have almost any fresh flower that you want for your wedding. But if you choose wedding flowers that are not in season, be prepared to double or triple your flower budget.A more practical way to approach wedding flowers is to start with color and style that you want flowers to reflect, then find out what is in season.
Spring flowers: anemone, daffodil, hyacinth, lilac, narcissus, peony, ranunculus, sweet pea, tulip.
Creative Wedding Florals You Can Make
Fall flowers: aster, chrysanthemum, dahlia, marigold, zinnia, colorful orange/red/gold leaves
Winter flowers: amaryllis, camellias, casa blanca lily, daffodil, holly, jasmine, narcissus, poinsettia, ranunculus, star of Bethlehem, sweet pea, tulip, wax flower
Flowers that you can find almost year round: baby's breath, bachelor's button, carnations, calla lily, lily of the valley, carnations, gardenia, roses
Another tip is to find out what types of flowers are grown near the wedding site. By using local flowers and greenery, you save transportation costs and may be able to purchase flowers directly from a local grower at wholesale prices.
Whether you shop for wedding flowers from the grower or florist, bring samples of fabric and colors, photo of your gown and bridesmaids gowns and photos or information on the reception site. As you shop, you can place flower samples and bouquet photos against these items to see flowers fit the overall image you want to create on your wedding day.
Choosing Your Bouquet:
To Have & To Hold: Magical Wedding Bouquets
Amazon Price: $18.15 (as of 07/11/2009)
List Price: $27.50
"The book has full page color picture of dozens of bouquets, divided by season. There is a wide variety of colors and styles to satisfy almost anyone. To Have and To Hold also provides interesting twists on bouquets like adding berries, feathers, or holding a small book with a flower as a bookmark. Along with pictures of bouquets it also shows how to incorporate some of the flowers into other parts of the wedding (boutonnieres, flower girls, and cake toppers). The pictures have captions that provide the flower names and sometimes descripitions of flower variations and when the best seasons are for the specific flowers which is really helpful."
Release Date: 12/31/1969
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What Are Your Favorite Wedding Flowers?
AppalachianCountry wrote...
Great lens. This is a beautiful lens and we appreciated all the tips.
Posted May 01, 2009
jessicahoward wrote...
great lens...i loved your attitude about the environment.keep it up.
Posted February 25, 2009
Suko wrote...
My favorite flowers for a wedding are fresh and fragrant.
Beautiful lens!
Posted February 11, 2009
heehaw wrote...
thanks for the info, i was shock to see there were many types of wedding flowers.
Posted February 04, 2009
Treasures-By-Brenda wrote...
The next time I'll be involved with wedding flowers will likely be when my teenage sons get married! Great information for anyone who needs it!
Brenda
Posted November 04, 2008
mdvaldosta wrote...
Such a beautiful arrangement (both the lens and the flowers). Five stars.
Posted November 02, 2008
hearthealth wrote...
You mean or my sisters? :-) Well, calla lilies will do i suppose? But great lens, you really caught the niche this time! 5*!
Posted July 03, 2008
cathyswraps wrote...
Thank you for the lovely comment. We like to think CathysWraps are more than just a pretty vase!
Our modern floral vases are perfect centerpieces for wedding and events, but they also adapt to hang with ribbons, church pew clips and suction cups. Best of all, the flowers can all be used again at the reception and given as favors at the end of the day.
A small bouquet of flowers in unexpected places is always a delight. To create unique aisle decorations, tie your flowers to a chair back or a shepherds hook. For church weddings hang CathysWraps with a pew clip onto the church pews.
And when your guests visit the powder room WOW them with flowers on the mirrors hung with a sturdy suction cup.
CathyWraps were created for you to have fun with flowers. Have a great day, Cathy
Posted June 09, 2008
cathyswraps wrote...
You have some wonderful suggestions to help brides enjoy their flowers without going broke.
Post-ceremony, flowers arrangements transported to the reception can also go home with guests afterwards, which is not only cost effective, but also environmentally friendly. And utterly unique!
Cathy
Posted January 01, 2008
