Trying to make up your mind about whether to use artificial flowers instead of fresh flowers? This list of reasons might inspire you.
1. Silk and real touch flowers will make your budget happy. In fact, the plethora of stems available at craft stores in every city have become so affordable that many of the more expensive silk flower merchants have abandoned the business. That’s a discount for you! A do-it-yourself bride with coupons in hand can easily cut her florist bill in half and have all her bouquets and bouts finished far in advance of her wedding. Or, she can find a great silk or real touch florist who will create a gorgeous design that fits her budget and her dreams.
2. Here’s another secret. No one in your audience will believe that you aren’t carrying fresh flowers! In recent years, flower manufacturers have come up with innovative materials that make artificial flowers more realistic than ever before. Flowers labeled “real touch,” “true touch,” or “natural touch” may even fool the girl holding them!
3. Silk and real touch flowers never go out of season, which means you will not have to decide between expensive hothouse blooms and limited quantities of mediocre seasonal flowers. Go ahead and use summer-blooming hydrangea in your winter wedding, or daffodils and tulips in autumn. Your silk flowers will be just as vivacious in winter society as in summer.
4. The variety of colors and textures alone will take your breath away. While fresh florists have to work within a specific blooming period of each flower’s life so that the color and size is right, silk and real touch florists do not! Shades of blue, white, and violet that are extremely rare in fresh flowers are easily found in silks and real touch, which means you get the colors you want at the price you want.
5. Silk and real touch flowers are low-maintenance. They don’t wilt, crush, tear, break, or fade as fresh flowers do. These are especially valuable qualities if you are a destination bride, because every destination bride knows that planning her wedding is more difficult when she has to find a florist overseas or across the country who can speak her language and keep his contract. However, silk and real-touch designs can be created months in advance and easily packed in a suitcase or shipped straight to your destination to look fresher than fresh on your wedding day.
6. You’ll have no worries about an allergic reaction to plants and petals! Sure your maid of honor tells you her allergy medication always works, but there was that one day last year… Yes, perhaps you’d rather not risk that sneezing fit during your ceremony. Silk and real touch flowers are the safest way to go if anyone in your wedding party has plant allergies.
7. All your artificial bouquets can be repurposed into home decor for your new place! Long stems (think calla lilies, iris, or birds-of-paradise) can stand in a tall, dark vase or be gracefully horizontal on a mantlepiece or piano top. Rounded bouquets, posies, and cascading bouquets are breathtaking when placed in a short vase, jar, or ceramic pitcher. Pomanders and kissing balls can be hung on varying lengths of ribbon from a row of coat hooks or piled together in a large bowl for your credenza or low table. If you are really innovative, try untying your bouquets and re-arranging the flowers in a styrofoam oasis inside a decorative planter or basket. The possibilities are endless!
Did you know? All the pictures of wedding flowers in this article are photos of silk or real touch flowers created by Lilywinkel: the bridal blossom shop.
