Wedding bouquet - artificial flowers

[FreshBride23]

Talk to me about your artificial wedding flowers!
Getting married this winter, small budget.
I thought artificial flowers would be a good way to save money but the 'wedding' ones seems to be very expensive, sometimes even more than fresh flowers!

Would a bouquet off Amazon look ok? My problem with this is the lack of matching buttonholes for the groom... But I suppose I could get something generic like red roses...

I used artificial and they looked great (in my opinion) I got most of mine from dunelm.
You'll need wire snippers to shorten the stems. My husband didn't want a button hole so it didn't matter about matching for us but you could definitely use some of the smaller ones for one. And just wrap it well in ribbon.

I made my bouquet up myself.

I followed a blog on how to make mine and they looked amazing and cost next to nothing, and I'm not crafty at all
It was on a Bride page back in 2020 I think on Facebook https://thelazygirlgetsmarried.wordpress.com/2020/03/11/budget-bride-tips-making-your-own-bouquets/

I got mine from the range (roses) and added some real eucalyptus, i loved them! And now I get to have my wedding flowers in a vase to remind me of happy memories everyday.

Ok I'm a connoisseur of fake flowers so I know a thing or two about them although I didn't have them at my wedding.

Firstly, Dunelm has cheap ones that look really realistic, however, they have really long stems that have thick metal wire in the middle so it's a bit of a mission to cut them.

Secondly, the ones on Amazon are sometimes OK and sometimes abominable. Scrutinise all the pictures and reviews and double check the delivery date to ensure they're not going to take 30 days to arrive if you need them sooner.

Thirdly, the ones on those really high end posh flower stores are identical to the cheap ones available elsewhere these days, but they do tend to be more "curated" so the flower "species" they sell tend to be quite on-trend, so I'd recommend looking on those sites for inspo then buying the same ones cheaper elsewhere.

Lastly, some fake flowers are solid plastic and some are fabric, double check which you're getting and be sure you're happy with how they'll look with your other flowers.

Thanks - I've had a look at Dunelm, the flowers are quite expensive. It does look like making my own bouquet will be a lot cheaper, if I can find cheaper flowers

I had a paper bouquet and button holes made as I have awful pollen allergies. Not for everyone but I got loads of compliments about it and I can keep it forever.

If you think Dunelm are expensive don't look at Bloom and Wild!! 😅

Thanks for the blog - it has some good tips
@Letsgotitans the Range is a good shout, I had a look and their flowers look quite nice. Within budget too... Maybe I'll pop to the one near me and see if they've got any inspo in store, it's wedding season after all..!

Have you throughout buying off marketplace or vinted etc? I got some beautiful, used for one occasion artificial flowers that would've cost about £60 new for £10. Worth a look and congratulations 🎊 👏 💐

Have you look at Shida Preserved flowers? My wedding flowers are from there and they look amazing! I guess since they are real flowers just persevered so you’ll also get to keep them for years! .. that also makes a good bridesmaid gift 🤭

Heres the mock up of my bridal bouquet and button hole thingys!!the real bouquet will be bigger and have another exotic flower in but even the mock up is gorgeous 😍

Wow, that's very detailed! Thanks for taking the time to write this.
There won't be any other flowers - it's a historic venue so I don't think it needs more dressing up. My only concern is the colour -orange/burgundy to go with the BM's dresses, as they will have bouquets too, and the buttonholes.
The latter is going to be the bigger issue because I'll have to get mini versions of whatever flower - and those don't seem widely available in the colours that I want. I've just started looking but they mostly seem to be roses, red and white

I got mine from Etsy. I had a small wedding and it was good to have the flowers sorted weeks before so I didn’t have to worry about picking up a fresh bouquet on the day. I did consider making my own but I didn’t have much time as had a toddler so paid a bit extra but if you have the time it’s totally possible. Lots of videos on YouTube.

My sister made origami roses for me, out of paper printed with favourite book passages/songs. Dressed up with feathers and lace.

I got married in winter too and struggled to find a florist as it was the day after the Bank Holidays. In the end, I got preserved flowers from a seller on Etsy. They are real flowers, chemically preserved.

The flowers were gorgeous and the seller couldn't have been more helpful.

I still have the flowers now and the just need a bit of dusting occasionally 🙂

Unfortunately, the seller I used seems to be taking a break at the moment but I'm sure there are others.

Garden nurseries, the type with gift shops, have a wide variety of artificial flowers of pretty good quality. You could try one of these.

Thanks all for the replies!

I made my sisters fresh flower bouquet a couple of months ago. It had roses, eucalyptus, sea thistles and other small filler flowers and eucalyptus. The flowers cost me £35 and that was an extremely good deal. I already had wire and tape. I made a couple of tiny paper butterflies.

I would say making fresh flowers as the bride is just too stressful. I decided not to make my own for that reason and I’m very experienced with flowers and have made wedding flowers a number of times and arrangements for church.

What colour bouquet are you planning on having? You could always go for off white/cream flowers, lots of greenery and then make ‘picks’ which are basically inserted small decorative details in flowers, just florists wire and you attach a loop of ribbon, material, jewellery, little bits that are sentimental. and have the exact colour you want. I added some pre-made tiny picks with really small fake seed pearls to a bouquet once, they were very pretty.

You can do fresh flowers quite chesply. I spent less than £30 on supermarket flowers. They were evenly balsnced just didn't look it in this pic. I put them in the fridge overnight and they were lovely the next day.

I bought some dried flowers online and made my own bouquet and all the table decorations, bridesmaids stuff etc. it was fine but it did make quite a mess of the house!

You can buy pre-made dried flower bouquets on Etsy which might have been easier.

I had artificial flowers and they looked beautiful. The advantage is that I still have them many years on - whereas with a real bouquet all I’d have, presumably, would be pressed flowers. And I’m sure modern artificial flowers look even better than mine did. I didn’t have artificial ones to save money but because we were getting married on a bank holiday and florists weren’t open that day

https://www.groovyruby.co.uk/products/ivory-glitter-rose-orange-calla-lily-burgundy-rose-berries?_pos=7&_sid=f1324ce66&_ss=r&variant=25634946056

these we're mine, same colours as you and they were lovely