Flowers: Silk and Paper Choices?

There is a great debate out there regarding the use of fake silk flowers at a wedding instead of real. It has nothing to do with finding a blue rose. Cost is one issue, allergies, preservation & planning are others! Some bride's have even gone with paper flowers with great success. Choosing between fresh and silk flowers for your bouquet and other wedding flowers depends on many factors as well as personal taste.

Some considerations for real flower alternatives:

• Allergies
• Co$t, if you are a savvy shopper, it can cost less.
  
• Time; assemble and plan _well_ in advance.
• Out of season flowers? No problem!
• Silk won't wilt, break or stain your clothing.
• Change your mind often? Color, type, style? Go ahead.
• Paper flowers are for the crafty, but if you are savvy there are great tutorials out there & listed here.
  

Martha Stewart had Preston Bailey on (link at the bottom of the page) recently making a floral chandelier like this one on his blog and guess what? silk flowers. Well, if it's good enough for Preston, Martha and Darcey it should be good enough for us as well. Just use them as you would real! How about trying your DIY hand a Preston Baily type floral sculpture in silk flowers?

Martha Stewart has gotten pretty crafty using paper, tissue and crepe to make very pretty and very realistic looking flower arrangements as seen here (links below).
She also has many crafty ideas to put these silk flowers to use as seen here:

A silk flower vendor:

Researching this topic we found a lot of positive feedback. Check these search results!

First check out My Silk Wedding Flowers Blog!

From LoveToKnow: Silk Weddings for an Outdoor Wedding

The Knot Q & A's: Silk Flowers?

From Yahoo Answers: What do you think about using fake flowers?

Ezine Article: Discover Why It Makes Sense Using Artificial Flowers For Weddings

Associated Content: Save Money with Silk Wedding Flowers

Wedding Ideas: Why Silk Flowers for Your Wedding?

From WeddingPlans at Live Journal a conversation on the subject!

Search silk wedding flowers and get a Google results of over 151,000!

This article by Kimberly Huth; What are some ways to find cheaper flowers and other ways to cut down the flower budget, is a good article comparing silk vs. fresh keeping costs in mind.

Of course, it all comes down to your own personal taste. But, you can use silk in instances where your guests will never be close enough to the arrangements to know they are not real. Consider using silk flower arrangements on your candelabras, alter arrangements or wedding arch. The silk floral chandeliers are also dramatic and use silk flowers for this effect!
You can also save if you choose to do your flowers yourself bu purchasing flowers on line for a wholesale florist, look for a posting coming soon about online wholesale florists that sell to the public!!If you have a wedding planner, see if he/she can get you a deal buying wholesale...

Here are some more links to help you think out what will work best for you!

E-weddingflowers has a nice article worth a read about choosing silk flowers for your wedding

Say 'I Do' with a Fake Flower or Two a great article about choosing. By Amber Sell

Paper Flower Favor Boxes from Martha Stewart

Small shaped crepe paper flowers from Martha Stewart

Paper flower bouquet from Martha Stewart

Crepe paper flowers from Martha Stewart

Paper flower accented swizzle sticks from Martha Stewart

Silk flower shoe clips from Martha Stewart

silk flower ring pillow from Martha Stewart

Silk flower garlands from Martha Stewart

Silk flower hair bands from Martha Stewart

Ribbon flower loops from Martha Stewart

Preston Bailey's Silk Flower chandelier on Martha Stewart TV

Happy planning!

~w.s.

Do It Yourself Wedding!

The whole DIY craze is not just for those wanting to save money, nor for those few who are crafters and artists. There are lots of Bride's & Grooms who are happily getting hands on for their wedding. When you get hands on, you are able to personalise a wedding that is uniquely you. From putting your monogram on your aisle runner, printing out your own invitations to making your own bridal bouquets, there are all kinds of ways to DIY these days!

Here is a light list of items you can DIY for your wedding.

Favors - From the simple Jordan almonds wrapped in tulle, to the more extravagant!
Flowers - Bouquets, boutonnieres, centerpieces, altar, candelabra swags and pew decorations.
Wedding Dress/ Bridesmaid's Dresses
Wedding Veil
Everything Paper: Save the date's, shower, wedding invitations, thank you notes, ceremony programs, escort cards/seating chart/ place cards, table numbers, guestbook.
Unity candle
Aisle runner
Chuppah
Table runners and other linens, chair covers for the expert...
Ring Pillow
Non floral centerpieces - candles, river rock, fruit/ edible centerpieces, pumpkins/squash, living herbs/bamboo/ shells/ sand, leaves & branches.
Cake
Toasting Glasses
You can even DIY your officiant with the help of The Universal Life Church!

The most important thing to consider!

So you looked at the list and said, heck yeah! I can do that! Okay, now that you are excited, sit back and evaluate the reality.
What is your time worth? To learn, to purchase supplies and your time? It's a simple question that will impact your stress level for the next year. When in doubt use a professional, after all they have the experience and expertise and can plow through these crafts with ease. The best advice we can give is to test some idea's out! Get the girls together and have a crafty weekend. Play with your ideas and then take on projects you feel truly comfortable with and can mass produce with ease.

Here are the links to the best DIY Wedding resources we have found!

Surfing the Knotties!
Do you love peeking in on others peoples wedding planning? Then you MUST go to the Knot and browse through the Bio's. It's a pain to try and look for something specific on Knot Bio's. Wedding Bee wrote a post about it here. We have also used the somewhat official Knot Bio list located here at Magnificent Bliss

DIY Bride - Sign up and find hundreds of files and a community of DIY Bride's just like yourself. A must visit.

Martha Stewart Weddings - Martha IS the queen of DIY and showing you how to do it yourself.

WedCraft -

AC Moore - The craft kings and queens will show you how to handcraft items for our wedding!

Do It Yourself Weddings - Instructions on wedding crafts, how to create your own favors, print your own invitations and programs, save money on photography and get wedding make-up tips. Learn to do everything related to weddings...yourself!

Try a search (weddings) here at the DIY Network and get...

DIY Flowers

Elegant Bride - Features a set up and great directions on how to reproduce professional arrangements yourself (or die trying)!

You Tube - Subscribe to this feed: ShowMeHow and watch step by step directions on how to make floral items for your wedding.

Bridal Choice has a large listing of Floral arrangements that are DIY and links to those pages!

Bliss Weddings - Do It Yourself Bouquet instructions here.

How To Make A Hand-tied Bridal Bouquet also from Bliss Weddings

Accessories

Veils! From Veils A La Mode!
Did anyone realize just how easy it is to make a veil? Amazing. Here are instructions.

DIY Paper Goods

Invitations/Cards,Chia's Rubber Stamp Art has great tutorials and templates!
Templates
Here at Victorian Originals they also have great card templates!

We are always adding more, so check back!