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I’ve been thinking a lot about flowers for my wedding lately. I love the idea of fresh flowers. I love flowers. I would love to have flowers at my wedding. Big problem: they’re crazy expensive. Especially for one day of use.
Another problem with fresh flowers is that not very many come in blue, which just happens to be my main wedding color. I know there are hydrangeas, but they’re really not my style. I know flowers can be dyed, but I just don’t think they look as pretty when it’s not natural. Plus I want to DIY my flowers, and if I use fresh, I would have to do them last minute before the wedding. And I’m trying to avoid projects like that (other than my cake, of course).
So my next option is artificial flowers. While these are cheaper than fresh flowers and stay “fresh” for much longer, again there aren’t very many blue options. Plus a lot of times fake flowers look FAKE.
I moved on to another option. Flowers made of paper or fabric or even gumpaste (a medium used to make edible flowers on cakes). I’ve found a ton of tutorials on how to make paper flowers that I absolutely love. I can make the flowers any color I want and any size I want.
My last option would be to forgo flowers altogether and carry something else down the aisle—a handkerchief, a purse, I don’t know. I don’t think this option is for me.
As of right now, I’m thinking definitely paper flowers with maybe some fabric and gumpaste mixed in, but only if I can marry all the mediums together in a cohesive way. The biggest bonus of this option is that I can start on the flowers right now if I want to.
Are any of you using flower alternatives for your wedding? Were they successful? I’ll be sure to post as soon as I’ve finished my flower projects!
I think I know where this is going! Yay! Excited to hear more!
I’m halfway between all DIY and all fresh flowers from a florist. As in, I will buy my bouquet and his bout. We have no wedding party so that’s a non-issue. But for ceremony and reception decorations, I’m hoping to DIY an elegant solution.
And I’ve been eying those coffee filter roses too. But they look difficult!
Look on Etsy.com! At the home page, click “Weddings” and then “Bouquet”. You’ll have to browse through a lot of pages, but they have so many beautiful artificial bouquets with extra embellishments like pearls, feathers, and crystals. I’m thinking of going this route for my own wedding. Good luck to you! 
I must agree that flowers are the charm for anybody’s wedding. As the years pass on, they aren’t getting cheaper but more expensive. I love the alternative options you have invented. It isn’t always important to be stuck with your first choice. Try playing around and inventing alternative which will make you spend less on somethings and more on others.
Wedding Venue Essex
My flowers are made from Sculpey, Fimo, and some generic oven bake clay with dried lavender mixed in. If you want to see them, I’ve posted them around or you can PM me. It was fun and I can’t wait to show my posse. Plus, we can all keep them forever. Good luck!
I too have the blue flower issue. I love hydrangeas, but because of wilting I’ll only be using them for centerpieces. I’m thinking of making my flowers out of silk dupioni http://silkbaron.com/silk/color.aspx?collectionid=3&categoryid=19&colorid=50
I’m ordering my Hydrangeas from Sam’s Club and Red Dahlias from http://www.wholeblossoms.com
I also had the blue-flower-problem. You are much more creative than I, because I just chose all white flowers! I also think that contrasting colors are beautiful and I’m thinking about switching to a bright yellow for my BMs….
Good luck! I’m excited to see what you do!
I am excited to see how this turns out! Is there crafting goodness in your future?
have you considered just having flowers that aren’t necessarily blue? what is your “accent” color? can you use that? also how much blue do you have? too much blue might be a blue overload.
I made fabric flower escort cards, and let me tell you that the project took me forever to complete. It was the first DIY project that I started almost 2 years ago, and we finished it the day before the wedding! Don’t do what I did and put it off! Finish making the flowers as soon as you can!
Those “security envolope” flowers are great–too cool! You could use seersucker fabric for the same effect.
I didn’t have the blue-flower problem, I had a silver, black, and purple roses problem.
Black roses are VERY expensive and silver is impossible, purple…. eh, the ones I like are, also expensive.
So, I decided to look around for patterns and diy’s for flowers. I found a tutorial on making Ribbon Roses using the wired ribbon and then several tutorials on a variety of other flowers (including irises!). Also found a book at the library (that I really need to buy) on even more flowers made from ribbon.
After the new year, I’ll be getting my ribbon and other supplies for making the roses for the bouquets and bouts.
I’m not sure what your budget is, but you could look into buying just your bouquet and then doing something creative for everyone else’s. Also, I *love* this broach bouquet that I saw on offbeat bride. That’s a great website to find creative ideas
http://offbeatbride.com/2010/06/diy-brooch-bouquet
Y’all have some great ideas that I didn’t even think of. And I really wanted to do the coffee filter roses but I tried them and they looked horrible so I moved on to another option. Stay tuned, you’ll see soon!
@Mrs. Pudding: Thankfully I started my flowers almost 9 months ago and they are finished. You’ll see in the next post I think. I knew they were going to be a lot of work so I enlisted my big sis to help out! And she was awesome!
@TheFutureMcBride: I just looked up your bouquets and they’re gorgeous! I love the bright colors and the added lavender. They’re beautiful!
I am also concerned with how $$ fresh flowers are for one day so I am definitely looking into fake.. but it’s taking a long time to figure out what doesn’t look awful & I’m still planning on using real flowers in a few different places!
I diy’d fresh red roses (bulk from Sam’s) and blue irises for my bouquet and it was super pretty! The irises would look beautiful if you grouped them together to make their own bouquet. I also used one iris for my husband’s bout. I ordered 100 stems of them from fiftyflowers.com which was $140 including shipping. The blooms opened beautifully and had a beautiful deep blue color with interesting small pops of bright yellow in them. I am guessing you would need around 10 or 20 for a bridal bouquet, meaning you could make it for around $25 and use the rest for add’l decoration. If you are interesting in diy’ing fresh, it would be a great flower option…. PM if you want more info or pictures. I have tons!
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Mrs. Plaid, Austin Age and Occupation: 26, Pastry Chef Fiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Cabinetry Carpenter Engagement Date: August 8, 2009 Wedding Date: October 2010 Venue: Kindred Oaks, Georgetown About Me: I am a Jersey girl born and raised but have since migrated to Texas and embraced its twang and Tex-Mex. I could probably eat chips and queso every day but instead I eat popcorn. I use the word “awesome” way too much but I just can’t seem to stop myself. I am addicted to all things DIY and am planning what I call a Texas-Chic wedding. I love snuggling with my two adorable dogs and of course, my adorable fiance. I can’t wait 'til I can call him my husband some day! October 2010, here we come!
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